William "Bill" Weitkamp, Jr., UC Cooperative Extension livestock and natural resources advisor emeritus, passed away in Arroyo Grande on Dec. 18, 2024. He was 85.
Weitkamp, who served with UCCE for 35 years, was born in Klamath Falls, Oregon, in the hospital closest to his hometown of Tulelake, where he was active in 4-H and FFA during high school.
After graduating with his bachelor's degree in agronomy from UC Davis, Weitkamp volunteered for a two-year, unpaid assignment with the nonprofit Acción en Venezuela, a privately funded organization like the Peace Corps. He traveled to Venezuela and worked to establish agricultural education programs, irrigation projects and youth clubs similar to 4-H for rural poor communities, according to his son James. After returning from South America, Weitkamp earned a master's degree in animal science from UC Davis in 1963.
In 1964, he joined UC Cooperative Extension as a 4-H advisor in San Mateo County, serving until 1969, when he transferred to San Luis Obispo County, where he served as a UCCE livestock and natural resources advisor until he retired in 1999.
During his career, Weitkamp became known for his accomplishments in range improvement and oak regeneration. He showed ranchers how to best manage rangelands while maintaining their ecosystem services.
“In the early 1980s, long before the topic was even on the radar screen, he was able to meld ranch management with a ranchland conservation ethic,” said Bill Tietje, a UCCE natural resource specialist based in San Luis Obispo.
“In addition to the oak tree and water quality work that Bill did, he also played an important role in establishing range seeding trials in SLO County,” said Royce Larsen, UCCE natural resource and watershed advisor for San Luis Obispo, Monterey and Santa Barbara counties. “He was known in the county for establishing different clovers on rangelands to help improve the forage quality.”
“Even after Bill retired, he came out to help monitor several of the seedings I had established in the early 2000s,” Larsen said. “I still use many of his fact sheets he had written. One important fact sheet written by Bill in 1993 helped establish the stocking rates based on rainfall zones that the USDA Farm Service Agency uses. These rainfall zones are still used today to help determine the amount of forage losses during droughts. Once forage loss is determined, the FSA provides funding through the Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program to producers of non-insurable crops during disasters, like droughts.”
Steve Sinton, owner and manager of the Canyon Ranch and the Sinton Family's Avenales Ranch, collaborated with Weitkamp on research.
“Bill Weitkamp spent many days each year on one of our two ranches,” Sinton said. “In the 1970s, he started studies on the impact of grazing on plant diversity using enclosure panels, some of which remain today. During that same time, he was interested in oak regeneration as well as the potential for different tree species to provide quality firewood (before wood smoke became a concern). Almost all these study sites remain on our ranches and continue to provide such valuable insight into our cattle management impacts and opportunities. We now know that moderate grazing levels help our native oaks succeed and that those oaks take decades to move from a five-leaf seedling to a 3-inch diameter tree.”
To encourage ranchers to plant oak trees, Weitkamp and Tietje launched a Master Oak Planter workshop series, modeled after the Master Gardener Program, guiding them from seedling to sapling to mature oak tree. The two scientists also collaborated to assess oak sapling survival after a prescribed fire.
In addition to conducting research and extension, Weitkamp helped his colleagues connect with community leaders and develop their programs.
“When I began my career as a UCCE 4-H Youth Development advisor in San Luis Obispo County in September 1980, Bill had already been an advisor in the county for 11 years,” said Richard Enfield, emeritus UCCE 4-H advisor and former county director. “From my first day on the job, Bill was extremely welcoming to me, and he was always available to answer any type of question that I had. During my first year or two, he took me along on farm and ranch visits. I met clientele throughout the county on these visits and I developed long-term relationships with several of them.”
“I have always felt the time that Bill made for me during my first two years on the job made a difference for the remainder of my career,” Enfield said of the former 4-H advisor.
“One of the absolute highlights of my career as a 4-H youth development advisor was my involvement in the USDA-funded Water Quality Hydrologic Unit Project for the Morro Bay Watershed,” Enfield said. “One day, Bill asked me if I would like to be involved in a multi-year project and serve as the UCCE Co-PI with him with full responsibility for the youth education component. It was one of the best decisions I made as a 4-H youth development advisor. The ‘From Ridges to Rivers: Watershed Explorations' 4-H Curricula came about as a result of the youth component of the USDA Project.”
In December of 1997, when Larsen joined UCCE in San Luis Obispo County, Weitkamp became his mentor. “As a mentor, Bill showed me around the county and introduced me to many of the ranchers, and much of the work he had accomplished,” Larsen said. “This was extremely helpful in building my own program.”
In 2002, to honor Weitkamp's 35-year UCCE career, the last 30 years in San Luis Obispo County, the SLO Farm Bureau named him Agriculturalist of the Year. He was the first farm advisor chosen for the award. At the event, Weitkamp received four other tributes – a certificate of appreciation for his work improving agriculture from the California Secretary of Food and Agriculture, a resolution from the California Assembly, a certificate from the state Senate and a resolution from the county board of supervisors.
“When he retired, Bill left an envelope of what must have been a sample of what Bill felt to be important and that left strong memories from his career,” Tietje said. “The write-ups start when Bill was hired (1969) and extend through the year he retired (1999). Reading several of Bill's well-crafted descriptions, one can learn a lot about the history of ranching in SLO County and the ranchers that made especially large contributions to ranching.”
During his 25 years of retirement, Weitkamp enjoyed fishing and serving the community through his church and the Kiwanis Club of Arroyo Grande Valley, where he was a past president and participated in several service projects.
He is survived by his spouse Sally, daughter Linda Keith (Tyler), son James Weitkamp (Crystal) and grandchildren Jace, Reagan, Julia and Natalie.
“Many of his acorn plantings are now big trees with centuries of life before them,” Sinton said. “We all would like to leave a legacy, but Bill Weitkamp's legacies are alive, thriving and so appreciated.”
A celebration of life was held for Weitkamp on Feb. 8, at the First Methodist Church of Arroyo Grande. Continuing his devotion to oak woodland conservation, Weitkamp requested that trees be planted in his memory.
“This can have another lasting impact, both for the memory of Bill and environmental quality,” Tietje said.