- 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: Cindy Yee
Capparis spinosa, aka, caper bush is a fruiting plant (not a vegetable) native to the Mediterranean region, parts of Asia and the Arabian peninsula. When I visited southern Italy two years ago, healthy caper plants were growing wild in rock crevices, ancient stone walls, road cracks, and hard dry ground with no irrigation. The temps were in the low 90's, however it felt more humid there compared to Northern California.
The first two pictures below were taken in the warm Puglia region. Capers are harvested by hand as tiny green unopened flower buds, sun-dried, and then pickled for use in Italian cuisine. If the buds are allowed to bloom, they eventually become crunchy berries, which are also edible pickled or salted. Even the leaves can be used in cheese making.
The first picture shows a small plant growing in a crack on the rough road, with no water source.
The second picture has a large, beautiful plant growing in a stone wall. In their native habitat, caper bushes can grow as large as three feet tall to six feet wide. Caper plants can supposedly survive several months with no water.
The final picture below shows a little seedling that I was delighted to come across at a local independent nursery. The nursery first tried propagating cuttings but found that they did not always survive and took up to a year to grow. They found growing from seed to be the most effective approach. There won't be intentional experimenting on this pricey plant's ability to survive months without water. Early on, I left it a mere two days, and some leaves shriveled up. Perhaps the lack of moisture in the air here makes a big difference. Right now, we are in the midst of a severe two-week heat wave, and today, I finally decided to take a break from the exhausting early morning watering of our yards. Alas, I forgot to water the caper especially! One can only hope my plant has acquired a little of its Italian cousins' invincibility…
Cheers, and Chill!
- Author: Luis A Espino
I just wanted to do a quick update on blast. I have not seen any other blast besides the one I reported on an earlier post. PCAs that I have spoken to have not seen blast either. With the cooler temperatures, conditions for blast are not as good. The hours of leaf wetness (LW) required for infection are higher when temperatures are cooler (see figures below). We'll see what happens as temperatures warm up again, but we know that as the crop matures, blast infections are less likely. However, I don't want to say we won't see any blast - last year we saw blast infect some fields late in the season. We'll keep monitoring.
- 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: Pam S. Kan Rice
Un nuevo estudio que puede ayudar a los agricultores a calcular el costo y potencial rendimiento para el cultivo de fresas orgánicas en la costa central fue recientemente dado a conocer por la División de Agricultura y Recursos Naturales de UC, Extensión Cooperativa y el Departamento de Agricultura y Economía de Recursos de UC Davis.
“Este estudio proporciona a los agricultores una referencia para calcular sus propios costos, lo cual puede asistirles en la solicitud de préstamos para producción, proyectar el costo de mano de obra, garantizar acuerdos comerciales o entender los costos asociados con el manejo de agua y nutrientes y programas regulatorios”, mencionó Brittney Goodrich, especialista de Extensión Cooperativa de UC y co autora del estudio.
El estudio sobre costos modela un escenario sobre la administración de una granja de 30 acres, 27 de las cuales se encuentran plantados con fresas orgánicas. El resto de la superficie se utiliza para sistemas de riego, caminos y edificios. El estudio describe las prácticas culturales usadas en la producción y cosecha de fresas orgánicas incluyendo la preparación y fertilidad de la tierra, control de plagas, riego y mano de obra necesaria.
El estudio de 20 páginas muestra el costo para cada operación, insumos materiales y costos y gastos generales en efectivo y no efectivo en una variedad de formatos para un ciclo de producción y cosecha. Se incluye también un análisis de alcance el cual muestra potenciales ganancias y pérdidas en un rango de precios y rendimientos.
El nuevo estudio, titulado “2024 Sample Costs to Produce and Harvest Organic Strawberries” (Ejemplo de costos para producir y cosechar fresas orgánicas, 2024) puede ser descargado en el sitio web del Departamento de Agricultura y Economía de Recursos de UC Davis en https://coststudies.ucdavis.edu.
Para una explicación detallada de las asunciones y cálculos usados para estimar los costos y rendimientos potenciales para cada cultivo, los lectores pueden referirse a la porción de narrativa del estudio.
Usted puede encontrar ejemplos sobre el costo de producción de muchos otros productos básicos en California visitando el sitio web https://coststudies.ucdavis.edu.
Para más información sobre el estudio de costos de producción de fresas orgánicas, puede contactar a Mark Bolda, asesor agrícola de Extensión Cooperativa de la Universidad de California, escribiendo a mpbolda@ucanr.edu o a Jeremy Murdock del Departamento de Agricultura y Economía de Recursos de UC Davis, en jmmurdock@ucdavis.edu.
Adaptado al español por Leticia Irigoyen del artículo en inglés . Editado para su publicación por Diana Cervantes