- Author: Shane T Feirer
The first day of the 2024 ESRI User Conference was filled with exciting announcements and innovative stories of Conservation and GIS. With around 21,000 attendees in San Diego and an additional people joining virtually, the energy and enthusiasm were palpable.
Plenary
Jack Dangermond and the ESRI team highlighted several new offerings in their plenary session. Notably, they introduced new datasets in the ArcGIS Living Atlas, including a national tile service of parcel boundaries and a feature layer of iNaturalist species observation data. These additions promise to provide users with even more comprehensive and valuable data for their projects.
The Governor of Minnesota, Tim Walz, a former high school Geography teacher, delivered an impassioned plenary speech on the importance of GIS in solving the challenges we face today. He emphasized the critical need for maps, data, and the work that GIS professionals do to address global issues.
New Apps and Features
ESRI also showcased a range of new apps in ArcGIS Online:
- Portfolio App: Designed to help users highlight key maps of interest, making it easier to share important insights with others.
- Web Editor App: This app offers a web-based editing experience similar to editing in ArcGIS Pro, making it more accessible for users to update and manage their data.
- Generative AI in AI Assistants: The inclusion of generative AI enhances the capabilities of spatial analysis, providing users with more intelligent and responsive tools and apps.
Additionally, several new story map templates were introduced, adding more options for users to create compelling narratives with their data.
Looking Ahead
With so many exciting developments on the first day, attendees can look forward to even more innovations and detailed sessions over the next three days. The future of GIS is looking bright, and the tools and features unveiled at this conference are set to drive the industry forward.
Stay tuned for more updates and insights from the 2024 ESRI User Conference in the coming days!
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
(Continued from the July 13th Bug Squad)
Our resident crab spider, family Thomisidae, appears to be an extremely poor hunter. She waits, camouflaged in the lavender patch, as bees buzz around her. They dart away when she lunges at them.
So here I am, a crab spider, as hungry as can be
Does anyone out there feel sorry for me?
"Yes," say the arachnologists. The apiculturists say "no."
Well, I'll just hang out in the lavender and keep lying low.
Hey, looky there! I'm going to fast-track that bee.
Sorry, I am who I am, and I gotta be me.
The next day, success. Or, as they say, it was "a good day for the spider and a bad day for the bee."
It was also a good day for a freeloader fly (family Milichiidae, probably genus Desmometopa). These flies always seem to appear seconds after a spider (or praying mantis) nails its prey. No dinner reservations required.
Other bees mark themselves "safe" from the crab spider. For now.
And life goes on. For the crab spider. For the freeloader flies.
![The resident crab spider nails a honey bee, as another bee continues to forage in the lavender. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey) The resident crab spider nails a honey bee, as another bee continues to forage in the lavender. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)](/blogs/blogcore/blogfiles/107822.jpg)
![A freeloader fly (family Milichiidae, probably genus Desmometopa), invites itself to dinner. No reservations required. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey) A freeloader fly (family Milichiidae, probably genus Desmometopa), invites itself to dinner. No reservations required. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)](/blogs/blogcore/blogfiles/107823.jpg)
![As the resident crab spider eats its prey, another honey bee arrives to forage on the lavender. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey) As the resident crab spider eats its prey, another honey bee arrives to forage on the lavender. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)](/blogs/blogcore/blogfiles/107824.jpg)
- Author: DJ Andriessen
In 2012, Delta Elementary Charter School (DECS) teachers and the Administration in Clarksburg decided to write a grant to use the money to create a learning garden dedicated to a past principal, Don Fenocchio. With great delight, they received the grant money and successfully created a beautiful community/school learning garden. It was a great success for the first few years. All the funds for the grant were used.
As with all schools, teachers and students come and go, and with the passage of time and the pandemic, those in charge of the garden left, and those interested in maintaining the lovely garden went with them.
Fast forward to 2023, when Kathy Brown, UCCE Master Gardener-Yolo, came to town. With her daughter and her family moving to ‘The Burg,' Kathy was able to familiarize herself with the area.
When she first saw the garden, the once beautiful raised beds were growing only an abundance of Bermudagrass, as was the rest of the area. Areas were filled with trash meant for removal but never removed, and all the original drip and irrigation systems were inoperable.
She went to work. With the help of her family, friends, the local garden club, and farmers and their crews in the area, they spruced up the old garden. Kathy is a force of Nature!
Then, Kathy started working with the DECS teachers and administration and, in May, held a student learning day. Each class came to the garden and planted seeds in the raised beds. The Clarksburg Garden Club and fellow Master Gardener Jalena Rusaw aided her. The event was a huge success.
After the event, we discussed the possibility of creating a junior garden club during the school year and holding weekly after-school sessions in the garden. This would teach students the importance of growing food and plants that attract pollinators.
This blog will share with you the trials and tribulations of our efforts.
Wish us luck!
![photo by DJ Andriessen photo by DJ Andriessen](/blogs/blogcore/blogfiles/107516.jpg)
A recently published study reveals that California students appreciate Universal School Meals, reporting that having meals free of charge for all students made school meals more accessible, reduced stigma, improved food security, and streamlined the process for receiving meals. Prompted by the rise in food insecurity during the COVID-19 pandemic, in 2020-2022 the USDA implemented an unprecedented change allowing schools to serve meals free of charge to all students regardless of household income. For many students, school meals are their primary source of nutritious food. This qualitative study, conducted in 9 different regions in California, interviewed 67 middle and high school students, representative of the demographic profile of students in the state, about their experiences with Universal School Meals during the pandemic. Students expressed widespread appreciation for the program and a desire for its continuation. Students of different backgrounds agreed that the program supported food security by relieving the financial burden on families during an economically hard time. This was achieved through easier access to school meals by eliminating income barriers and the eligibility process. Universal School Meals also reduced the stigma faced by those who receive free or reduced-price school meals by including everyone in the program. There is still room for improvement, as students expressed concern about the quality and quantity of food served during the pandemic and perceived greater food waste. California was the first state to commit to continuing Universal School Meals beyond the 2021-2022 school year. This study was published online in the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior co-authored by Dania Orta-Aleman, Monica Zuercher, Kassandra Bacon, Carolyn Chelius, Christina Hecht, Ken Hecht, Lorrene Ritchie, and Wendi Gosliner of the Nutrition Policy Institute and Juliana Cohen of Merrimack College. This research was funded by California General Fund SB 170.
While most of our garden plants need at least 6 hours of full sun to be productive, too much sun, especially when combined with too much heat, can be too much for plants to bear. Problems arise especially when temperatures are over 85 to 90 degrees F.
Tomatoes and peppers will be the first to show signs of excessive light exposure and heat stress. Symptoms include the production of smaller-than-average leaves and rolled or curled leaves (often mistakenly blamed on herbicide exposure). Then, later during the production season, there may be poor fruit-set (often mistakenly blamed on lack of pollinators in enclosed space production), sunburn, white or hard core, and yellow shoulder. Some shade and lowering the temperature can fix these things.
Hundreds of years ago, farmers used simple woven fabrics like burlap or other natural materials to keep crops protected from extreme sun rays. Now, we use more sophisticated knot-knit polypropylene and aluminum shade cloths, but the benefits remain the same.
Benefits of Garden Shade Cloth
Garden shade cloth does three critical things for your summer garden:
- It reduces the intensity of the sunlight that hits your crops, which can be beneficial during extreme heat and for heat-sensitive plants. It's important to note that garden shade cloth does not reduce the hours of sunlight your crops receive, just the intensity of that sunlight. As the sun's intensity is diminished, you will notice reduced wilting and sunscald in your crops. Commercial pepper growers depend on shade cloth to prevent dreaded sunscald.
- It reduces the amount of transpiration that comes from the leaves of the plants. When your plant is not losing excess moisture between waterings, it will grow more abundantly.
- It also reduces the evaporation of water from your soil and keeps it cooler. This is critical when growing sensitive crops, transplanting seedlings, or trying to extend your growing season.Curled leaves on a tomato plant. Photo by Belinda Messenger-Sikes, UC IPM.
Learn about the research behind using shade cloth by visiting this University of Delaware UC Cooperative Extension web page (https://sites.udel.edu/weeklycropupdate/?p=20476)
How you use and install the shade cloth will depend entirely on your method of gardening. Are you growing directly in the ground, in raised beds, or containers? In essence, the cloth needs to provide shade during the hottest part of the day, likely afternoons. It does not have to go all the way to the ground as long as the plants are mostly shaded. Its height is dependent on the height of your plants. I have some tomatoes that are over 6 feet tall, so my shade cloth tops 8 feet to be safe. It should also be secured well enough to withstand occasional summer winds in the 10 to 15 mph range.
Color is also up to you as it comes in white, black, brown and green. Black tends to be most commonly used with a rating at about 40% density. Any higher than that is not necessary for home garden applications.
Happy Gardening and may your tomatoes and peppers be more productive this season.
If you have additional questions or need more help, don't hesitate to reach out to your local UC Master Gardener Program. We have a team of volunteers trained and eager to help you have a bountiful harvest! https://mg.ucanr.edu/FindUs/
If you live in Stanislaus County, use this easy, online survey tool http://ucanr.edu/ask/ucmgstanislaus
Tim Long has been a UC Cooperative Extension Master Gardener in Stanislaus County since 2020.
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