- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
An invasive pest from Asia is killing thousands of trees in Southern California, which may lead to the death of thousands of humans, reported Adam Rogers on Wired.com.
Polyphagous shot hole borer females drill holes inside trees to lay their eggs. In the process, they deposit a fungus that grows and provides food for larvae. The fungus gums up the trees' channels for water and nutrient transport, eventually killing it. Called Fusarium dieback, the condition is on track to kill 26.8 million trees across Southern California in the next few years.
With data from a U.S. Forest Services study, which found that fewer trees is related to respiratory and...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Owners of 20 percent of California rangeland may choose to sell their land, perhaps to developers, if they don't receive tax breaks from the Williamson Act, according to researchers in the UC Davis Department of Evolution and Ecology. This could cause sweeping landscape change in California, pointed out Michael Krasney on Forum, a talk radio program broadcast by KQED radio.
Krasney hosted a half-hour show on the Williamson Act, basing the segment on research published in the current issue of California Agriculture journal. Lynn Huntsinger, professor of...