- Author: Tyler Ash
For 26 years, Blake Sanden has been the irrigation, soils and agronomy farm advisor with UC Cooperative Extension at the southern end of the San Joaquin Valley. Sanden retired from UCCE Kern County on July 1.
He helped growers with on-farm soil and water problems, organized and spoke at workshops across California and conducted applied field research projects focusing on irrigation, salinity/fertility management for all crops, and agronomic field crop production of alfalfa, dry beans and oil crops.
Sanden has a bachelor's degree in international agricultural development and agronomy and master's degree in irrigation and drainage from UC Davis and 35 years of experience in California production ag, international ag development and extension.
He developed salt tolerance thresholds for high-production California pistachios in the San Joaquin Valley, soil moisture monitoring techniques and irrigation efficiency assessment on 12,000 acres in Kern County and deficit irrigation in early citrus navel oranges.
Over the last eight years, Sanden has fulfilled a vision that started nearly 30 years ago. Through collaboration with nearly 50 University of California researchers, farm advisors, extension specialists, the Wonderful Farming Company and almond industry representatives, he played a crucial role in increasing the precision of water and fertilizer application for optimal almond yield – increasing the statewide average yield by more than 50 percent.
But some of his greatest joys and heart-felt satisfaction lay in development work in Africa – 3 years of missionary service in the 1980s developing vegetable gardens in Zambia and month-long training/consulting trips working with farmers and extension agents in Uganda, Ethiopia and central Asia.
When asked what he'll miss the most about his career, he said the interaction with the growers, most notably “seeing the ‘ah-ha' light up in a grower's eyes when he finally grasps the solution.”
He remembered a particular time in May of 2004 when a sugarbeet grower called him seeking his advice on whether or not to irrigate his 380 acres of beets one last time before harvesting. That was the way he had always done it. So Sanden went out and spent a couple of hours using his hand probe to check the moisture of the fields down to a three-foot depth.
“I ask, ‘Ken, when did you last probe this field?'” Sanden recalled.
‘“Oh, I really didn't check it this year?' he says.”
“Do you really need to irrigate or is this enough water to get through harvest?” noting that he already had enough moisture.
“I guess it's enough, but that's why I asked you out here. It wouldn't hurt to put on the irrigation, would it? I'd feel better. Of course, we did get the digger stuck a couple times last year because the field was too wet.”
“Too much water does hurt beets because you will reduce sugar percentage and can get rot and lose tonnage,” Sanden replied.
“OK, it makes me a bit nervous but you say I have at least four inches of water stored in the soil that the beets can get at.”
That year Ken was the top sugar producer in Kern County and got the Silver Beet Knife for highest percentage of sugar, Blake recalled.
“With that two hours worth of field scouting, he probably made an extra $300,000 in the saved irrigation and increased sugar,” Blake said.
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
“I interned for two advisors and then separately filled in for the programs of two advisors that went on sabbatical leave,” Tjosvold said. “I use that experience, knowledge, contacts and friendships to this day.”
Tjosvold was named the environmental horticulture advisor in Santa Cruz and Monterey counties in 1983.
Tjosvold's early career focused on the management of nursery and landscape plant diseases and insect problems, as well as methods to improve water use and postharvest handling in nursery crops. In addition, Tjosvold helped establish the use of scouting in ornamental production by working with other farm advisors to document effectiveness statewide. Later, his research and outreach on sudden oak death and light brown apple moth helped growers understand the pests and take action to reduce their impact on production systems and the environment.
Tjosvold wrote or contributed to 94 peer-reviewed publications and 234 industry publications. He served as editor/co-editor of UCNFA (UC Nursery and Floriculture Alliance) News.
During his career, Tjosvold received three distinguished service awards for outstanding teamwork (1997, 2004, and 2006) and one for outstanding extension (2004). He received the 2008 Western Extension Directors' Award of Excellence for a farm water quality planning project. In 2012 he received the outstanding research award from the California Association of Nurseries and Garden Centers, and in 2015 he was honored with the Award of Excellence from the Western Extension Directors Association for a team effort that addresses Sudden Oak Death.
In retirement, Tjosvold plans to start a UCNFA blog to help replace the loss of the UCNFA newsletter due to retirements. He will also be available locally for focused educational projects and consultation. Tjosvold, an avid fly fisherman, said he will spend the first month of his retirement camping and fly fishing in Montana.
- Author: Pamela Kan-Rice
Effective June 22, 2018, California prohibits state-funded and state-sponsored travel to Oklahoma as a result of discriminatory legislation Oklahoma signed into law on May 11, 2018, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra announced.
Oklahoma joins Alabama, Kansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, Tennessee and Texas on the list of states subject to Assembly Bill 1887 travel prohibitions.
California law prohibits use of state funds to pay for travel to states with laws that discriminate against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.
For UC ANR, that means UC systemwide assessment funds, which include state funds, cannot be used for travel to banned states.
Assembly Bill 1887, which targets states with laws that discriminate based on sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression, provides some exceptions, such as to participate in meetings or training required by a grant or required to maintain grant funding.
The travel prohibition applies to state agencies, departments, boards, authorities, and commissions, including an agency, department, board, authority, or commission of the University of California, the Board of Regents of the University of California, and the California State University.
If you have questions, please submit your inquiry via the Ask button at http://ucanr.edu/sites/anrstaff/Administration/Business_Operations/Business_Operations_Center_-_Kearney.
For more information, see these resources:
- UC Davis travel office https://www.ucop.edu/central-travel-management/resources/ab-1887-travel-prohibition-to-certain-states-using-state-funding-source%E2%80%8B.html
- California Department of Justice https://oag.ca.gov/ab1887
- Author: Liz Sizensky
When she became regional director for the 23 counties in the North Coast and Mountain Region in 1999 and relocated her family to Davis from Eureka, she recounted that “it was July, and they went from cool, coastal fog to the Valley heat and wondered about my sanity!”
She later became the executive director of Academic Personnel for ANR when the regions were restructured and ANR was centralized.
She returned to county-based academic work at HREC in the summer of 2014. Initially there as an interim assignment, Rodrigues fell in love with the place and the people and accepted the formal assignment at HREC in 2015. She notes that working at HREC has been “an excellent culmination to my career. Working with colleagues on relevant research, such as living with wildlife, integrates the many professional roles I have had throughout my career.”
Noted as a competent and trusted forester, she has served on the State Board of Forestry and Fire Protection (BOF) briefly and on the BOF Professional Forester's Examining Committee for several years.
Rodrigues is also known for her collaborative leadership and facilitation skills and led the public participation team, together with UCCE specialists Maggi Kelly and Lynn Huntsinger, for the long-term research titled the Sierra Nevada Adaptive Management Project. She is recognized as an excellent facilitator for large-scale and smaller scale public meetings designed to share science with diverse public interest groups, agencies and decisionmakers, to seek new solutions for resolving ongoing conflicts over public trust resources, such as water, wildlife and more.
Her passion is working with diverse groups to address complex environmental conflicts to seek shared understanding and new agreements.
“It is amazing how diverse input can help frame innovative solutions that individuals or small groups may not readily identify,” she said.
She plans to remain engaged in research and extension related to living with wildlife, cumulative watershed effects and managing conflicts of all types. She is also looking forward to spending more time with her husband, four children and grandchild.
Although sad to leave many aspects of her work at UC ANR, she said, “I remain deeply grateful to UC ANR for such a wonderful career, and I remain committed to support UC ANR to succeed in any way I can going forward. I have been fortunate to work with amazing colleagues and truly respect the work we do for the land grant mission.”
Two grant writing workshops will be offered by UC ANR in September.
The Grant Essentials Summit, a one-day grant writing and extramural funding-focused professional development event, will be held Sept. 13, 2018, in San Diego and Sept. 27, 2018, in Davis.
The Sept. 13 session will be at the UCCE San Diego Office and led by John Crockett, senior director, Sponsored Research Project Development & Management at San Diego State University.
The Sept. 27 session will be at the UC ANR Valley Conference Center in Davis and led by Peg AtKisson, principal of AtKisson Training Group, LLC.
The Grant Essentials Summit is a one-day targeted professional development intervention focused on enhancing the performance of individual academics as well as teams in attracting and winning grants within the research and extension enterprise, specific to a single discipline as well as across disciplines. This comprehensive day-long program is designed to convey the fundamentals of proposal writing, starting with the concepts, backed up with concrete tips and operational strategies. The program will also assist in introducing participants to concepts of the self-assessment components needed to establish and maintain a research and extension program, and expose participants to concrete and practical resources that support the creation and growth of extramural funding.
The structure of the professional development experience includes a combination of lecture format, didactic presentation, “in-classroom flipped classroom”, and audience participation to engage participants throughout the day. Interactive sessions are designed to equip participants with a set of practical tools for planning, developing, and writing a funding proposal. Integrated into all sessions are ways to make the proposal process part of the everyday academic process, and to strategically plan for longer-term funding.
The seminar will cover essential topics to grant writing, such as:
- Understanding of the preparation steps before writing
- Techniques for creating a strong argument for the proposed project
- Approaches to defining a writing style and addressing writer's block
- Techniques for communicating the approach clearly
- Approaches to communicating with funding programs
- Understanding the grant review process
- Effective tools, resources, and best practices to support grant writing
The training is designed for scientists, educators, and individuals who work with or participate in academic proposal teams. Content is geared to participants at all levels who want to better prepare for leading and participating in grant efforts targeting a variety of funding programs sponsored by academia, state government, federal government, private, and industry sponsors. All ANR academics and staff are invited to participate.
Participation will be limited to a training cohort of 180 participants in Davis and 40 participants in San Diego; pre-registration will be required.
Registration details and logistics for each upcoming session will be posted soon. If you would like to attend, please mark the dates on your calendar. Staff and academics are welcome to attend.
This summit is hosted by UC ANR Academic Human Resources, Learning and Development, and the Office of Contracts and Grants.
For more information contact Vanity Campbell at vcampbell@ucanr.edu.