- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Cal Fire, UC Cooperative Extension and other officials will be meeting with residents of Idyllwild tomorrow to enlist their help in stopping the goldspotted oak borers' tree destruction in the picturesque mountain community, reported the Riverside Press-Enterprise.
GSOB appears to have spread to Idyllwild by hitchhiking on firewood from San Diego, where it has killed some 80,000 oak trees. It has been found in only one tree in Idyllwild so far.
Tom Scott, UC Cooperative Extension specialist in the Department of Environmental...
- Author: Pamela Kan-Rice
The goldspotted oak borer continues to threaten oak trees, Tom Scott, area natural resource specialist located at UC Riverside, told participants at conference on sustaining native oak woodlands in Los Angeles, the Monrovia Patch reported.
Scott said there is still a quarantine on moving firewood out of San Diego County to prevent the spread of the damaging insect.
Reporter Sandy Gillis wrote that Larry...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Over the last decade, Americans have more than doubled their sweet potato consumption, reports P.J. Huffstutter in the Los Angeles Times. Growth in U.S. per capita consumption, about 6.2 pounds per year, is being driven by the popularity of sweet potato fries. UC Cooperative Extension farm advisor Scott Stoddard told the reporter that most of California's sweet potato farming takes place in Merced County. The crop dates to the 19th century, when Portuguese and Japanese immigrants brought the plant with them. "I've heard about people ripping out...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Scientists at UC Riverside plan to quarantine goldspotted oak borers and raise them with parasitic insects from Arizona and Mexico in an effort to find an insect that will reduce the oak-killing pest's population in Southern California, according to a San Diego Union Tribune blog.
Writer Lily Leung spoke to UC Cooperative Extension horticulture advisor Vince Lazaneo about the threat the imported pest poses to San Diego area oak trees. Eradication of the goldspotted oak borer beetle, he told her, "will take nothing short of a miracle." The challenge for scientists is trapping...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
As if life weren’t difficult enough for California’s majestic oaks, they now face a brand new adversary. Already burdened by drought, wildfires, firewood harvesting and Sudden Oak Death, the Riverside Press-Enterprise reported in December that goldspotted oak borer hitchhiked from Arizona or Mexico a few years ago and is now attacking Southern California oaks.
It was identified in the Golden State in 2006 and to date has besieged coast live oak, California black oak and canyon live oak, according to an article in the December 2009 issue of UC's Oaks 'n' Folks...
