- Author: Pamela Kan-Rice
How they survived: Owners of the few homes left standing around Paradise, Calif., took critical steps to ward off wildfires
(Washington Post) Sarah Kaplan, Frances Stead Sellers, Nov. 30
…Though the United States spends upwards of $2 billion each year on fire suppression and billions more helping communities recover, the current budget for the Federal Emergency Management Agency's Pre-Disaster Mitigation Grant Program is just over $200 million — and it must address hurricanes, earthquakes and a host of other natural hazards as well as fires. Cal Fire provides grants for forest management and tree removal, but not structure modification.
The budget for the University of California...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Two relatively new variants of grape leafroll virus, known as V3 and V5, are alarming some winegrape growers in California's famed wine country, according to an article yesterday in the San Francisco Chronicle.
The virus is spread by grafting infected cuttings and by the feeding of vine mealybug. It won't kill the vineyard, but it will prevent normal sugar development and reduce yields.
The Chron article, written by Alice Feiring, said the late Ed Weber, Napa County's previous UC Cooperative Extension viticulture farm advisor, and Deborah Golino, director of
