- (Public Value) UCANR: Protecting California's natural resources
- Author: Sarah Angulo
- Editor: Gregory Ira
- Editor: Brook Gamble
Who can participate in citizen science? Everyone. Our 4,000 certified California Naturalists recorded over 7,000 volunteer hours under citizen science in 2019.
Though citizen science is a relatively new term, people have been participating and contributing to scientific research for years. With the field growing immensely within the past 10 years, technological advances have helped researchers involve more people, communities have come together to answer important questions, different groups have contributed and shared information, and so much more. It's a powerful tool to teach about and experience science.
However, many in the field have begun to acknowledge a problem: the name. Citizen science - currently the most...
- Author: Sarah Angulo
- Editor: Brook Gamble
- Author: Jeffrey P Mitchell
- Author: Tom Willey, Madera County organic farmer
- Author: Paul Muller, Guinda organic farmer
Though humans thrived here for millennia without planting seeds or herding animals, the phenomenal success of California's short-lived agricultural experiment is staggering on a planetary scale, and represents barely over a century of building the highly productive food systems that benefit us all today. The farmers who manage the fields, orchards and vineyards of our Golden State contribute greatly to the common good by providing abundant food from an astonishing variety of crops.
Yet, present and looming challenges of water supply, climate change, air quality and the long-term fertility and sustainability of California's agricultural soils threaten continued productivity. Such challenges compel farmers, researchers and the...
- Author: Ian Grettenberger
- Author: Rachael Freeman Long
- Author: Daniel H Putnam
- Author: Rob Wilson
"The enemy of my enemy is my friend" holds true in entomology as well!
The activity of natural enemies of pests (beneficial insects) is a key component of Integrated Pest Management in alfalfa to prevent pest resurgence and secondary pest outbreaks.
This is especially true for blue alfalfa aphid (BAA), a challenging pest in alfalfa (see companion article on managing BAA). Although BAA is frequently the most damaging and troublesome aphid to control, spotted alfalfa aphid, pea aphid, and cowpea aphid can also be problematic.
In alfalfa, aphids have many natural enemies. Some, like lady beetles, syrphid flies, and...
- Author: Siavash Taravati
Western drywood termites (Incisitermes minor, Figure 1) are important pests of structural wood in California, causing millions of dollars in damage annually. These termites are very cryptic, hidden in their galleries within wood members (pieces of wood), and only emerge during swarming. As a result, wood damage usually goes unnoticed for a long time.
UC IPM Control options are generally categorized as either whole-structure treatment (heat-treatment and fumigation) or local treatments (insecticide injection into the wood, high-power microwaves, electrocution, and other techniques). Despite the high efficacy of fumigation, there has been increasing interest by property owners to use local treatments for eradicating drywood...
