- Author: Pamela S Kan-Rice
The Climate Analogs Academy is recruiting 12 Cooperative Extension professionals from around the U.S. to engage in dialogue, workshops and get paid to visit specialty crop experts around the country throughout the 2025 calendar year.
“I participated in the 2024 academy and it was a great experience,” said Monica Cooper, UC Cooperative Extension director and viticulture advisor for Napa County.
The Climate Analogs Academy is a USDA NIFA Extension Climate Hub Partnerships Project (20236701339348) led by Washington State University's Center for Sustaining Agriculture and Natural Resources.
The academy is designed to empower Cooperative Extension professionals to lead regional climate-change adaptation in specialty crops. To overcome common pitfalls of climate change education, its strategy is to build dialogue around technical information and develop strategic relationships.
The academy focuses on U.S. Cooperative Extension professionals due to their unique position as trusted advisors with farmers, their investment in communication skills and their experience in learning from and partnering with diverse resources and organizations.
For more information about the program, eligibility and the application, visit https://csanr.wsu.edu/educational-opportunities/climate-analogs-academy/.
Applications accepted until Oct. 18.
- Author: David Alamillo
We all play a crucial role in fostering a safe and respectful workplace.
As part of UC ANR's Workplace Violence Prevention Program (WVPP), all employees are required to complete a mandatory 25-minute training on Workplace Violence Prevention, as mandated by CA Senate Bill 553 (CA Labor Code 6401.9) and UC policy.
UC ANR employees should have received an email from "hr-learning@ucdavis.edu" on Sept. 5 or 6 with the training link. The training module is available on each employee's UC Learning Center dashboard via the Learning Management System (LMS).
This training is designed to prepare all employees to recognize, respond to, and report workplace violence. It is required to be completed within the first 30 days of assignment and annually thereafter. Please ensure you finish by Oct. 5.
If you encounter difficulties accessing the training, please contact daalamillo@ucanr.edu for assistance.
For more details and resources, visit the Workplace Violence Prevention Program webpage.
- Author: Pamela S Kan-Rice
Marvin John Snyder, UC Cooperative Extension vegetable advisor emeritus, passed away on Sept. 6, 2024, at Merrill Gardens in Santa Maria. He was 96.
The North Dakota native earned a bachelor's degree in agriculture from Iowa State University. Immediately following graduation, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy for four years. In 1955, after Snyder was discharged from the Navy, he joined UC Cooperative Extension as a vegetable crops advisor based in Santa Maria. He worked with vegetable and strawberry growers in Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties.
“I knew him very well and he was one of those classic farm advisors of his time. Very dignified and kind,” said Richard Smith, whose 37-year career as a UCCE vegetable crop advisor mostly for San Benito, Monterey and Santa Cruz counties overlapped with Snyder's.
“Marvin worked extensively with Extension specialists on pest management issues such as nematodes infecting cole crops and sugar beets,” Smith said. “Back in his time, before the development of the role of pest control advisers helping growers on a daily basis, Marvin was essential to helping growers with pest management decisions and conducting research to help growers address many insect and disease issues as well as growing practices of cool season vegetables along the coast.”
Snyder retired from UCCE in 1991 after 36 years of service.
He was a great supporter of the Santa Barbara County Fair in Santa Maria and served on the Board of Directors for many years. He loved working with the youth, assisting 4-H members with their vegetable and animal participation. In the early 1990s, Snyder established Friends of the Fair, with profits from their concession sales going to improvements for the fair.
Family and friends of Snyder are invited to attend a Celebration of Life Gathering on Saturday, Oct. 5, at 2 p.m. at St. Andrew United Methodist Church located at 3945 S. Bradley Road in Santa Maria.
In lieu of flowers, his family requests that donations be made to St. Andrew United Methodist Church, 3945 S. Bradley Rd., Santa Maria, CA 93455
Read more about Snyder's life at https://www.dudleyhoffmanmortuary.com/obituaries/Marvin-John-Snyder?obId=33044688#/obituaryInfo.
- Author: Saoimanu Sope
UCCE advisors provide free training to nursery and greenhouse staff
Working as an irrigator seems straightforward at first: if you're not watering plants by hand, you're building and managing systems that can do the watering. What could be complex about a job like this?
University of California Cooperative Extension advisors Bruno Pitton and Gerardo “Gerry” Spinelli can tell you – or better yet, show you.
Pitton and Spinelli, members of the UC Nursery and Floriculture Alliance, offer a one-day technical training in irrigation best-management practices for irrigators working with containerized nursery plants. The comprehensive curriculum – developed with input from two focus groups of California nursery and greenhouse managers – aims to improve irrigation efficiency, reduce water consumption and improve plant health.
Thanks to funding from the California Department of Food and Agriculture, nursery and greenhouse managers in California can request this training for free and advisors like Pitton and Spinelli will travel to conduct the training on-site.
The complexities of irrigation incorporate concepts like evapotranspiration, salinity, irrigation uniformity, capillarity, pressure and flow rate. Spinelli, UCCE production horticulture advisor for San Diego County, said that irrigators have a critical role in the industry because of all the things they must consider to do their job well.
“Our goal is to support irrigators and help them become more confident decision-makers and experts in the field,” said Pitton, UCCE environmental horticulture advisor for Placer and Nevada counties.
Interactive sessions reveal nuances of irrigation
The training consists of a presentation on fundamental concepts for managing irrigation in container plant production and hands-on demonstrations. “In the nursery industry, where precise irrigation is crucial for the health and productivity of our crops, having access to expert knowledge is invaluable,” said Mauricio de Almeida, general manager of Burchell Nursery in Fresno County. “The training's practical demonstrations and real-world examples made the concepts easy to grasp, allowing our team to implement the strategies immediately.”
For one of the demonstrations, the advisors used sponges to model soil saturation when water is applied. Ana, an irrigator at Burchell Nursery, appreciated the step-by-step explanations, which helped her better understand how water pressure differs in drip irrigation, sprinklers and watering by hand. Doing this out in the field, as an example of how irrigation audits occur, was extremely helpful for attendees.
Francisco “Frank” Anguiano, production manager of Boething Treeland Farms in Ventura County, observed his team of irrigators as they learned how to measure distribution uniformity with water collected from sprinklers. “This training isn't just about irrigation and plant management. It's also about savings, both water and costs. Who doesn't want to save money and use less water?” Anguiano said.
Reducing the barriers to learning
Many of the irrigators attending these trainings gained their skills and knowledge from life experience rather than a college education, explained Peter van Horenbeeck, vice president of Boething Treeland Farms. “It's important that my irrigators learn from external experts, but it's more important that they can relate to them. And that's what Gerry was able to do,” van Horenbeeck added.
Regarding content and delivery, and referencing what he learned from the focus groups, Pitton wanted the trainings to be easy to understand and engaging. For example, scientists use the term “matric potential” to describe how soil particles hold water against gravity, which is the same as capillary rise. “We demonstrate this concept with a paper towel held vertically and dipped into a beaker of dyed water that it absorbs,” said Pitton.
Many of the irrigators in attendance agreed that hands-on activities and visual aids were instrumental to their learning. Charli, another irrigator at Burchell Nursery, shared that the in-field examples and hosting the training in Spanish kept them engaged.To address language barriers, Spinelli has been conducting trainings in Spanish – a common request from many nurseries with eager participants.
Maintaining state regulations and partnerships
Although the technical aspects of irrigation management are key elements of the training, regulatory compliance is also addressed. Recognizing the finite availability of water and the environmental impact of pollution, the advisors highlight irrigation and fertilizer management and runoff prevention as critical components of compliance.
Under Ag Order 4.0 administered by California's Water Resources Control Board, growers must comply with stricter policies regulating nitrogen use. As irrigators learn from the training, better control of irrigation can certainly make a difference.
Deanna van Klaveren, chief operating officer and co-owner of Generation Growers in Stanislaus County, said the most valuable aspect of the training was learning on-site and completing an audit on her own systems. “It is so much more impactful to have trainings like this on-site where our staff can learn and then go out into the nursery and actually put it into practice while the presenters/experts are there,” van Klaveren said.
Pitton and Spinelli described the partnership between UC Cooperative Extension and CDFA as “symbiotic” given the technical and educational capacity of UCCE advisors who conduct research and extension.
“It's a great example of how the two institutions can collaborate successfully. Californians are the ones who win because they get a service for free,” added Spinelli. “And it's rewarding for us to see so much interest in what we, as advisors, do.”
If you are a nursery or greenhouse operator and would like to request the Irrigation Best Management Practices training, please contact the UCCE advisor assigned to the region that corresponds with your nursery location below.
Northern California
- Jessie Godfrey, UCCE environmental horticulture and water resources management advisor, jmgodfrey@ucanr.edu
Central Coast (Santa Cruz County to Ventura County)
- Emma Volk, UCCE production horticulture advisor, evolk@ucanr.edu
San Joaquin Valley
- Chris Shogren, UCCE environmental horticulture advisor, cjshogren@ucanr.edu
Southern California
- Grant Johnson, UCCE urban agriculture technology advisor, gejohnson@ucanr.edu
Spanish Trainings Only
- Gerry Spinelli, UCCE production horticulture advisor, gspinelli@ucanr.edu
- Author: Pamela S Kan-Rice
Wang, Bachie, Snell, Rethwisch receive National County Agents Association recognition
The National Association of County Agricultural Agents (NACAA) held its 2024 annual meeting/ professional improvement conference in July in Dallas, Texas. Four California advisors were honored by their peers during the conference.
Zheng Wang, UC Cooperative Extension vegetable advisor inStanislaus County, was the California Achievement Award winner for extension professionals with less than 10 years of service.
Oli Bachie, UCCE agronomy and weed management advisor for Imperial, Riverside and San Diego counties and county director for Imperial County, was recognized as the California Distinguished Service award winner. Extension professionals with more than 10 years of service are eligible for this award.
Laura Snell, UCCE livestock and natural resources advisor and county director in Modoc County, received an award for her fact sheet “Rapid User Guide:Postfire Grazing on California'sIntermountainRangelands“ as one of the top four national entries in this category.
Two other California communication entries were recognized as western regional finalists after first winning state competitions. Joy Hollingsworth, UCCE table grape advisor for Tulare and Kings counties, received recognition for her feature story “Improving Soil Health.” Philip Waisen, UCCE vegetable advisor for Riverside and Imperial counties, was recognized for his photo showing melon growth resulting from root leachate treatment. Waisen was also active at the convention both as a presenter and as a western regional committee chairman.
At the state level, “Key to the Phytoseiid Predatory Mites Found on California Crops” by David Haviland, UCCE entomology advisor in Kern County, was selected as the winning entry in the publication category. “Eastern Sierra School Gardens Trello Board” by Dustin Blakey, UCCE farm advisor and county director for Inyo and Mono counties, was the winning entry for the California learning module/notebook category.
‘Airblast Spray Advisor' web app wins educational aids award
UCCE specialist Peter Ako Larbi received a 2024 American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers Educational Aids Blue Ribbon Award for his decision-support web app “Airblast Spray Advisor” during the 2024 Annual International Meeting (AIM) of the society in Anaheim on July 28-31.
The Educational Aids Blue Ribbon Awards Competition promotes excellence in informational materials that contribute to the understanding of agricultural and biological engineering subjects outside of the traditional classroom setting. Larbi received the award in the “Electronic” category under “Design or Decision Tools” and was recognized during the General Session Recognitions on July 29.
The complexity of spray application under field conditions often poses a challenge to applicators, limiting their ability to achieve high application efficiencies. Although the California Department of Pesticide Regulation requires individuals who use or supervise pesticide use to possess applicator certification, it does not guarantee that applicators will recognize or use best practices when faced with complex field conditions. As such, poor decisions can be made resulting in inefficiency, low productivity and negative environmental impact. Using Larbi's spray application decision-support app can help to remove or reduce the guesswork, thus enhancing decision-making to increase efficiency, productivity, accuracy and environmental soundness. The web app provides decision support for planning and evaluating airblast spray application. It is designed for citrus, with the addition of other perennial crops underway.
The app can be accessed at https://ucanr.edu/sites/Airblast_Spray_Advisor/.
Satomi named Field Forester of the Year
The Society of American Foresters has named Ricky Satomi, UCCE area forestry and natural resources advisor, Field Forester of the Year for District 3.
The Society of American Foresters honored 11 individuals with the Presidential Field Forester award for 2024. Awarded to one member from each of the SAF voting districts, the Presidential Field Forester Award recognizes foresters who have dedicated their professional careers to the application of forestry on the ground using sound, scientific methods and adaptive management strategies.
Satomi, who serves Sutter, Yuba, Butte, Placer and Nevada counties, specializes in forest management, geographic information systems and biomass. Prior to joining UCCE in 2017 to serve Shasta, Trinity and Siskiyou counties, Satomi worked as a research associate with the UC Wood Biomass Utilization Group, analyzing wood utilization capacity in California.
UC Riverside Professor Chow-Yang Lee has been elected fellow of the Entomological Society of America.
"I am truly honored to be elected as an ESA fellow,” Lee said. “This is the highest accolade the society can confer upon an entomologist, and I am humbled by the recognition from my peers for my contributions to urban entomology."
Lee, who serves as endowed presidential chair in the Urban Entomology Program, is internationally known for his research on the behavior, ecology and physiological adaptations of urban insect pests, including cockroaches, bed bugs, termites, ants and mosquitoes.
He seeks to understand the biological characteristics that help these urban pests thrive, and he works with graduate students to develop and test new pest management strategies. Their activities have included a focus on insecticide resistance's underlying mechanisms.
His outreach activities are extensive, having authored more than 290 peer-reviewed journal papers, book chapters and books. Recently, he has co-authored several papers evaluating biodegradable boric acid gel baits meant to control Argentine ants, the potential use of an artificial sweetener against cockroaches and its impact on cockroach microbiome, and the effectiveness of a new compound with a novel mode of action against cockroaches.
Read more in this article by Jules Bernstein:
Ferris elected honorary member of Society of Nematologists
UC Davis Distinguished Professor Emeritus Howard Ferris, internationally recognized for his “exceptional, wide-ranging and unparalleled contributions to nematology” over a 64-year career, is a newly elected Honorary Member of the Society of Nematologists, the international organization's highest award.
“His conceptual understanding of the ecological role of nematodes in plant agricultural systems established him as perhaps the premier IPM research nematologist of our time," said Frank Zalom, UC Davis Distinguished Professor Emeritus in the Department of Entomology and Nematology and former director of the UC Statewide Integrated Pest Management Program. "His fundamental and practical contributions to the science of nematology and to IPM are many and will have lasting impacts.”
Ferris received the award Aug. 8 at SON's 63rd annual conference, held in Park City, Utah.
Read more in this article by Kathy Keatley Garvey at https://entomology.ucdavis.edu/news/salute-internationally-recognized-nematologist-howard-ferris.