ANR news blog

Irrigation experts dispute water report

University of California Cooperative Extension irrigation specialist Lawrence Schwankl joined with irrigation scientists from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and Fresno State University in writing a rebuttal to a September 2008 report by the Pacific Institute titled "More with Less: Agricultural Water Conservation and Efficiency in California—A Special Focus on the Delta."

The university scientists' commentary was published in part yesterday in AgAlert and the full, 13-page PDF version is available from the California Water Institute Web page.

In AgAlert's summary, the authors wrote that, "The Pacific Institute paper directly draws incorrect conclusions, or infers incorrect conclusions, based on significant errors in its underlying assumptions."

They said the Pacific Institute asserted their report fills an important gap.

"This report is not a comprehensive analysis of agricultural water use and it fills no gap. As a means of prompting more discussion it only states the obvious," the commentary's authors wrote.

The commentary goes on to point out what it calls "fatal flaws" in the Pacific Institute's report.

"The (Pacific Institute's) conclusions assume that on-farm water savings can be directly translated into equivalent basin-wide savings. Such an assumption is incorrect," the scientists wrote. "You simply cannot apply an estimate of on-farm water savings to an entire basin to estimate net transferable water conservation. We note that the Pacific Institute paper implicitly agrees with this argument, but then goes on to ignore the basin-wide concept completely."

UC expertise sought on coyotes and organic chicken feed

University of California Cooperative Extension advisors and specialists are go-to people for the press when they are looking for expertise on a wide variety of topics. Here are a couple subjects UC academics tackled in recent days:

Suburban coyotes culled - Los Angeles Times

Times reporter Joe Monzingo wrote a feature story on suburban coyote trapper Jimmie Rizzo. According to the article, coyotes are becoming an increasing problem in some Southern California neighborhoods, putting small dogs, cats and even young children at risk. The article cited a 2004 UC Davis finding that the first reported coyote attack in California not attributed to rabies occurred in 1978. In the next 25 years, there were 89 attacks on people or on pets in the presence of people. More than three-quarters of those came after 1994.

"Our main thrust is to re-educate the public that wild animals are wild," the article quoted Rex Baker, a retired California Polytechnic State University, Pomona, professor who co-wrote with study with UC Davis wildlife specialist Robert Timm. "Once a coyote loses its fear of man, you have to re-instill it."

Warning to animal lovers: The last seven paragraphs of the article vividly recount Rizzo's MO as coyotes' "Angel of Death." For people with a tender heart for animals, it is not pleasant reading.

Growing grain for organic chickens - Stockton Record

Two UC advisors provided commentary for a story on an organic chicken producer who is attempting the unusual task of growing his own feed on a hillside farm near Mountain Ranch.

"We do almost no grains here in the foothills," the article quoted Kenneth Churches, the University of California Cooperative Extension farm advisor for Calaveras County.

Reporter Dana Nichols also spoke to farm advisor Mick Canivari of San Joaquin County UCCE. He said the practice of dryland farming that the organic grower is undertaking saves the expense of irrigation, but it's risky.

"If you don't get the moisture, you don't get the yield," he was quoted.

Mercury-News reports on new Master Gardener coordinator

The San Jose Mercury-News ran a story this week about Santa Clara County UC Cooperative Extension's new Master Gardener coordinator, Carole Frost. Frost earned a bachelor's degree in horticulture from Pennsylvania State University in 1987 and worked as a horticulture educator with the Penn State Cooperative Extension program, never intending to leave her hometown of Hershey, Penn.

However, her husband took a job with the Air National Guard at Moffet Field, and the family moved west. The UC job, she told reporter Holly Hayes, "was like a dream come true."

"I will again have the best of both worlds — working with plant material and providing educational opportunities for the Master Gardeners and for the community," Frost was quoted in the story. "The organization is top-notch and the amount of work and community outreach that is completed is amazing."

 

Carole Frost

Homeowners asked to eye their citrus trees

California's citrus farmers are asking homeowners to inspect their backyard citrus trees for symptoms of citrus greening, according to a Los Angeles Times article published today. The disease hasn't been reported in the state, but officials fear an illegally imported tree somewhere in the Southland might be a time bomb waiting for an Asian citrus psyllid to begin the disease's spread.

Asian citrus psyllid moved into the state from Mexico last summer. In other parts of the world, the pest has devastated the citrus industry by spreading citrus greening disease.

"The disease could be a catastrophe for California's $1.2-billion citrus industry," wrote Times reporter Jerry Hirsch. "Citrus greening has already killed tens of thousands of acres of trees in Florida and Brazil and wiped out entire citrus industries in China, India, Saudi Arabia and Egypt."

Researchers at UC Riverside, UC Davis, the University of Florida and other institutions are trying to find better ways to detect the disease in its long latent stage and to control the psyllid population, the article said.

According to a UC IPM Pest Note on Asian Citrus Psyllid, symptoms of citrus greening include yellow shoots and mottling and chlorosis of leaves. Infected trees are stunted, sparsly foliated and may bloom off season. Fruit do not color properly and the juice tastes bitter.

Homeowners and commercial landscapers who believe they have found Asian citrus psyllid or a tree infected with citrus greening disease should call the California Department of Food and Agriculture's exotic-pest hotline at (800) 491-1899.

Chlorosis of citrus leaves caused by greening disease.

Eye gnats are coming from organic farm

Residents of Jacumba, a high desert community on the eastern side of San Diego County. turned to UC Cooperative Extension advisor Jim Bethke to figure out why they were being pestered by a high number of eye gnats.

In a San Diego Union Tribune article, residents reported that they couldn't enjoy outdoor activities during warm months because of the gnats, which are naturally attracted to human and animal eyes to get protein for egg production. The Jacumba Elementary School set up fans so children could eat lunch outside without bugs flying in their faces.

Bethke's research confirmed many residents' suspicions -- the gnats are coming from an organic spinach and lettuce farm on the edge of town, according to the article.

Bethke declined to tell reporter Ann Krueger how many gnats he found in traps on the farm because the information was "too inflammatory."

“The number of flies produced per acre in the farm is exceptionally high,” Bethke was quoted.

Bethke said his research was cut short when grant funding became unavailable, but initial results show that the farm is indeed the main cause of the community gnat problem. He will present his results to Jacumba residents at a meeting tonight, the article said.

Bethke told the reporter he will recommend that a row of trees be placed between the farm and the town to cut down on the number of gnats flying into the community. The organic farm cannot use chemical pesticides, but Bethke said his colleagues at UC Riverside have developed an organic pesticide that they will test at the farm.

A gnat in a yellow sticky trap.

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