- Author: Pamela Kan-Rice
As wildfires grow deadlier, officials search for solutions
(Associated Press) Matthew Brown and Ellen Knickmeyer, Nov. 14
…"There are ... so many ways that can go wrong, in the warning, the modes of getting the message out, the confusion ... the traffic jams," said Max Moritz, a wildfire specialist with the University of California Cooperative Extension program.
As deadly urban wildfires become more common, officials should also consider establishing "local retreat zones, local safety zones" in communities where residents can ride out the deadly firestorms if escape seems impossible, Moritz said.
… In the mid-20th century, California ranchers burned hundreds of thousands of...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
The popular herbicide paraquat works well and is inexpensive, but emerging research shows a correlation of paraquat exposure and Parkinson's disease, reported Kerry Klein on Valley Public Radio.
Klein met with UC Cooperative Extension weed advisor Kurt Hembree at an almond orchard near Selma that was clear of weeds. Growers kill weeds because weeds kill crops, Hembree said.
"Direct competition for water and nutrients. Whatever the tree likes, the weeds like," he said.
Hembree explained how the paraquat works.
"Paraquat's a contact-type...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Weeds are easiest to control when they are tiny emerging plants, reported Jeanette Marantos in a Los Angeles Times blog post. Marantos got tips on weed management from Cheryl Wilen, UC Cooperative Extension integrated pest management advisor in Southern California.
Wilen recommends home gardeners use a swivel (or hula) hoe to scrape the surface and decapitate weeds. “It's a bit of exercise,” she said, "but you can do it so quickly, it's not a problem.”
Another weed control strategy is a thick layer of mulch, with does double-duty by...
- Author: Brenda Dawson
Reporter Amina Khan with the LA Times profiled husband-and-wife entomologist team Christina and Mark Hoddle of UC Riverside (Mark is also a UC Cooperative Extension entomology specialist). The pair travel the world seeking parasitoids that can serve as biological control to invasive California pests and then test the results at the Center for Invasive Species Research at UC Riverside. "Bugs don't take weekends," Christina Hoddle told the reporter, "so neither do we."
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
UC Cooperative Extension weed specialist Brad Hanson was featured on the Capital Public Radio program Insight, an in-depth interview show hosted by environmental reporter Jeffrey Callison. The interview came a day after the 55th annual Weed Day at UC Davis.
In the 8-minute segment, which runs from about 23:50 to 31:30 in the hour-long show, Hanson outlined Cooperative Extension weed management research.
"Weeds are a tremendous problem...
