- Author: Pamela Kan-Rice
A report on climate change and its effects on California released on July 31 by the California Natural Resources Agency and the California Energy Commission features more than 30 reports by UC scientists. Experts from UC Berkeley, UC Davis, UC Merced, UC Riverside, UC San Diego/Scripps Institution for Oceanography, UC Santa Cruz, UC Cooperative Extension and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory contributed to "Our Changing Climate."
The report, the third such assessment since 2006, provides new data to help Californians plan and adapt to climate change.
"Significant increases in wildfires, floods, severe storms, drought and heat waves are clear...
- Author: Rachael Freeman Long
When you see a carpenter bee seemingly dive-bombing you, think twice about fleeing. You may consider these insects intimidating because of their huge size and loud buzz, but they’re actually very gentle and important pollinators in our environment. Unlike honey bees, they have no hives to protect. Carpenter bee females can sting in defense, but males, which may appear a bit more aggressive and territorial, cannot sting.
Carpenter bees (Xylocopa spp.) look like bumble bees. The largest in California are the Central Valley carpenter bees (X. tabaniformis orpifex), more than an inch long. The females are solid black, but the males are golden-blond. The males are sometimes nicknamed...
- Contributor: Ann King Filmer
- Author: Kat Kerlin
Rat poison used on illegal marijuana farms may be sickening and killing the fisher, a rare forest carnivore that makes its home in some of the most remote areas of California, according to a team of researchers led by University of California, Davis, veterinary scientists.
Researchers discovered commercial rodenticide in dead fishers in Humboldt County near Redwood National Park and in the southern Sierra Nevada in and around Yosemite National Park. The study, published July 13 in the journal PLoS ONE, says illegal marijuana farms are a likely source. Some marijuana growers apply the poisons to deter a wide range of animals from encroaching on their crops.
Fishers in California, Oregon and Washington have been declared a...
- Contributor: Alison Gang, UCTV Prime Cuts
California’s scenic Marin County is home to two thriving industries that were once in conflict – oyster farming and dairy farming.
In order to grow healthy and marketable oysters, the farmers depended on clean water in Tomales Bay. But regulations meant to protect the bay from cattle runoff were so strict that dairy farmers feared they could no longer stay in business.
Now, with help from David Lewis, director of UC Cooperative Extension in Marin County, these two communities have found creative solutions that allow both kinds of farmers to share this beautiful and fertile region. Find out how in a four-minute report by Kristen Simoes on UCTV Prime Cuts,...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
During the 2000s, organic milk production was one of the fastest growing segments of organic agriculture in the United States, according to a USDA Economic Research Service publication Characteristics, Costs, and Issues for Organic Dairy Farming. In 2008, about 3 percent of the nation's cows were managed organically.
Among the conditions necessary for a cow to produce organic milk, she must eat only organic feed or browse on organic pasture for at least the previous 36 months. However, dairy producers have found that producing or sourcing organic feed – which must be grown with no synthetic fertilizers, insecticides or herbicides – is...