- Author: Pamela S Kan-Rice
Vice President Glenda Humiston and UC ANR employees gave UC President Michael Drake, the UC ANR Governing Council and the President's Advisory Commission members a tour of the Salton Sea area and Desert Research and Extension Center in Holtville on April 25 and 26.
The tour started with visit to Aziz Farms in the Coachella Valley. At the date farm, they met Rita Clemons, director of UC Cooperative Extension for San Bernardino, Riverside and Orange counties; Philip Waisen, UCCE vegetable crops advisor; and Yu Meng, UCCE youth, family and community advisor. Grower Mark Tadros gave an overview of the benefits and challenges of operating a small farm.
At Sonny Bono Salton Sea National Wildlife Refuge, Jim Turner, president of Controlled Thermal Resources Holdings, Inc., gave a talk about geothermal energy and lithium extraction. Hoori Ajami, UC Riverside associate professor and member of the Salton Sea Task Force, and Ali Montazar, UCCE irrigation and water management advisor for Imperial, Riverside and San Diego counties; described the area's ecological and agricultural challenges.
On the second day of the tour, Darren Haver, director for the REC System and interim South Coast REC director, gave the group an overview of the Research and Extension Center System.
Desert REC Director Jairo Diaz and the Desert REC team presented an overview of the community and youth education activities and field studies at Desert REC. The tour included drone and robotics demonstrations by Gabe Youtsey, chief innovation officer, and Ali Pourreza, UCCE digital agriculture specialist at UC Davis.
Ricardo Vela, manager of News and Information Outreach in Spanish, explained how UC ANR is connecting Latinos in California with information.
To wrap up the tour, Oli Bachie, UCCE Imperial County director and agronomy and weed management advisor for Imperial, Riverside and San Diego counties, and Clemons described local UC Master Gardener, 4-H and CalFresh Healthy Living, UC programs.
The tour was coordinated by Kathy Eftekhari, chief of staff to the vice president, and the Program Support Unit.
- Author: Pamela Kan-Rice
To gain a better understanding of UC ANR's work in communities and to see firsthand how UC's Agricultural Extension programs engage with the public in an urban setting, the UC ANR Governing Council toured the South Coast Research and Extension Center in Irvine on Feb. 19.
The UC ANR Governing Council, which is chaired by UC Riverside Chancellor Kim Wilcox, visited UCCE specialist Alex Putman and UC Riverside graduate student Lindsey Pedroncelli's strawberry disease study, UC IPM advisor Cheryl Wilen's herbicide demonstration, and the urban landscape demonstration site, where Darren Haver, South Coast REC director and UCCE water resources advisor, conducts water studies. Niamh Quinn, UCCE human-wildlife interaction advisor, described her research on vertebrate pests ranging from rats to coyotes, and Beatriz Nobua-Behrmann, UCCE urban forestry advisor, and John Kabashima, emeritus environmental horticulture advisor, showed the council members shot hole borers and other pests that attack trees.
The UC ANR academics were joined by public and private sector partners, including Mark Lopez from OC Produce who is also the Orange County Farm Bureau president; Bryan Thompson, owner of Pest Options; Jenna Voss, South Orange County watershed manager for Orange County Public Works; Dave Erickson, Wildland Resources Planner for Orange County Fire Authority; Jim Hartman, deputy agricultural commissioner for Los Angeles County; Laura Krueger Prelesnik, vector ecologist for the Orange County Mosquito and Vector Control District; and Rick Howard, Orange County Mosquito and Vector Control District agency manager.
Foods grown at the center were incorporated in the lunch prepared by UC ANR culinary partners Andrea Machua of Culinary Underground, Kyle Manns of Taps Brewery and Lan Pham Zenti, owner of Jadetiger Tea.
“The day was both enjoyable and informative for all,” said Kathy Eftekhari, chief of staff to the vice president.
