- Author: Kathryn M Stein
When we think about golf courses, we tend to picture miles of well-watered, uniformly clipped, and perfectly manicured grass, not drought-tolerant native grass, wildlife habitat, and ecological restoration. However, for Maggie Reiter, a UC Cooperative Extension Turfgrass and Environmental Horticulture Advisor based in Fresno County, this is par for the course.
“I've always worked in the turfgrass and golf course management domain,” says Reiter. “Since I began twelve years ago, the proportion of naturalized areas on golf courses has increased. Now native grass stands and wildlife habitat are projected to make up 26 percent of golf course facilities. From a research and extension perspective, there is...
- Author: Faith Kearns
“When I came face to face with beaver dams for the first time, I had what can only be described as a transformative experience,” says Emily Fairfax, an assistant professor of environmental science and resource management at California State University, Channel Islands. While leading a canoe trip through the Boundary Waters of northern Minnesota, she encountered what she describes as “just these enormous, impressive features” – created by beavers. “You truly realize how sturdy beaver dams are while dragging your canoe over them,” she adds, laughing. “They are incredible from an engineering...
- Author: Faith Kearns
The novel coronavirus, COVID-19, is affecting people across the globe, in states and cities, in our backyards, and our own living spaces. Unlike many other kinds of disasters, which are relatively geographically and temporally limited, this one is hitting many millions of people around the world at essentially the same time. However, the experience of COVID-19 is not the same for everyone – it varies by many of the same factors that affect other disaster and public health outcomes including race, income, employment type and status, household responsibilities, and housing status.
Like many...
- Author: Faith Kearns
Climate variability and the mismatch between where water is and where people need it to be are two defining forces of life in California. Therefore, water storage, conveyance, and transfer are major issues in the state, and water markets have arisen as one way of facilitating the movement of water from one place to another at specific times.
In a new paper published in the journal Water, Kurt Schwabe and Mehdi Nemati of UC Riverside partnered with Clay Landry and...
- Author: Faith Kearns
“Water management is one of the most important farming practices you or your clients should be practicing, full stop,” wrote Phoebe Gordon, UC Cooperative Extension orchard systems advisor in Madera and Merced counties.
Born and raised in California, Gordon is excited to share her knowledge with growers to improve orchard production and sustainability in the San Joaquin Valley and beyond. Her research and extension program focuses on water quality, soil salinity, plant nutrition, and pests and diseases in tree crops including...