Heat is something that many Californians are used to, and live with for several months out of the year, but prolonged triple digit heat is not something I am used to in my corner of the state. Sure it gets hot up here in Lassen County, but there is most often a place to retreat from the heat.

A couple of weeks ago I was feeling hot, sweltering in the triple digits of Canyonlands National Park in Utah, which in all honesty would be considered a moderate day for my colleagues down in the Imperial Valley. But, I live in northern California, and what I was seeing made me think I was hallucinating from the heat. I did a double take because a good portion of the vegetation surrounding the river was turning brown and dropping their...

This is a follow up article to a blog that my colleague, Guy Kyser wrote back in 2011 titled “Purple alert: Common Pokeweed”. Since that time, I probably get a dozen or so calls this time of year asking, “what is that huge weed growing in my yard with dark black berries and big green leaves.” Pokeweed!

I personally find this plant quite interesting. As a native to portions of the United States, it turns out this plant has a diverse history and in recent years it is being studied in cutting edge medical research and energy technology. Have I perked your interest? If so read on.

American pokeweed...

We are doing a trial of eleven aquatic herbicides for their potential to control Brazilian waterweed (Egeria densa). The active ingredients being tested are bispyribac sodium, carfentrazone, copper-ethylenediamine complex, diquat, dipotassium salt of endothall, the dimethylalkylamine salt of endothall, florpyrauxifen-benzyl, flumioxazin, fluridone, imazamox, and penoxsulam. The study is a twelve-week static exposure of a single initial treatment, using all of the 50 tanks in the mesocosm facility. While not all of these aquatic herbicides would be allowed in the Sacramento/San Joaquin River Delta, we should at least know what might be useable in other habitats near the Delta. Currently, California State Parks Division of...

The Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Conservancy has been organizing the Arundo Control and Habitat Restoration Program since 2014. During that time, we worked with funding from the Department of Water Resources and our project partners, the Sonoma Ecology Center and the Solano Resource Conservation District, to map and prioritize Arundo (Arundo donax) infestations in the Delta (Figure 1), conduct chemical control treatments on as many stands of Arundo as we can gain access to (Figure 2), and install native habitat where possible (Figure 3).

This effort has focused on the Cache Slough Complex which is an area of Solano County that has been identified as a high priority for habitat...