- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
UC Davis Cooperative Extension researchers Ken Tate and Rob Atwill responded to a story about High Sierra grazing published last month in the Sacramento Bee in the California Farm Bureau Federation's newspaper AgAlert.
The Sacramento Bee story suggested that cattle grazing in high-elevation areas of the Sierra Nevada causes water contamination. Following is an opening excerpt of Atwill and Tate's commentary. See the AgAlert link for the complete 600-word response:
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
A UC Davis emergency room doctor and the director of the UC Davis Tahoe Research Center have launched a publicity campaign calling for cattle grazing to be suspended in the high Sierra, according to a story in Sunday's Sacramento Bee.
The article, billed as a "Bee exclusive" and written by Tom Knudson, said the doctor, an avid backpacker, took hundreds of water samples from pristine streams and lakes in the Sierras. He found that high-elevation water bodies on land managed by the Forest Service had bacterial contamination high enough to sicken hikers with Giardia, E. coli and other diseases. However, at high elevations in Yosemite and...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
The Madera Tribune has picked up a UC ANR press release on Pacific fishers, small carnivores being tracked in the Sierra Nevada by UC wildlife biologist Rick Sweitzer. The Tribune posted a four-paragraph "teaser" on its Web site. Unlike most news media, the full story is only available by paid subscription. (The online subscription cost ranges from $12.95 for one month to $66.95 for a year.)
Also unusual, Tribune reporter Ramona Frances edited out the connection to UC. Sweitzer is named a "biologist assigned to Madera County" in the teaser. Attribution to UC may be included in the long,...