- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Interest in using goats to clear unwanted vegetation on rangeland is growing in popularity, according to UC Cooperative Extension livestock farm advisor Roger Ingram. In a Sacramento Bee story published today, Ingram confirmed writer Ramon Coronado's central thesis: Goats can be a green answer to wildfire prevention.
Coronado reported that more than 60 people attended a recent forum where Ingram discussed the pros and cons of using goats instead of machinery, chemicals and weed whackers.
The use of goats for weed abatement has drawbacks, however. Here are some of the concerns:
- Left unchecked, the animals can overgraze,...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
The devastating wind-driven Angora Fire of 2007, which destroyed 254 homes near Lake Tahoe, left behind fertile ground for the growth of community spirit. Evidence of that is a new community garden being developed on land where the home of Owen Evans stood since 1978, according to a story in the North Lake Tahoe Bonanza. The home was one of Angora's casualties, but before he died of congestive heart failure in December, Evans decided his lot should be turned into a community garden.
“His passion was the environment,” his daughter was quoted in the...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Welcome to Cyber Monday, the Monday after Thanksgiving, which got its name from the popularity of online purchasing the first work day since the busy Christmas season began. According to Wikipedia, the prevalence of high-speed Internet in homes is diluting the shopping strength of Cyber Monday, so it may just become a day to honor the contributions of the Internet to American life.
Along those lines, I'll use Cyber Monday to bring you the latest cyber news coverage of UC ANR.
The Marin Independent Journal, reporting on the local olive harvest, quoted UCCE farm advisor Paul...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
The headline above, also the opening lyrics of a popular 1970s folk song, is a message that is again being driven home in the wake of this week's Southern California fires. A Los Angeles Times article published today focused on the dangers of flying embers to homes even some distance away from the fire frontline.
The story opened with a heart-wrenching account of Yorba Linda homeowners who thought they had done everything right: barrel tile roof, boxed eaves, brick and stucco siding, well-maintained landscape and clean rain gutters. Their home was destroyed.
"There will be a weak link in the house that is destroyed,"...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
"Southern California is burning . . . . I've never seen anything like this!" begins a note written yesterday by Myriam Grajales-Hall, the manager of UC ANR's News and Information Outreach in Spanish program, which is headquartered at UC Riverside.
"My family and I went to downtown LA yesterday, and by the afternoon, the sky was dark, the smell of smoke pervaded the city and ashes were falling everywhere. As we were coming back home in the evening, we could see flames on the hill . . . as far as the eye could see . . . . An eerie sight, indeed."
ANR Governmental and External Relations is getting wildfire information out to the public in an
