- Author: Ben Faber
Detection of Huanglongbing Triggers New Quarantine Expansion in San Diego County
A newly established quarantine area has been declared following the detection of the deadly citrus plant disease Huanglongbing (HLB) in five trees located on a residential property with non-commercial citrus acreage in the Valley Center area of San Diego County. This is the first time the disease has been confirmed in Valley Center, marking the third area in San Diego County to have had a positive detection of HLB. The California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) is working with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and San Diego County to ensure the HLB-infected trees are removed in a timely manner in order to prevent the spread of HLB into neighboring areas.
This detection results in the establishment of an HLB quarantine area with a five-mile radius around the find site. The quarantine prohibits residents and commercial operations from moving any host plants within or out of the area, and fruit grown in the area must undergo additional mitigation steps before it can be transported within or from this area. The quarantine zone will not intersect with the existing quarantine boundaries in the Oceanside and Rancho Bernardo areas of San Diego County.
The updated HLB quarantine maps for San Diego County are now available online. Please check this link for future quarantine expansions, should they occur.
CDFA staff is in communication with the property owner to ensure the infected trees are removed and are in the midst of implementing a treatment program for all citrus trees within 250-meters of the find site. By taking this action, a critical reservoir of the disease and its vectors will be removed, which is essential to protect other citrus trees on the property, neighboring citrus trees and the community's citrus from this deadly disease. CDFA, in partnership with USDA, local County Agricultural Commissioners and the citrus industry, continue to pursue a strategy of controlling the spread of the Asian citrus psyllid while researchers work to find a cure for HLB.
Questions? If you are a citrus grower in San Diego County and have questions about this detection, please contact your Grower Liaison Sandra Zwaal at szwaal2@gmail.com.
HLB Update - Ventura County Detections
As of November 17, a total of 57 trees and 5 ACP samples in Ventura County have been confirmed positive for CLas, the bacterium that causes HLB. All detections are in a residential area of Santa Paula. CDFA crews are working to complete treatment and removal of the infected trees. CDFA is also conducting mandatory surveys and ACP treatments of all citrus within 250m of the tree detections. Currently there is no commercial citrus in the 250m delimitation areas.
In addition to Ventura, counties where HLB has been detected via PCR testing are Los Angeles, Orange, San Diego, Riverside, San Bernardino and San Diego, with the majority of detections in Orange County. To see a map of the current HLB quarantine areas, and other details of HLB detections, please visit maps.cdfa.ca.gov/WeeklyACPMaps/HLBWeb/HLB_Treatments.pdf. This site is usually updated weekly on Fridays.
- Author: Hamutahl Cohen
Queensland fruit fly quarantine?
Growers should consider the pre-quarantine program.
The Queensland fruit fly quarantine zone has been expanded (see: https://www.cdfa.ca.gov/plant/qff/regulation.html). Queensland fruit fly (also called QFF or Qfly) is a concern because it has over a hundred host plants and causes severe fruit damage. Like other tephritid fruit flies, it is challenging to control once the population takes hold.
What does this mean for growers in the quarantine zone? If a grower is in the zone (regardless of if they have Qfly on their ranch), their crop is on hold for one life cycle. Based on the weather, the life cycle length can vary. In the winter, life cycles are generally around 90 days. In the summer, the life cycle is about 30 days. Growers can view the length of the fruit fly life cycle here to determine how long the holding period is: https://www.cdfa.ca.gov/plant/pe/InteriorExclusion/pdf/QFF_Ventura_County-Thousand%20Oaks-2023-2024PreharvestTreatmentSchedule.pdf
During this holding period, growers must treat their crop repeatedly until the holding period expires. Growers must treat with Malathion + NuLure every 6-14 days for the duration of the holding period. This is a bait spray that must be mixed. To use Malathion, growers will need to notify the county ag commissioner and will need to register for special local need usage. For an additional option, growers can instead use GF-120 Spinosad bait every 7-10 days. GF-120 is premixed and therefore easier to use, but costs more than Malathion. When selecting which bait to use, growers should consider PHI for their crop and harvesting intervals. For example, GF-120 has a 4 hour PHI and Malathion has a 3 day PHI for strawberries – if a grower is harvesting every week, they may want to use GF-120. Growers need to spray bait around the perimeter of each field and throughout the field at spaced intervals.
Growers must comply with the treatment intervals, or they will have to start the holding period over.
After treatment, growers will receive a permit that is valid for 10 days and allows for movement of the crop.
If a grower is near the quarantine zone and anticipates economic losses due to a long holding period should they fall under quarantine, they can voluntarily opt to join a pre-quarantine program. The pre-quarantine program is overseen by the county. Treatments applied during the pre-quarantine period count towards the holding period if a grower falls under quarantine later on. This reduces the amount of time that the crop is on hold. This is a proactive measure that is optional. Please direct questions about the pre-quarantine program to the pest exclusion program at the Ventura County's Agricultural Commissioner's Office (806-388-4222 ext. 7165) or UC ANR at hcohen@ucanr.edu
Quarantine regulations apply to most crops within the quarantine zone, but 'Hass' avocado has been excluded from the host list for Queensland Fruit Fly and Oriental Fruit Fly and is not subject to quarantine regulations
More complete information regarding the mitigations required for citrus movement may be found on the Citrus Grower/Grove Manager Information page: https://phpps.cdfa.ca.gov/PE/InteriorExclusion/pdf/acpgrowerinformation.pdf
- Author: Ben Faber
The Department of Water Resources (DWR) developed the Underrepresented Community Technical Assistance Program (URC TA Program) after learning that some Groundwater Sustainability Agencies (GSAs) have not been able to address the needs, risks, and vulnerabilities with the implementation of the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) to a sufficient extent within their Groundwater Sustainability Plan(s) (GSPs) or Alternative to a GSP (Alternative). DWR recognizes the need for addition assistance and, thus, implemented the URC TA Program to address this need and is the sole mission of the URC TA Program.
The mission of the URC TA Program is to determine the needs, risks, and vulnerabilities with the implementation of the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) for URCs in medium and high priority basins, including critically overdrafted (COD) basins.
DWR retained the services of a consultant group in 2021 to begin the URC TA Program utilizing Proposition 68 funds.
DWR is assisting Tribes and other URCs identified in the heat Maps found below. The URC TA Program will provide onsite engineering, geologic, hydrologic, and other technical services to the communities based upon a ranking of water systems. The types of services provided include, but are not limited to:
- Groundwater level monitoring
- Aquifer testing to determine long-term yield and supply
- Identifying Groundwater Dependent Ecosystems (GDEs)
- Analyze well interference
- Identifying additional water supply
- Analyze existing well condition using downhole video log
- Rehabilitation of water storage tank
- Long-term water supply and demand analysis
- Analyze and help to facilitate water transfers
In addition, DWR hired a nongovernmental agency (NGO) in 2022, using General Funds provided by the Budget Act of 2021, to expand upon the URC TA Program. The additional services DWR is providing through this agreement will:
- Create a template for local domestic well impact mitigation to develop plans for drinking water well protection. Share the data with three (3) local GSAs for the GSAs to develop a mitigation program. Provide ongoing community engagement by attending the three GSAs board meetings or committee meetings to submit the community's needs, risks, and vulnerabilities of URCs in their basin to amend GSPs or Alternatives.
- Analyze and provide feedback on proposed policies and programs by submitting written feedback to the three identified GSAs a minimum of three times a year for two years.
- Revise the existing Communication and Engagement Plan (CEP), if needed.
- Develop educational and outreach materials, if needed.
- Work with the three GSAs and community leaders previously identified to support and implement drinking water and wastewater service projects to help reduce vulnerabilities to groundwater contamination by providing written feedback to those three GSAs.
- Develop a financial strategy plan for the three GSAs to identify long-term strategies for addressing impacts of depleting groundwater supplies, drought, and climate change.
- Identify two common groundwater dependent vegetation species and develop groundwater thresholds that would lead to irreversible transition from a stable state of ecosystem structure. Develop a technical memo with the results of the study and datasets to support incorporation of results into GSP updates.
DWR was provided an additional $9.5 million in General Funds to expand the definition of a URC to include small and socially disadvantaged farmers and to provide technical assistance to the small farmers located within medium and high priority basins and COD basins. Additional information will be provided in early 2023.
Local entities will be able to request services through the SGM_TA@water.ca.gov email address managed by SGM Grant Program Team.
The Technical Assistance Program identifies communities throughout California with water supply challenges such as dry groundwater wells, water shortages, or poor water quality. Using publicly available data, DWR prepared a community identification tool (CIT) that collects relevant information for each census block within the State of California. The data includes, but is not limited to, Median Household Income (MHI), threats to groundwater, access to drinking water, and surface water quality. This information is used to quantify areas of greatest water-related need and applied statewide for Tribal Communities and within hydrologic regions including Northern California, Central California, and California's Central Coast for other Underrepresented Communities. For more information on the Underrepresented Community Prioritization Tool methodology, please refer to the Technical Memorandum Summary.
https://water.ca.gov/Work-With-Us/Grants-And-Loans/Sustainable-Groundwater/Underrepresented-Communities-Grants
- Author: Roger Baldwin
Pocket gophers (Thomomys bottae) may be responsible for more damage to orchards than any other mammal species. It can be important to minimize their presence in orchards and this is particularly relevant for young trees that are highly susceptible to gopher damage. Since reproduction increases toward late winter through early spring, control is more effective before this reproductive pulse since there are fewer individuals to remove. When soil moisture is high, gophers make mounds frequently, easing identification of active tunnel systems, and thus reducing the time required to treat the orchard. Gopher control programs include a variety of tools including trapping, rodenticides, burrow fumigants, and potentially biocontrol, among other options. Below are some thoughts on the utility and implementation of some of the more commonly used strategies for managing this burrowing rodent.
https://ceventura.ucanr.edu/newsletters/Topics_in_Subtropics99392.pdf
- Author: Hamutahl Cohen
Chlorpyrifos News: A Controversial Reversal
This November the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals made a significant ruling overturning the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) ban on chlorpyrifos, an organophosphate pesticide. This decision marks a controversial turn in the ongoing debate surrounding the use of this pesticide and its potential impact on human health and the environment.
The history of the chlorpyrifos ban is a contentious one. The EPA had initially proposed banning the pesticide's use on food crops in 2015 due to concerns about its harmful effects, particularly on children and farmworkers. Studies and research had linked chlorpyrifos to developmental issues in children, neurodevelopmental delays, and other adverse health effects.
However, this ban faced several legal challenges from the agricultural industry, which argued that the scientific evidence against chlorpyrifos was not conclusive enough to justify a complete ban. Industry groups contended that the pesticide was essential for protecting crops from pests and ensuring food security.
The battle over chlorpyrifos intensified over the years, with the EPA under different administrations both moving toward and away from banning its use. In 2021, the EPA banned the pesticide, and upheld this ban in 2022. Now, the federal Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals has overturned the EPA ban, which has sparked renewed discussions. The court's decision was based on its interpretation that the EPA had not provided enough evidence to justify the ban, stating that the agency had not sufficiently demonstrated that the pesticide's residues on food posed a risk to human health. Note that some states, including California, have banned chlorpyrifos on food grown and sold in their jurisdictions. Those bans remain in effect.
This reversal has generated mixed reactions. Advocates for agricultural interests and some in the industry welcome the decision, emphasizing the importance of chlorpyrifos in protecting crops. On the other hand, environmentalists, public health experts, and concerned citizens express disappointment about the potential health hazards posed by continued use of the pesticide. This debate highlights the complex balancing act between agricultural needs, economic interests, and public health concerns.
Argentine ant is a problem in citrus