- Author: David Lewis
I have the privilege of engaging California's communities with the aspiration of safeguarding the sustenance and well-being that its oak-woodland watersheds and the people that are a part of them provide. This millennia-long integrated relationship of humans and land has parallel histories in other Mediterranean parts of the world. The following blog is the first of occasional installments about working Mediterranean landscapes in California and around the globe. Combined they will explore the concepts of watershed functions, working landscapes and Mediterranean climate, vegetation and management. Join me in experiencing these settings, growing our...
- Author: Debbie Handal
- Author: Mike Harrelson
The UC Master Gardener Program of San Diego County has always been open to innovative ways of expanding its mission and passion for gardening into new parts of its community. The San Diego program has a rich history of successful partnering with other local organizations to reach under-served populations. An exciting new collaboration was unveiled in March 2018 when five UC Master Gardener volunteers took their newest public outreach project Reminiscence Gardening to the Alzheimer's San Diego's (AlzSD) social activities program.
Thirty participants, all community members being served by AlzSD, got their hands dirty and enjoyed a day of sensory stimulation through...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Four months have passed since the Camp Fire, the worst wildfire in California history, ravaged bucolic communities in the Butte County foothills, including Paradise, Concow, Butte Creek Canyon, Cherokee, Yankee Hill and Magalia. Eighty-five people died, many of them elderly and unable to safely evacuate from an area where a wind-driven fire raced from home to home.
The unspeakable loss of human life and the serious challenges being faced by survivors has dominated the Camp Fire conversation. Now, UC Cooperative Extension is beginning a dialog with many agencies involved to understand how such tragedies can be prevented in the future.
UC Cooperative Extension fire scientists and representatives of many California...
- Author: Mark Bell
Two UC Agriculture and Natural Resources emeritus specialists, two UC ANR advisors and a UC ANR vice provost spent a week in March working in Guatemala to help implement a USDA-funded (UC Davis-managed) project that is rebuilding the extension system in Guatemala.
With a population of almost 17.5 million and a per capita income ranked 118th in the world, Guatemala is working to improve the livelihoods and incomes of it's rural population, which represents nearly half of the total population. The project is being implemented in Guatemala with the Universidad de San Carlos. Universidad de San Carlos is the biggest and oldest university in Guatemala and which - when established in 1676 -...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Shannon Cappellazzi, one of six project scientists involved in an expansive Soil Health Institute (SHI) initiative, visited the UC West Side Research and Extension Center in March to take soil samples from research plots managed for 20 years with soil building practices.
The West Side research plots are one of 120 locations in Canada, the United States and Mexico where the SHI scientists are collecting data to evaluate soil health indicators at a continental scale.
The initiative will identify acceptable soil health measurements and standards, as well as launch a comprehensive evaluation program that relates soil...
