The UC ANR Renewable Resources Extension Act Statewide Program is soliciting proposals for projects that will develop and/or support new or existing UC Cooperative Extension projects and/or activities addressing the educational and extension needs in the management of California's valuable renewable resources on forest and rangeland.

The primary purpose of this program is to promote proper management of these valuable resources, especially on private lands, and to provide the information, education and training needed by Extension personnel, landowners, land managers and natural resource professionals. Maximum award is $15,000 per project.

RREA is also accepting proposals that will use the services and talents of student interns. Internships are open to undergraduate or graduate students from any institution of higher education in California, particularly the University of California and the California State University systems.

Principal investigators will not be granted additional RREA funds to pay for supplemental costs associated with the project. Student interns are expected to work on projects or activities that address educational and extension needs in the management of California's renewable resources. Intern proposals must demonstrate the connection to UC Cooperative Extension (county or campus office). Interns will be funded up to $6,000.

The submission deadline is 5 p.m. on Aug. 16, 2024. 

For details and to apply, log into the ANR Portal and click on the "2024-2025 RREA Project & Student Intern Grants" link or https://ucanr.edu/urs/author/propedit.cfm.

For questions about the submission process please contact Andrea Rayray, Statewide Programs and REC Operations Research Administrator, at arayray@ucanr.edu.

Don Luvisi's research influenced California's table grape industry. Photo by Steve Vasquez

Donald A. Luvisi, UC Cooperative Extension viticulture advisor emeritus of Kern County, passed away in Bakersfield on July 10 at the age of 87.

Luvisi served as the viticulture farm advisor for Kern County from 1960 until his retirement 39 years later in 1999. He was widely recognized as a pioneer of the modern-day California table grape industry and his research influenced a significant expansion in the production of varieties such as ‘Flame Seedless,' ‘Redglobe' and ‘Crimson Seedless,' along with improvements in fruit quality associated with his work with gibberellin, ethephon and girdling.

“He gave table grape growers the knowledge they needed to maximize packable yields by investigating and extending the nuanced production practices specific for each variety,” said Rhonda J. Smith, UCCE viticulture farm advisor emeritus.

Luvisi was widely regarded as an expert in postharvest handling of table grapes due to the impacts of his work on sulfur dioxide (SO₂) fumigation. SO2 is used to inhibit the growth of fungi that can break down fruit in storage. In 1987, SO₂ was removed from the ‘Generally Regarded As Safe' (GRAS) listing by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and as a result, residue data and new application patterns had to be developed to prevent grapes from decaying in storage. Luvisi responded through his participation in more than 20 experiments annually that led to the acceptance of the “Total Utilization Fumigation” method and conversion of much of the industry to it from traditional fumigation. The restoration of newly approved postharvest SO₂ fumigation methods was estimated to prevent 40%-50% losses in table grape production that at the time was valued at $200 million to $250 million.

The last decade of Luvisi's career was focused on the evaluation of rootstocks for table grape production. These rootstocks were developed as a response to growers reporting replant problems in second- and third-generation vineyards due to the buildup of plant-parasitic nematodes in the soil. He conducted more than a dozen decade-long trials evaluating the performance of common table grape varieties on these rootstocks that led to guidelines for their use by local growers. The use of soil-borne pest resistant rootstocks has become an industry standard practice within the California table grape industry.

“Don was an internationally respected viticulturist, with particularly broad knowledge of table grape and wine production,” said MatthewFidelibus,UCCE viticulture specialist. “He was also a generous and beloved colleague.”

Don Luvisi was not only an internationally respected viticulturist, “he was also a generous and beloved colleague,” said Matt Fidelibus, shown on left with Luvisi.

After retiring in 1999, Luvisi split his time between Bakersfield and Calistoga, where he managed a family vineyard. When in Bakersfield, he was generous with his time as a mentor to three subsequent UCCE Kern County viticulture advisors, and frequently met with his friends within the table grape industry.

In the early 2000s, he was highly influential in the development of the ‘General Beale Pilot Project' that developed and tested area-wide management programs to control the glassy-winged sharpshooter, a vector of the potentially devastating Pierce's disease of grapevines. His knowledge of the grape industry, combined with the personal relationships he had developed over a lifetime, proved invaluable in establishing this highly successful project that remains effective today.

Following his passing, former UCCE viticulture advisor Jennifer Hashim-Maguire said, “I'm forever grateful for having Don as a mentor and friend. His early tutelage at Cooperative Extension sowed the seeds of a career in table grape production that now spans decades and several countries.

"Luvisi's passion for the advancement of the grape industry was contagious and unsurpassed. As a (wine) grower himself, he understood firsthand the challenges of farming and was eager and generous to share technical information and solutions with growers all over the world. 

"Don's legacy is measured not just in past research conducted and the growers he helped throughout his life, but in his kindness and the numerous relationships he cultivated in the industry from California to Australia, Chile to Greece and numerous places in-between,"Hashim-Maguire said. "The global table grape industry is an interconnected extended family and I know that I'm only one of many who will miss him deeply.”

Luvisi was an “exceptional mentor,” said Stephen Vasquez. From left, Allison Ferry-Albee, Ashraf El-kereamy, Luvisi and Vasquez.

Stephen Vasquez, a former UCCE viticulture advisor who served in Fresno County for 14 years, described Luvisi as an “exceptional mentor” who was always generous with his time and freely shared his knowledge, leaving a lasting impression on Vasquez who was a young viticulture plant pathologist in 1999. 

“As a UC Davis plant pathology grad student working on grape diseases, Don would drive me around Kern County and show me areas with high incidences of grape diseases. We'd look at powdery mildew, measles, bunch and sour rots, etc. and talk about why they were problems in the vineyards we visited. The next time I was in town, Don would drive me around new vineyards and test my knowledge. Often, I would be stumped, and he'd explain the subtleties of the diseases. This scenario lasted for two summers, and I was grateful for the experience.

After completing his master's degree, Vasquez applied for a viticulture farm advisor position in Fresno County. Luvisi was on the hiring committee along with several other viticulture farm advisors. “I was prepared to be grilled. Instead, he questioned me on grapevine disease scenarios with slight twists, which I had been trained to solve the past two summers. Don's plan wasn't to prepare me to be a farm advisor, he saw an opportunity to share his knowledge with someone who was interested in learning,” said Vasquez, who is now executive director of the Administrative Committee for Pistachios and looks for opportunities to share his knowledge with early career scientists.

Funeral services for Luvisi will be held at St. Francis Church in Bakersfield on Tuesday, July 30. Services will begin at 8:30 a.m. and include a visitation, rosary and celebration of life. Burial will take place at 10:30 a.m. on Aug. 1, following a graveside service at the Holy Cross Catholic Cemetery in St. Helena and a celebration of life at Highlands Christian Fellowship located at 970 Petrified Forest Rd. in Calistoga at 12:30 p.m.

Those wishing to honor Luvisi's life through contributions are encouraged to donate to the Don and Mickie Luvisi Agriculture Scholarship at Calistoga Junior/Senior High School. Donations to the scholarship fund can be made online at this link: https://www.convergepay.com/hosted-payments/?ssl_txn_auth_token=rc5FKo1YQV%2Bt0Vk%2F%2F5PGSQAAAY2E3mHg#!/payment-method. At checkout, specify “Scholarship” in the “Select Donation” field, then type in “Luvisi Scholarship” in the “Description” field.

Checks can be made to Calistoga Joint Unified School District with “Luvisi Scholarship Fund” in the memo line. Those can be mailed to 1520 Lake Street, Calistoga, CA 94515. For more information, please contact Carla Surber at csurber@calistogajusd.org.

UC Davis Weed Day 2024 gave participants a chance to see, feel and even smell different methods of managing weeds common in California orchards, fields, yards and landscapes. Here, the brown strips are full of bindweed that was treated with an electric weed control device just a few minutes earlier. (Trina Kleist/UC Davis)

Weeds abound: On farmland, pastures, rangelands, in natural areas, in our yards and along our sidewalks. Managing those pesky plants costs plenty: California farmers alone spend more than $900 million annually on weed control, according to a University of California study. Rangeland managers reported spending as much as $5 million to manage weeds on their land, according to a survey.

“Weed management is a critical component of managing California lands,” said Brad Hanson, a professor of Cooperative Extension in the UC Davis Department of Plant Sciences. That's why research on the impacts of weed control tactics on the targets, on crops and on other plants is one of the missions of weed researchers.

Some of the latest findings and updates on ongoing research were presented during the UC Davis Weed Day 2024, hosted by the department and the UC Weed Research and Information Center. Topics included the potential damage caused by herbicide drift, the benefits of using native plants to combat invasive weeds, impacts of using endothall in irrigation water, new weed detection and treatment technologies, and other issues related to weed management.

Herbicide drift explored

Postdoc Deniz Inci is testing corn, beans, squash, tomatoes and sunflowers with amounts of benzobicyclon, sold under the name Cliffhanger, to simulate the effects of herbicide drift from rice fields. (Trina Kleist/UC Davis)

When  herbicides are applied on California rice fields, breezes can blow the chemicals into adjacent fields. Growers and others are concerned about the damage herbicide drift could cause to other crops nearby. In a field west of campus,  postdoctoral scientist Deniz Inci showed rows of corn, beans, squash, tomatoes and sunflowers that had been exposed to benzobicyclon, sold under the name Cliffhanger. “Due to California's diverse cropping systems, off-target herbicide drift into nearby fields of annual crops can be a significant problem,” Inci said.

In mid-June, Inci simulated this problem in the field by exposing annual crops to different concentrations of benzobicyclon, including anticipated drift rates plus higher concentrations. Injury is still being evaluated weekly, and the results will be shared with California rice growers during the Winter Rice Grower Meetings in January, Inci said.

As part of the extension program, rice herbicide drift studies are presented annually at different locations across the Sacramento Valley. For updates and more information about drift, visit the UC Rice Research and Information Center and the Weed Research and Information Center.

Inci recently graduated with a Ph.D. from the lab of Kassim Al-Khatib, in the Department of Plant Sciences.

Native plants and soil interactions offer clues

Mulenbergia rigens, or deergrass (in the foreground just beyond the bicycles), is a variety of bunchgrass that is planted on the UC Davis campus for low-water landscapes, including at the Arboretum. (UC Davis)

The interaction of native plants and the soil they occupy could provide clues to both fighting weeds and restoring drought-resistant plants to landscapes. Justin Valliere, an assistant professor of Cooperative Extension in the department, explained work in native grasslands that shows promise.

The key may be using late-season summer annuals: In a pilot study, they appeared to help restore bunchgrasses and prevent re-invasion of non-native annual grasses, Valliere said. Feedbacks between plants and tiny things living in the soil may play a key role in facilitating restoration. When non-natives take over, they may drastically change soil microbial communities. That, in turn, can pose challenges for re-introducing natives.

“We are currently exploring how seeding different mixes of native annual plant species may help recover soil microbial communities and improve restoration success,” Valliere wrote.

Restoration of native California bunchgrasses is generating interest because they have deep and wide fibrous root systems that allow them to tolerate drought, reduce water run-off and resist erosion. They provide good forage for livestock, plus provide food and habitat for other creatures, store significant amounts of carbon and improve air quality.

Endothall in irrigation water

Stephen Chang won first place in a poster contest for his research into the impact on almond orchards of irrigating with water treated with endothall, which is used to manage aquatic weeds in irrigation canals. (Courtesy Stephen Chang)

Aquatic weeds that grow in thousands of miles of irrigation canals in California are commonly managed using herbicides.  In one part of the state, growers reported crop damage in almonds, annual crops and alfalfa after using herbicide-treated irrigation water, and they worry the chemical could be the culprit. Stephen Chang, a master's student in the lab of Brad Hanson, is working on a multi-year experiment to dig into these claims.

“We are testing applications of two formulations of the aquatic herbicide endothall in a young almond orchard and an older almond orchard to see how trees of differing ages will react,” Chang wrote. More work is coming: “Additionally, we are looking to investigate the effect of endothall in several annual crops commonly grown in California.”

Chang took first place in a poster contest where he outlined his research. The contest was held during a meeting of the California Weed Science Society in Santa Barbara in January.

Weed-zapper works in organic almonds

The field bindweed shown here is cheerful to the eye, but an invasive plant with roots probing nearly 20 feet down, making it hard to get rid of and expensive to manage. Tong Zhen, left, explains his research to manage bindweed using electricity. (Trina Kleist/UC Davis)

As part of his Ph.D. studies, Tong Zhen is looking at how well an electrical device can zap weeds growing in almond orchards. The device, which generates electricity using a power take-off generator, shoots electrical current through plants as the tractor slowly drives along. As the current passes through the plant stems and roots, resistance generates heat, which damages plant cells. 

Zhen and the research team found the electrical weed control system didn't bother the growth of young almond trees, measured by height and trunk diameter, in an organic orchard at a UC Davis research site. The almond trees and a nearby blueberry planting where weeds were treated with the electrical weeder grew similarly to plots where weeds were managed with hand-weeding, hoeing and spot-spraying with an organically-approved herbicide. Plus, soil respiration also was about the same, suggesting little impact on soil microbial activity.

At Weed Day, Zhen demonstrated the device on an open field infested with lovely, but pernicious, field bindweed. Most of the plants were toast soon after treatment and the smell of crispy greens hung in the air. 

Want to build more effective programs and projects? Join the UC ANR Program Planning and Evaluation team, UCCE evaluation specialist Vikram Koundinya, UC 4-H evaluation coordinator Roshan Nayak, and the Office of Diversity and Inclusion for online interactive trainings. These trainings will highlight UCCE examples.

All UCCE academics, community educators and other program staff are invited to participate. New UCCE advisors, county directors and regional program supervisors are highly encouraged to attend. Taking the entire series can build one's overall program development competencies.

The 11-part series is offered a la carte so you may select individual sessions that interest you or take the complete series. The webinars will be held on Tuesdays from 10 a.m. to noon on Aug. 6 through Oct. 15.

Aug. 6: Defining Clientele & Affirmative Action Planning

Aug. 13: Improving All Reasonable Effort & Engagement with Diverse Audiences

Aug. 20: Conducting a Needs Assessment

Aug. 27: Using Delphi Method for Needs Assessment 

Sept. 3: Practical Methods to Measuring Outcomes

Sept. 10: Using Ripple Effects Mapping Method in Program Evaluation

Sept. 17: Best Practices for Developing Surveys & Basics of Sampling Methods

Sept. 24: Navigating Institutional Review Board 

Oct. 1: Methods to Analyze Surveys: Continuous Quantitative Data 

Oct. 8: Methods to Analyze Surveys: Qualitative Data

Oct. 15: Writing Strong Impact Statements

For details about each session, visit https://ucanr.edu/sites/CEprogramevaluation/Trainings.

The presentations will be recorded and posted on UC ANR Program Evaluation.

For more information about registration and logistics, contact Maria Alvarez at ANR Program Support or call (530) 750-1361. For questions about the training, contact Katherine Webb-Martinez, director of Program Planning & Evaluation, at Katherine.Webb-Martinez@ucop.edu.