- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Residents of Jacumba, a high desert community on the eastern side of San Diego County. turned to UC Cooperative Extension advisor Jim Bethke to figure out why they were being pestered by a high number of eye gnats.
In a San Diego Union Tribune article, residents reported that they couldn't enjoy outdoor activities during warm months because of the gnats, which are naturally attracted to human and animal eyes to get protein for egg production. The Jacumba Elementary School set up fans so children could eat lunch outside without bugs flying in their faces.
Bethke's research...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Even as wet weather finally descended on California yesterday, a UC Davis expert was briefing the California Board of Food and Agriculture about what will likely be a third year of drought in the Golden State, according to the Stockton Record.
Ag writer Reid Fujii noted that Richard Howitt, chairman of the UC Davis Department of Agricultural & Resource Economics, apologized to the board for being the bearer of bad news after he told the board that potential water deliveries of just 15 percent of full allocation could cause the loss of 40,000 jobs in California and $1.15 billion in farm and related income.
Another...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Donning a flag lapel pin, attending the Veterans' Day parade and flying the Stars & Stripes are ways to display love of country. A growing group of experts say gardening should be added to the list.
"These days, digging some holes and planting a little lettuce or a few beets is a political act," wrote Los Angeles Times reporter Mary MacVean in the opening paragraph of her recent story on Victory Gardens, which also appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle.
For the article, MacVean spoke to Ventura...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
It's cold in Washington, D.C., where the bulk of today's excitement lies, but since this is the ANR News Blog, I'm writing about the unseasonably warm weather in California. We can't really pin this unimaginably delightful January on global warming since many parts of the nation have been shivering under an Artic blast. But perhaps it is a harbinger of things to come if, indeed, scientists' predictions about global warming come to fruition and warm January days become the norm.
Warm winter is nice for picnics and the beach, but winter warmth can reduce crop yields later, according to an article in the San...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
President-elect Barack Obama has a few things to attend to in the coming months - wars, health care, education, poverty, to name a few. Many green thumbs would also like to see him tending a White House garden, or at least authorizing one.
A campaign encouraging Obama to plant a garden, launched by Roger Doiron, an organic gardener from Scarborough, Maine, has 20,000 supporters, according to an opinion piece in the Huffington Post. In the column, writer Paula Crossfield referred to an article by UC Cooperative Extension county director Rose Hayden-Smith, a history expert who is actively supporting a movement to...