- Author: Pamela Kan-Rice
“The best thing about Ellie is that she is inspirational,” said Marin County rancher Sally Gale. “She was the kind of leader that inspired you to try things.”
“If she put on a workshop on diversification, people listened. We did,” said Gale, who farms with her husband Mike raising grass-fed cattle and sheep and organically growing apples, pears and tomatoes. “The ag community loosened up and good things started – apple growing, cheese making, bed and breakfast businesses, U Picks, etc. I think she was an agent of change here for the good.”
The Marin native earned a B.S. in biology from California State University at Chico, then an M.A. in political science from Sonoma State University.
She served as the executive director at a nonprofit in Sonoma and had just completed a multi-year stream restoration project funding by the Coastal Conservancy working with ranchers along the Sonoma coast when she learned of the UCCE opening in Marin County.
“I was familiar with UCCE because I had worked as a 4-H volunteer for the Challenge Sonoma Adventure Ropes Course and had participated in 4-H as a kid,” Rilla said.
Rilla joined the university in 1988 as UC Cooperative Extension advisor and director in Marin County. She worked with farms to prevent water pollution and with the UC Master Gardeners to promote water conservation among homeowners. In 1997, she took a sabbatical to study agritourism and after David Lewis was hired as a UC Cooperative Extension advisor specializing in water issues in 1999, Rilla turned her focus to community development through agritourism. She published the book “Agritourism and Nature Tourism in California,” which sold out and a second edition was published in 2011.
In 2010, she stepped down as UC Cooperative Extension county director to devote her time to community development in the North Bay Area.
“Ellie was very popular here in her job as director because she was sincerely interested in all of us and wanted the ag community to succeed as a whole,” Gale said. “She could see the big picture: our proud history, our struggle with meat and milk prices, our need to specialize and to define our niches, to market, to get into the farmer's markets, to set local organic standards, to communicate who we are and what we do for the environment and food supply.”
Over her career, she brought in 75 grants for various projects totaling $9 million.
“My activities and accomplishments are focused on providing local farmers and ranchers with diversification strategies,” said Rilla. “I hope this strategy will result in greater market and brand recognition for North Bay products in increased profitability, and ultimately, in long-term preservation of local agriculture. Like other agricultural areas operating along the urban-rural fringe, the viability of agriculture is at stake here.”
From 1994 to 1999, Rilla served on the board of Select Sonoma County, the first county-based marketing program in the U.S. and has been active in local branding and marketing programs including the start up of Marin Organic in 2000.
To help local farmers with branding and marketing, Rilla created the Grown in Marin program. Using grant money, she held training workshops and hired an agriculture ombudsman to help farmers promote their products. The Grown in Marin website hosts a complete listing of Marin producers and where to find their goods, current articles and press relating to sustainable agriculture, a regularly updated events calendar, historical profiles of Marin County agriculture, archived "Grown in Marin" newsletters, workshop listings, and a variety of other useful resources.
“She listened to us too,” said Gale, who recalled that after someone opined that cheese was the future, Rilla brought together people who were interested in making cheese. In 2010 she helped develop an artisan cheese certificate program at College of Marin’s Indian Valley campus. In 2011 she coauthored the book “Farmstead and Artisan Cheeses: A Guide to Building a Business.” Rilla was also involved in creating the Sonoma-Marin Cheese Trail map, which was recently featured in the New York Times and Los Angeles Times and has generated worldwide interest in the region’s products.
“I am most proud of that fact that our Cooperative Extension office is seen as a first resource for UC knowledge and information, and that I’ve had the opportunity to act as a creative conduit between UC and my community helping to solve real and pressing problems,” Rilla said.
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Jimenez has a storied California heritage. His grandmother was half Chumash Indian; his father an immigrant from Zacatecas, Mexico. The extended family of farmworkers settled in Exeter, where his grandfather, an early labor organizer, planned a strike in the 1950s, long before Cesar Chavez came on the scene. Subsequent hard feelings forced the family to migrate to other areas for work.
“My family was entrenched in farm labor,” Jimenez said. “I had the good fortune to go to college.”
Completing college wasn’t easy. He married his wife Olga right out of high school, and they immediately started a family. Jimenez worked in the fields and Olga in a packing house while they scrambled to find childcare.
Ultimately Jimenez earned a bachelor’s degree in plant sciences at Fresno State University in 1977. Not long after graduation, he was named senior agronomist for the North American Farmers Cooperative, an organization of 300 small-scale vegetable and fruit producers based in Fresno.
“We were responsible for visiting all the farmers twice annually – 600 farm calls a year,” Jimenez said. “I was overwhelmed very quickly, but learned a lot.”
While working for the cooperative, he met Pedro Ilic, then a UC Cooperative Extension advisor in Fresno County, who encouraged him to apply for a new small farm advisor position in Tulare County.
“I was hired in 1980 and have been here ever since,” Jimenez said.
Jimenez was able to make his first mark on the industry by experimenting with a novel pest control strategy for tomato pin worm on cherry tomatoes, the most valuable crop produced on small-scale farms at the time. Growers were making 15 to 20 pesticide applications per season, and the pest developed resistance to the chemical. The heavy pesticide use also killed beneficial insects that keep leaf miner in check. The result was completely defoliated plants that produced nothing.
Working with UCCE specialists at UC Riverside and UC Davis and other UCCE advisors, Jimenez conducted research proving that dispensing a non-toxic insect pheromone was an effective and economical alternative to chemical treatment.
“This research really paid off because it worked on all tomato types,” Jimenez said.
With this success, Jimenez became established as a valuable resource for the agricultural industry and had opportunities to share the research in statewide and international presentations. His primary goal, however, was sharing agricultural advancements with the small-scale growers in Tulare County. He surveyed the clientele, most of whom were Latino, and found they were unlikely to read newsletters or magazine articles to learn about agricultural technology. But they did listen to the radio.
Jimenez established a relationship with Fresno-based KGST “La Mexicana,” one of the oldest radio stations in California, and developed an agriculturally themed morning radio program in Spanish. Later he regularly appeared on a question and answer program, Entrevistas y comentarios, with host Estela Romo. The collaboration lasted 30 years, until Romo retired.
“It was a great way to reach small growers,” Jimenez said. “On the morning show, we gave them market news every week, and then we went into education on agricultural issues we felt were important – food safety, fertility, pest management.”
A difficult time in his career came during the recession of the 1980s when many small-scale producers lost their farms. The number of small farms in Tulare County dropped from 400 to 70.
“It was heart wrenching,” Jimenez said. “Small growers were so deeply in debt, when the tomato industry crashed, they lost their livelihood and way of life.”
Jimenez came to realize that market forces, more than anything else, influenced the success or failure of small farms. He began to look at new market opportunities for profitable small-scale production, and saw blueberries. New Southern highbush varieties were becoming available, and, with technology to acidify the valley’s alkaline soil, he expected it to be fairly easy to grow the healthful and valuable fruit.
In 1998, Jimenez established variety trials at the UC Kearney Agricultural Research and Extension Center. Each year, the planting attracts hundreds of people to the field station for the annual Blueberry Day. New varieties have been added over the years and new production practices researched. In 2012, Jimenez grafted the most common commercial blueberry varieties on the roots of farkleberry plants (Vaccinium arboreum). Farkelberry is a small, stiff-branched evergreen bush that is more tolerant of alkaline soils than blueberries.
The plants are growing well, Jimenez said. The coming years will reveal whether using this technique will improve the economic viability of California blueberry production.
Jimenez’ service to the people in his community is not limited to his work on the job. In 1993, Jimenez and his wife Olga founded Woodlake Pride, a volunteer organization that puts youth to work in innovative beautification projects throughout the community. The program aims to channel the young people’s time and energy into constructive endeavors and keep them out of trouble and street gangs. In time, Woodlake Pride created the 14-acre Bravo Lake Botanical Garden, the first agricultural botanical garden in California.
Jimenez is now working with the City of Woodlake to secure a grant to improve the safety, infrastructure and esthetics of the garden. If the $1 million grant is approved, new restrooms, drinking fountains, and fences will be added to the community park.
For his work both on the job and in Woodlake, Jimenez has received numerous awards. Among them was the first-ever Tom Haller award at the California Farm Conference in 2008. Jimenez was named the 2000 Citizen of the Year in Woodlake. He was one of three recipients of the California Peace Prize in 2011.
After working continuously since he was a youngster, Jimenez said is looking forward to traveling around the state of California when he retires.
“I was born here, but I haven’t seen a lot of it. I’ve been too busy working,” Jimenez said.
However, he won’t shirk either his professional or volunteer service. Jimenez plans to work with potential blueberry research successors to maintain the research plot at Kearney, and he is considering invitations from overseas’ companies to share his agronomic and community building expertise to a still wider audience.
- Author: Pamela Kan-Rice
“I’m not going to get the job,” Harivandi thought.
As he retires on June 27 after 33 years of providing turfgrass advice to Northern California golf course superintendents, managers of parks, sports fields and cemeteries and homeowners, Harivandi, who was born in Iran, is grateful to the University of California for having given him the opportunity to pursue work he enjoys.
“If I had written the job description myself, I couldn’t have made it more perfectly match my qualifications,” he said.
The UC Cooperative Extension advisor job required expertise in turfgrass, soils, salinity, irrigation and recycled water irrigation — the same subjects he had studied, first at Shiraz University in Iran, and then at Colorado State University where he earned his master’s and doctoral degrees in turfgrass science.
Over the course of his career, Harivandi expanded his research to include weeds, turf diseases, insect management, erosion control and water quality. He began to promote sustainability before sustainability became a popular topic, and is best known for his research and educational efforts in water conservation and the use of recycled water for irrigation.
When Harivandi came to California, water-loving grass varieties such as Kentucky bluegrass were commonly planted for lawns. He introduced tall and fineleaf fescue species that use less water as low-maintenance, environmentally friendly alternatives. More than 90 percent of Northern California residential lawns are now planted to tall fescue. No-mow, a type of fescue that rarely needs trimming, is now planted on slopes and rough areas of golf courses, road medians, cemeteries, and small areas that are hard to mow. Besides making maintenance of these areas much simpler, No-mow reduces labor costs and air pollution associated with mowing.
To help people avoid overwatering, he published a map that shows evapotranspiration estimates for regions of the Central Coast. Homeowners and landscape managers use the map as a guide for programming their sprinkler systems.
Harivandi is recognized nationally and internationally as an expert on recycled water use on golf courses and other landscape sites. In the Southwest, 35 percent of golf courses are irrigated with recycled water; nationally, the number is closer to 15 percent.
“I have consulted with Ali on recycled water use at three of the courses where I have worked, including Shoreline Golf Links, San Jose Municipal Golf Course and Sunnyvale Golf Course,” said Gary Carls, golf operations supervisor for the City of Sunnyvale.
“I first met Ali when we were building a new golf course in Mountain View, Shoreline Golf Links,” said Carls, who has worked with Harivandi since 1981. “Ali helped us with several issues we were facing, including methane gas concerns, salinity issues and recycled water concerns. Over the years, I know he has worked with hundreds of superintendents facing similar issues.”
“Without a doubt in my mind, his greatest contribution to the golf industry has been helping to create strong educational programs for golf course superintendents both nationally and locally,” Carls said. “Ali was an instructor at the GCSAA’s (Golf Course Superintendents Association of America) national conference for most of his career.”
In the 1990s, the state Integrated Waste Management Board launched a campaign to reduce solid waste disposal in order to extend the useful life of landfills. Harivandi’s research showed that leaving grass clippings on the lawn did no harm—in fact, the decomposing grass naturally fertilized the lawn. He began to encourage homeowners and landscape maintenance professionals to practice “grasscycling” instead of bagging up lawn clippings to send to landfills. Grasscycling is now standard practice.
On weekends, Harivandi referees soccer games at high school and collegiate levels to stay fit and to serve his community. “I get to see a lot of sports fields,” he added. While refereeing soccer games, he noticed that the turf didn’t recover well from the damage inflicted by people playing on wet fields, so he began to recommend that sports fields be closed following rain. It has become a common practice.
Aside from his wife Sue, Harivandi credits much of his career success to UC Cooperative Extension. “It probably wouldn’t have worked as well for me at any other university. The ambience, the environment, the culture allow a person to do as much as you want to do,” he explained. “People help you to get things done.”
Harivandi has served as a member of the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America’s Technical/Resource Advisory Committee and currently serves on the International Sustainability Council and U.S. Golf Association Turfgrass and Environmental Research Advisory Committee. UC has granted Harivandi emeritus status so he plans to continue his research and to accept speaking engagements with interested groups, including UC Master Gardeners. He also looks forward to “a lot” of traveling with his wife Sue.
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Munier always enjoyed working outdoors - both the working and the outdoors, he said. He developed an interest in agriculture as a high school student employed part-time and during the summer on a dryland barley and cattle farm near Banning, Calif.
Munier earned bachelor’s degrees in chemistry and biology at UC Irvine in 1975, and a master’s degree in soil science at UC Davis in 1977. He joined UC Cooperative Extension in 1979 as the farm advisor for field crops, soils and irrigation in Kern County.
The opportunity to help farmers and pest control advisers with crop production and help consumers by contributing to a low cost and healthy food supply drew him to the UCCE career. He attributes his success over the years to the collaborative relationships he developed with others.
“I couldn’t have done this without the help of many progressive farmers, PCAs and industry organizations,” Munier said. “I’m also thankful for all of the support from my UC colleagues.”
The specialist/advisor team approach was at its best for him, he said, in the 1990s when he was a part of the statewide cotton extension team under former UCCE cotton specialist Tom Kerby.
“Tom was a very effective leader who understood the importance of sharing ideas, resources and credit with everyone on the team,” Munier said.
Over his 34-year career, Munier was a part of some very useful and practical research and extension developments including: cotton growth regulator use on variable height cotton, Temik pesticide soil applications for nematode control, analyzing the accuracy of cotton degree-day forecasting, controlling wheat stripe rust disease with varietal resistance and fungicide applications, canola seed dormancy in volunteer plants, and identifying the effectiveness of a new herbicide, Alion, for Roundup-resistant ryegrass control.
In retirement, Munier said he looks forward to volunteering and spending more time with his wife, Patti, and his children and grandchildren. He also hopes to do some part-time work where he can continue to contribute to agricultural production.
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Johnson traces his interest in insects to a visit with a family friend on the outskirts of his hometown, Roanake, Va., when he was 10 years old. He was intrigued by a copy of “A Golden Guide to Familiar American Insects,” and the friend gave it to him. “That’s how I got started,” Johnson said. He never looked back.
Johnson earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in entomology at North Carolina State University and in 1974 completed a Ph.D. in entomology at UC Riverside. After conducting short stints of entomological research at two locations on the mainland, he moved to Hawaii in 1983 to serve as a professor and focus his research on biological control.
In Hawaii watermelon production, Johnson was able to help farmers reduce pesticide use by 90 percent by showing that pesticide applications were killing natural enemies of a Liriomyza leafminer pest they were trying to control. He also worked on biological control of pests on cucumbers, tomatoes, green onions, pineapple, papaya and coffee.
In 1995, Johnson took a six-month sabbatical leave to UC Davis and realized how much he missed living on the mainland. He started looking for a new job and eventually was offered the combined extension and research position at his alma mater, UC Riverside, based at the off-campus research center in Parlier, Calif.
Johnson’s arrival coincided with the introduction of olive fruit fly in California, a serious pest that has devastated olive production in the Mediterranean region for more than 2,000 years. Olive fruit fly was detected in Los Angeles in 1998, and by 1999 had made its way into the San Joaquin Valley, the leading producer of the state’s olives.
To the great relief of valley olive growers, Johnson and his biological control colleague Kent Daane, UCCE specialist in the Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management at UC Berkeley, found that hot summertime temperatures in the valley depress olive fly populations. But that didn’t provide a statewide solution.
Johnson and Daane worked together to introduce exotic natural enemies of the pest from Africa. The beneficial insects have been released from quarantine and introduced at several locations in California, with recovery of one species in the San Luis Obispo and Redwood City areas.
“We think it’s on the way to establishment. That’s a good sign,” Johnson said. “Now we're waiting to see if the parasite’s presence will have an impact on olive fly populations.”
Johnson was also involved in research that showed the Central Valley isn’t as hospitable to glassy-winged sharpshooters as other parts of the state. When it gets very cold, GWSS cannot move or feed. They either starve or get dehydrated.
“About every 2 out of 10 years, it gets cold enough in the valley that glassy-winged sharpshooter populations are reduced 90 to 95 percent,” Johnson said. “It is unlikely glassy-winged sharpshooters would ever become well established in the Sacramento Valley or the northern San Joaquin Valley. But it is well established in the Bakersfield area.”
Johnson ended his career with a video production project designed to raise awareness about integrated pest management. Posted on the website Extending Orchard IPM Knowledge in California, the videos include interviews with IPM practitioners, researchers and farmers plus overviews of specific pest control techniques, such as biological control, cultural practices and pheromones.
For his research and extension efforts, Johnson received numerous awards and honors over the years. Most recently, he was named “Distinguished Scientist of the Year,” by the International Organization for Biological Control. He is an elected fellow of both the Entomological Society of America and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He was author or co-author of more than 200 peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, and extension publications.
During retirement, Johnson plans to spend more time pursuing the art of photography, mainly landscapes and seascapes, which he captures during travels around the United States. Johnson also plans to continue cataloging the history of the family of his mother, whose maiden name was “Marshall.” He has already traced his lineage back to a 1729 immigrant from Ireland. An earlier ancestor, a member of the provincial council in Pennsylvania, was governor for one day when William Penn was absent from the colony, Johnson said.