- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
The UC Riverside issued a press release yesterday announcing that biology professor Leonard Nunney received a $1.75 million grant from the USDA to study the Xyella plant pathogen, which is causing serious diseases in a wide range of agricultural and horticultural crops. According to the release, there are three main Xylella subspecies found in North America: fastidiosa, which causes Pierces disease in grapes and almonds, sandyi on oleanders, day lilies, magnolias and jacarandas, and multiplex on almonds, brittlebushes, sages, olives, oaks, plums and...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
The Fresno Bee today featured a 40-inch story in the front page section about the tricolored blackbird. (I realize this blog disproportionately refers to Fresno Bee stories. The paper is, after all, reporting from the No. 1 ag county in the world.) The article doesn't quote ANR scientists, but because it is so closely tied to the agricultural industry, an important ANR clientele, I believe it belongs in the ANR news blog.
Bee reporter Mark Grossi interviewed UC Davis staff research associate Robert Meese of the Department of Environmental Science and Policy.
He reported that the tricolored blackbird...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
I've blogged about the past and present of ANR news. Today, I have the privilege of blogging about the future. In the age of YouTube, this will not seem to be a big step, especially to under-40-year-olds. But to those of us whose childhood was recorded on 8mm film and viewed only twice when a clacking projector was dragged out of the closet, it is significant.
Today, the first ANR news video was posted on our Web site. The story was conducive to visuals. Live sheep graze in a research vineyard surrounded by beautiful scenery. At one point, two Canada geese soar across the background as UC Cooperative Extension farm advisor...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
The light brown apple moth is getting publicity in the California media and attention from UC scientists. Just yesterday the Monterey Herald ran a story on local concerns about the new pest. The pest's discovery last February has been widely reported in the ag trades, such as California Farmer, and other general media outlets, like the Santa Cruz Sentinel and Associated Press. To...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
The top story in the Fresno Bee business section this morning reports on the relatively high number of citrus trees that had to be removed at the UC Lindcove Research and Extension Center this year due to citrus tristeza virus infection.
Reporter Robert Rodriguez interviewed Lindcove director Beth Grafton-Cardwell. According to the article, she told him that the number of cotton aphids, the pest that is spreading the disease from tree to tree, was high this year.
"We had the best-case scenario for transmitting the virus," Grafton-Cardwell was quoted in the story. "And that's why we saw...