- Author: Rick Kushman, Almond Board of California, (916) 716-9909, rkushman@almondboard.com
Almond Board of California biopic details how one man's vision and determination led to a new best practice in orchard replanting
Brent Holtz grew up on the farm his grandfather bought in the 1940s, six miles north of Modesto at the time. By the 1970s, the land was on the urban edge of the city, surrounded by houses.
By the late 1980s, Holtz's family had to farm differently, and they could no longer burn their brush. At that time, Holtz was a UC Berkeley plant pathology graduate student. “I felt a responsibility to help my family find a solution for ag burning,” the UC Cooperative Extension pomology advisor says now.
One...
- Author: Kara Manke, UC Berkeley
In his years managing California woodlands, Rob York has come up with a few quick and easy ways to gauge whether a forest is prepared for wildfire.
“The first question I like to ask is, ‘Can you run through the forest?'” York says.
York, an assistant cooperative extension specialist and adjunct associate professor of forestry at UC Berkeley, poses the question while standing in a grove of pine trees during a tour of Blodgett Forest Research Station, a 4,000-acre...
- Author: Pamela Kan-Rice
Farmers and ranchers are invited on a tour to learn how to use cover crops to build soil health. A full-day tour of several cover crop sites in orchards and annual crop fields in the Sacramento Valley is being offered on March 3 by the Western Cover Crop Council's Southwest Region Committee.
“The goal of this tour is to demonstrate ways to use cover crops effectively in annual crops and orchards in the Sacramento Valley,” said tour organizer Sarah Light, UC Cooperative Extension agronomy advisor.
“This tour will cover a range of topics, including cover crop selection,...
- Author: Kat Kerlin, UC Davis
Study finds resilient, frequent-fire forests have far fewer trees
What does a “resilient” forest look like in California's Sierra Nevada? A lot fewer trees than we're used to, according to a study of frequent-fire forests from the University of California, Davis.
More than a century ago, Sierra Nevada forests faced almost no competition from neighboring trees for resources. The tree densities of the late 1800s would astonish most Californians today. Because of fire suppression, trees in current forests live alongside six to seven times as many trees as their ancestors did — competing for less water amid drier and hotter...
- Author: Pamela Kan-Rice
To help California farmers and ranchers adjust to uncertain weather and climate events, the USDA National Institute for Food and Agriculture has awarded $1.5 million to a team of scientists led by UC Agriculture and Natural Resources. The project is one of six projects funded by USDA NIFA's $9 million investment to expand adoption of climate-smart practices.
“The Cooperative Extension system and the USDA Climate Hubs have unmatched capacity to reach agricultural, Tribal and underserved communities, as well as educators and students, and our...
