- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
A mountain lion entered an Orange County corral last week where nine pygmy goats belonging to members of the Trabuco Trailblazers 4-H Club were housed. Only one goat survived the encounter.
UC Cooperative Extension human-wildlife interactions advisor Niamh Quinn said she was heartbroken, but not surprised.
“We know that this is happening all over California,” Quinn said. “Sixty to 85 percent of depredation permits are issued to hobby farmers and ranchers who seek to kill wild animals that threaten their livestock.”
The loss of the goats is a sad reminder for Californians to be aware of wildlife predators in their areas and make sure that livestock enclosures are secure against...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Central Coast residents, officials, ranchers and representatives of conservation organizations came out in force to a November UC Cooperative Extension meeting sounding an alarm about the recent detection of Sudden Oak Death (SOD) in San Luis Obispo County trees, reported Kathe Tanner in the San Luis Obispo Tribune.
This was the first such gathering in this county since tests confirmed that the disease made its way south of Monterey County, according to event coordinator Mary Bianchi,...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
![Dead palm tree infected by South American palm weevil. [M. Hoddle]](https://ucanr.edu/blogs/UCIPMurbanpests/blogfiles/39779small.jpg)
Southern California's iconic palm trees are now threatened by another invasive species, the South American palm weevil, reported Mark Muckenfuss in the Riverside Press Enterprise.
Mark Hoddle, UC Cooperative Extension specialist based at UC Riverside, has been monitoring the pest south of the border and recently visited Tijuana to assess the infestation.
"We found about 130 dead Canary Island palms," Hoddle said. "It's been devastating in Tijuana."
On the way back to Riverside, he stopped in...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Newly appointed UC Cooperative Extension agricultural engineering advisor Alireza Pourreza has been awarded the 2016 Giuseppe Pellizzi Prize by the Club of Bologna, an honor presented every other year to the best doctoral dissertations focused on agricultural machinery and mechanization. The Club of Bologna is a world taskforce on strategies for the development of agricultural mechanization.
Pourreza, who earned his Ph.D. at the University of Florida in 2014, worked on early detection of huanglongbing disease of citrus. Huanglongbing, an incurable disease that is spread by Asian citrus psyllid, has seriously impacted citrus...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
![Coyotes pose a threat to domestic dogs. [Wikimedia Commons]](https://ucanr.edu/blogs/UCIPMurbanpests/blogfiles/37276small.jpg)
From the UCANR Green Blog
In another sign of growing frustration with wildlife in Southern California residential areas, a coyote was shot and killed in a Silver Lake neighborhood by an unknown suspect in June, reported Nina Agrawal in the Los Angeles Times. Residents are taking to social media to commiserate about increasingly bold coyotes, and actions taken to control them.
"It's very disconcerting. Are they coyote vigilantes or something?” the Times quoted one resident.
In a report presented to the L.A. City Council, the...
