- (Focus Area) Environment
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Folks are looking forward to the next open house at the Bohart Museum of Entomology at UC Davis.
It's set Saturday, Sept. 28 from 1 to 4 p.m. and the theme is "Museum ABC's: Arthopods, Bohart and Collecting." It's free and family friendly. Parking is also free.
The Bohart Museum, located in Room 1124 of the Academic Surge Building, 455 Crocker Lane, UC Davis, hosts open houses throughout the academic year. It's an opportunity to talk one-on-one with the scientists and see the displays.
The Bohart Museum houses a global collection of eight million insect specimens. Plus, it maintains a live petting zoo (including Madagascar hissing cockroaches, walking sticks and tarantulas) and an insect-themed gift shop, stocked with T-shirts, hoodies, jewelry, posters, books, collecting equipment and more.
The Bohart scientists kept regular visitors' hours this summer on Tuesdays. Visiting hours are now over for this summer. Also, starting Monday, Sept. 1 and continuing through Sept. 22, the insect museum will be closed to the public. See website. Also see the Bohart video from last year, featuring then director Lynn Kimsey, UC Davis distinguished professor of entomology and now emerita, as of Feb. 1, 2024. She continues her research at the Bohart and also continues as the newsletter editor.
Assuming the reins of director, as of Feb. 1: Professor Jason Bond, the Evert and Marion Schlinger Endowed Chair, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, and associate dean, Agricultural Sciences, UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.
Meanwhile, mark your calendar for Saturday, Sept. 28. If you're lucky, you may see a monarch flying around on campus on its way to an overwintering site along coastal California. If not, visit the Lepidoptera collection, curated by entomologist Jeff Smith. You'll see lots of monarch specimens.
Smith says the number of moth and butterfly specimens at the Bohart is about 825,454. Of that number, some 618,750 are moth specimens and the rest are butterflies.
For more information, access the website at https://bohart.ucdavis.edu/ or email bmuseum@ucdavis.edu.
![Entomologist Jeff Smith, curator of the Lepidoptera collection at the Bohart Museum of Entomology, with a drawer of monarch specimens. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey) Entomologist Jeff Smith, curator of the Lepidoptera collection at the Bohart Museum of Entomology, with a drawer of monarch specimens. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)](/blogs/blogcore/blogfiles/108509.jpg)
![A closeup of a male monarch on a Mexican sunflower, Tithonia rotundifola, in a Vacaville garden. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey) A closeup of a male monarch on a Mexican sunflower, Tithonia rotundifola, in a Vacaville garden. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)](/blogs/blogcore/blogfiles/108510.jpg)
![A closeup of a female monarch on lavender in a Vacaville garden. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey) A closeup of a female monarch on lavender in a Vacaville garden. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)](/blogs/blogcore/blogfiles/108511.jpg)
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
A praying mantis, Stagmomantis limbata, stretches beneath a Mexican sunflower, Tithonia rotundifola, in a Vacaville garden.
Ms. Mantis: (Startled to see she is not alone) "Well, hello, there! How are ya? I'm just dropping by to say Hello!"
Photographer: "So, this is a meet-and-greet? And not a meet-and-eat?"
Ms. Mantis: "Exactly. I'm not interested in eating bees or butterflies. Ooh, there goes a honey bee! Ooh, there's a long-horned bee! Omigosh, a butterfly!"
Photographer: "You're just looking?"
Ms. Mantis: "No, just stretching. See, I've closed my spiked forelegs."
Photographer: "Then why did you move beneath the blossom?"
Ms. Mantis: "For the shade. Yes, that's it. For the shade."
Photographer: "Sounds pretty shady to me. Just admit it, you're hungry."
Ms. Mantis: "Well, now that you mention it, I guess I could use a bite to eat. Just a little bite...a little bee...a little butterfly..."
Photographer: "A quick bite?"
Ms. Mantis: "Lightning fast! One-twentieth of a second! Now, if you'll excuse me..."
The camera clicks. The mantis vanishes...along with an unsuspecting bee.
![A praying mantis, Stagmomantis limbata, stretches beneath a Mexican sunflower, Tithonia rotundifola, in a Vacaville garden. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey) A praying mantis, Stagmomantis limbata, stretches beneath a Mexican sunflower, Tithonia rotundifola, in a Vacaville garden. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)](/blogs/blogcore/blogfiles/108479.jpg)
- Author: Grace Nguyen-Sovan Dean
This July, San Luis Obispo county's first cultural burn since 1850 took place. This reintroduction of indigenous, ‘good fire' to the landscape was led by the yak tit?utit?u yak ti?hini Northern Chumash Tribe, who worked in collaboration with city officials and the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CALFIRE). Being involved with the burn was a standout moment for CALFIRE San Luis Obispo Unit (SLU) forester Dave Erickson, whose work often brings him in close collaboration with a variety of community stakeholders.
Though CALFIRE is commonly associated solely with wildland firefighting, the agency really has “two arms: operations and resource management,” explains Erickson. He and others on the resource management side complete restoration and fire resiliency projects on CALFIRE State Responsibility Areas (SRAs), and provide project planning and implementation assistance to nonprofits, private landowners, tribes, and other public agencies.
For Erickson, being a unit forester in San Luis Obispo is dynamic work within a unique area. He notes how the county “stretches from the ocean to alkali deserts” and is home to “tons of different microclimates, which require different types of management”.
For example, though oak woodlands are commonly associated with the region, Monterey pine restoration will be a focus for Erickson later this year. CALFIRE will be working with the San Luis Obispo Fire Safe Council to reforest and reduce fuels in the Cambria Monterey Pine Forest, an effort funded by a California Forest Health Program grant. “This is a super unique and rare habitat, and Monterey pines are affected by a number of different pathogens such as mistletoe and canker. They require active management in order to be healthy and sequester carbon,” he explains.
Though the county is rich in differing ecosystems, Erickson points out a common feature: for a fire-adapted region, the absence of fire over the past 100 years has led to a creeping lack of plant biodiversity. He says, “There are areas [here] that haven't seen fire in a long time, they're crowded out.” Getting fire on the ground, whether prescribed fire or cultural fire, is essential for reducing that crowding, and giving rarer plants the opportunity to grow and thrive.
Erickson's position also brings him in close collaboration with local landowners. He described a project where CALFIRE worked to perform a prescribed burn on a private property in the Long Canyon area: “We got to know the landowners really well, and they were very supportive of what we were doing.” Positive landowner attitudes towards prescribed fire and vegetation management projects are common, with Erickson pointing to the county's long history of resident-driven land management. The county's Rangeland Improvement Association is one of the oldest in California, and organizations like the Fire Safe Council encourage what Erickson describes as community motivation to “help one another...get landscape level projects done”.
Though county residents are accustomed to seeing hand crews at work and smoke from prescribed fires, CALFIRE SLU also aims to increase public understanding of why these projects are necessary. Erickson shared that one of the ways CALFIRE SLU has increased its public outreach is through the online platform ArcGIS StoryMaps. CALFIRE SLU's StoryMaps detail two ongoing CALFIRE vegetation management projects on SRA land, and invite curious viewers to explore each project's methodology, environmental outcomes, and monitoring protocol.
CALFIRE SLU's StoryMaps and this summer's cultural burn help increase public understanding of forest management, while also illustrating the necessity of collaboration when implementing landscape-level projects. This feature of forestland management is something Erickson sees as applicable for any forest landowner: “We [CALFIRE] work with a lot of partners to get projects done. No agency can do it all alone. [Management] takes a lot of time, effort, collaboration, and partnership. Create relationships with your local CALFIRE [unit], RCD [resource conservation district], UC ANR [office], and people who can give you information.”
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
Talk about flower power.
When you walk through the UC Davis Bee Haven, a half-acre garden on Bee Biology Road, west of the central campus, you'll see bees and other pollinators foraging on a pink floribunda rose cultivar, “Nearly Wild." It's flamingo pink, quite fragrant and very buzzworthy, providing both pollen and nectar.
This cultivar is aptly named "Nearly Wild." It has five petals, just like wild roses.
The garden, installed in 2009 and a project of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nemalogy, is located next to the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility. Director of the haven is apiculturist/researcher Elina Lastro Niño, associate professor of Cooperative Extension, based in the department.
A six-foot long worker bee, the ceramic-mosaic work of Donna Billick of Davis, anchors the garden, as honey bees from the nearby Laidlaw apiary gather nectar and pollen.
But back to the “Nearly Wild” roses.
They remind us so much of the truly wild roses we've seen growing along river banks, roadsides and in fields. Roses (family Rosaceae and genus Rosa) originated some 25 million years ago. Many of today's roses are the result of centuries of breeding.
What's the story behind "Nearly Wild" and what are its characteristics?" The Missouri Botanical Garden website says this is "a floribunda rose ('Dr. W. Van Fleet' x 'Leuchstern') which typically grows 2-3' tall (less frequently to 4') and as wide. It is a dense, shrubby plant which features clusters of mildly fragrant, single, pink roses (to 3" diameter) with center clumps of prominent yellow stamens. Five-petalled flowers are reminiscent of some species roses hence the cultivar name. Flowers bloom continuously from May to frost. Glossy dark green foliage. Introduced by Brownwell in 1941."
The UC Davis Bee Haven is currently being renovated, but you can still visit from dawn to dusk. Admission is free.
![A pink floribunda rose cultivar, A pink floribunda rose cultivar,](/blogs/blogcore/blogfiles/108454.jpg)
![A native bee seeks to join two honey bees in gathering nectar and pollen from a floribunda rose cultivar, A native bee seeks to join two honey bees in gathering nectar and pollen from a floribunda rose cultivar,](/blogs/blogcore/blogfiles/108455.jpg)
![Side view of a honey bee foraging on a Side view of a honey bee foraging on a](/blogs/blogcore/blogfiles/108456.jpg)
![A honey bee foraging on A honey bee foraging on](/blogs/blogcore/blogfiles/108457.jpg)
- Author: Patty Guerra, UC MERCED
El agua se encuentra entre los recursos más preciados del planeta. Algunas áreas no obtienen suficiente, algunas obtienen mucha. Y el cambio climático está llevando a estas dos situaciones a extremos cada vez mayores.
Dos expertos en ingeniería civil y del medio ambiente de la Universidad de California en Merced participaron en un reciente reporte del Fondo para la Defensa del Medio Ambiente que examina ese problema y ofrece soluciones potenciales. Tapan Pathak, professor asociado de extensión y el professor Josué Medellín-Azuara, co autor del reporte, "Scarcity and Excess: Tackling Water-Related Risks to Agriculture in the United States," (Escases y exceso: abordando los riesgos relacionados con el agua para la agricultura en Estados Unidos). Medellín-Azuara, escribió la parte perteneciente a California.
Según lo revelado por los autores del reporte, además del cambio climático, las intervenciones humanas perjudiciales como la extracción excesiva de agua subterránea, la expansión de las redes de drenaje y una gobernanza desajustada aumentan los costos agrícolas relacionados con el agua, particularmente en los estados del medio oeste y oeste.
Pathak y Medellín-Azuara aseguran que el problema se magnifica en el estado de California, el cual alberga los campos agrícolas más grandes y diversos de todos los Estados Unidos, con ingresos brutos provenientes de las granjas y ranchos que exceden los 50 mil millones de dólares.
"Debido al favorable clima mediterráneo, las zonas micro climáticas regionales únicas, un sistema de abastecimiento de agua altamente diseñado y desarrollado y una cercana conexión entre los productores, investigadores y las instituciones de extensión cooperativa, la abundancia agrícola de California incluye más de 400 productos básicos, algunos de los cuales no se producen en ninguna otra parte de la nación", escribieron los investigadores de UC Merced.
Pero el clima variable y la necesidad de agua representan un desafío. No obstante que la mayor parte de las precipitaciones caen en la parte norte de California, las dos terceras partes del sur del estado representan un 85 por ciento de la demanda de agua. Y todos esos cultivos deben ser regados durante el verano, cuando hay muy poca o nada de lluvia.
Parte del agua proviene del manto de nieve producido por las tormentas invernales y almacenado en depósitos cuando se derrite. Mucha otra proviene del río Colorado.
"Substancialmente menos agua es capturada y almacenada durante los periodos de sequía, poniendo en peligro el suministro de agua en California y en riesgo las necesidades de agua para la agricultura", señalaron en el reporte Pathak y Medellín-Azuara.
El cambio climático, con periodos de sequía entre los veranos excesivamente húmedos, magnifican ese riesgo.
"Además, el ritmo del incremento de las temperaturas mínimas en la Sierra Nevada es tres veces más rápido que el de las temperaturas máximas, resultando en una reducción potencial en el manto de nieve, un derretimiento más temprano de la nieve y más agua en forma líquida en comparación con la nieve", según reportaron los investigadores. "De acuerdo con el Departamento de Recursos Hídricos de California, para el 2100, se proyecta que el manto de nieve de Sierra Nevada experimente una reducción de un 48 a 65 por ciento del promedio histórico".
También se espera que el cambio climático afecte la disponibilidad de agua en el río Colorado.
La sequía del estado entre el 2012 y el 2016 produjo alrededor de 540 mil acres de barbecho agrícola en el 2015, costando a la economía del estado un ingreso bruto de 2,700 millones y 21 mil trabajos. Ante la falta de Lluvia, los granjeros incrementaron el bombeo de agua subterránea para regar sus cultivos, agotando ese recurso.
El reporte incluye recomendaciones sobre políticas, programas y herramientas para apoyar la resiliencia agrícola, como:
- Cambiar las prácticas de gestión del uso y cultivo de la tierra para apoyar la transición a una huella agrícola que pueda sustentarse con el suministro de agua disponible.
- Incrementar el acceso de los granjeros y administradores del agua a información importante y herramientas tecnológicas innovadoras para apoyar sus esfuerzos.
- Re imaginar la infraestructura construida y utilizar mejor la infraestructura natural para que las regiones estén mejor equipadas para hacer frente a los fenómenos meteorológicos extremos.
- Desarrollar mecanismos de políticas y financiamiento en apoyo a la mitigación y adaptación a los riesgos relacionados al agua, evitar la inadaptación y garantizar la seguridad alimentaria e hídrica.
"La agricultura innovadora de California necesita adaptarse rápidamente a una disponibilidad de agua más volátil, una mayor demanda de agua debido al clima y los reglamentos que protegen las reservas de agua subterránea, comunidades y ecosistemas", mencionó Medellín-Azuara. "La oportuna adopción de prácticas más sustentables en la agricultura probablemente producirá dividendos tanto a corto como a largo plazo".
Pathak agregó que "California se enfrenta a retos significativos relacionados con el cambio climático, pero tambien presenta oportunidades para innovaciones, colaboraciones y crecimiento sustentable. Para hacer a la agricultura resiliente ante los riesgos climáticos, necesitamos involucrarnos en soluciones holísticas que integren consideraciones de tipo ambiental, social, económico y de políticas".
Adaptado al español por Leticia Irigoyen del artículo en inglés. Editado para su publicación por Diana Cervantes