JOB ANNOUNCEMENT

The UC Statewide IPM Program, which is a part of the Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources, is hiring for an Urban IPM Educator. This position is part of the Urban and Community IPM unit. Under the direction of the Associate Director for Urban & Community IPM, the Urban IPM Educator will support the urban IPM outreach and education program by coordinating activities, carrying out train-the-trainer educational programs, working with UC ANR academics and staff, developing materials, and delivering information to urban audiences throughout the state through a variety of mechanisms. The Educator participates in program planning and supports the efforts of the Associate Director to...

In what has been dubbed “dandelion-gate,” members of the Washington State legislature spent 20 minutes complaining about weeds on the capital's lawn “In all the years I've been here I've never seen so many dandelions all over,” Sen. Mike Padden (R) said. “Is it your policy not to treat dandelions?” The department responsible for landscaping responded that the legislature cut its budget and now it only has 15 people covering the nearly 500 acre campus.  

More and more, cities and public agencies are being asked to review and revise (and in some cases develop) their pesticide use policies. Often...

Dear Weed Managers

Wednesday Feb. 15 of this week the Weed Science Society of America (WSSA) hosted a 4 hour listening session at the Tulare UCCE office conference room. In attendance were growers, consultants, ag industry personnel and university extension personnel. The WSSA is hosting 7 of these sessions around the US, the Tulare session was for the Southwestern US. The consensus was that people were aware of the difficulties that growers in the southeastern US were having with herbicide resistant weeds, but that outside of rice, herbicide resistant weeds in California are of concern but not a major problem. Worries about labor shortages, costs and regulations were of greater concern for California weed...

Elise Gornish, Josh Davy, Travis Bean, and I are testing the use of sheep for management of late-season invasive annual grasses. This trial is taking place at five sites at the Hopland Research and Extension Center – two with barb goatgrass, two with medusahead, and one mixed.

Treatments include grazing at boot stage (32 sheep-days on 324 m²), revegetation with native spp vs forage spp, and treatment with low or high rates of glyphosate at tillering, boot stage, and heading. The main plots are 18 m x 36 m including an 18 x 18 grazing enclosure and are replicated three times at each site. All treatments are crossed, for a total of 48 subplots in each main plot.

Grazing was conducted from mid-April to...