- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Efforts by UC Cooperative Extension to encourage Californians to garden were, coincidentally, the topics of two blog entries this week.
An unsigned entry in the San Diego Roots Sustainable Foods Project blog noted that a two-hour planning meeting for the ONE Garden at a Time Project in San Diego County was held last Thursday at the "Farm and Home Advisors Conference Room." (I'm not sure that's what the conference room is really called, but it is a quaint name -- a throwback to UCCE's roots.)
In addition to UCCE and the Master Gardener program, the following organizations helped lay the project's groundwork:
- ...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
The Ventura Star today ran a story about the end of IPM entomologist Phil Phillips distinguished career with UC Cooperative Extension. The story says Phillips was fascinated with bugs since he was 7 years old.
"I've been blessed with a spectacular career," Phillips was quoted. "It's playing with insects basically."
The story was most likely prompted by a news release by UC IPM writer Stephanie Klunk, but Ventura Star reporter Terria Smith gathered her own comments from Phillips' colleagues.
Mary...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
The UC Cooperative Extension office in Humboldt County, opened on July 1, 1913, was the first in the state, according to a story in yesterday's Eureka Times-Standard. By October of that year, California's first 4-H club was established in Humboldt County.
It seems the county's first farm advisor, Andy Christianson, set the standard of hard work and dedication for his sucessors statewide. The story noted that a local historian came accross Christianson's travel schedule for May 1914.
"Christiansen was scheduled for 16 straight days of travel visiting farms and ranches from Capetown to Garberville to Arcata to Weitchpec and beyond. It appears...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Fresno Bee reporter Dennis Pollock captured the mission, message and mindset of UC Cooperative Extension in a prominent article on the front page of the business section on Saturday.
The report was based on a field day in almond orchards near Firebaugh and Mendota, where UCCE advisors shared ways to minimize pesticide sprays, avoid plant diseases and make the best use of limited water resources.
Illustrated with an 8 1/2-by-6-inch color photo of Madera County farm advisor Brent Holtz, the story included information from four current and two former UC experts.
According to Pollock's story:
- UC entomologist Walt...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
The Contra Costa Times ran a story today about the 2008 fire season, which many suspect will be long and burdensome. One of the experts quoted was William Stewart, a UC Cooperative Extension forestry specialist at UC Berkeley. The version of the story which appeared in the San Jose Mercury News, also under John Simermon's byline, says Stewart is a former research head with CalFire.
The story said a 114-year record low in precipitation statewide from March through May has launched what fire experts figure to be an extended summer of blazes and...
