- Author: Brenda Dawson
Drinking water is a commodity often taken for granted in the United States. When we turn on the tap, we assume the water streaming out is at least safe, if not always up to our individual taste. We expect that problems with our drinking water are isolated, temporary and newsworthy. Which may be one reason why a report released yesterday by UC Davis made headlines.
According to the report, one in 10 people living in California’s most productive agricultural areas is at risk of exposure to harmful levels of nitrate contamination in their drinking water.
You can read “Addressing Nitrate in California’s...
- Author: Rebecca Miller-Cripps
- Contributor: Wendy West
Many funding sources for weed eradication have been reduced or completely eliminated. According to the California Assembly Budget Committee’s annual Preliminary Review of the Governor’s Proposed 2012-13 State Budget, the California Department of Food and Agriculture will absorb a permanent budget reduction of $12 million in program cuts, in addition to a $19 million budget reduction in 2011-12. Funding for weed management areas (WMAs) has been reduced to the point that many WMAs have become inactive or are being managed voluntarily as an adjunct to other duties.
At the California Invasive...
- Author: Kim Ingram
UC scientists with the Sierra Nevada Adaptive Management Project (SNAMP) are investigating the uses of Lidar (light detection and ranging) in providing detailed information on how forest habitat is affected by fuels management treatments across a large landscape. Mapping forest structure can illustrate how a forest influences surface hydrology, provides for wildlife and how a forest might burn given certain weather and wind patterns. This research is proving useful in wildlife studies, water quantity and fire modeling and forest planning.
Airborne lidar works by emitting a light pulse from an emitter onboard a plane towards a ground target. A portion of the light is reflected back to...
Sudden oak death (SOD) has been spreading among trees throughout coastal California and Oregon for the last 15 years. In that short time, the disease has infested 10 percent of California’s at-risk habitat and killed over a million tanoak and true oak trees, raising major concerns about the potential impacts of further pathogen spread. The disease is caused by the non-native pathogen Phytophthora ramorum.
Research by UC Cooperative Extension staff in Humboldt County shows that infection and oak mortality are only the beginning of the story, as the disease may increase forest fuels and put infested stands at higher risk of severe wildfire.
UC Cooperative Extension forest advisor
- Author: Janet Byron
In a comprehensive study published in the January-March 2012 issue of the University of California’s California Agriculture journal, researchers evaluated the myriad factors that contribute to crop damage from Fusarium wilt, and conclude that an integrated management approach is most effective.
“Management of Fusarium wilt requires an integrated approach that includes crop rotation to reduce soil inoculum levels and the use of resistant cultivars during the warmest planting windows,” wrote UC Davis plant pathology professor Thomas Gordon and co-authors.
Lettuce is...
