En junio se llevó a cabo la Conferencia para la Excelencia en Comunicadores (ACE) en la ciudad de Salt Lake City, Utah. Este evento no solo presentó un fuerte programa en el que comunicadores de distintas universidades participaron con temas de interés para toda la comunidad, sino que también destacó la labor esencial de las instituciones en la difusión de información entre los diversos sectores de la sociedad.

Este año, la División de Agricultura y Recursos Naturales de la Universidad de California (UC ANR), fue honrada con un reconocimiento especial. Ricardo Vela, gerente de Noticias y Alcance Informativo en español (NOS) de UC ANR, recibió el prestigioso premio "ACE Rising Star", otorgado por la asociación en reconocimiento a su destacada contribución en el campo de la comunicación.

Para Vela, la comunicación es fundamental. El video, la palabra escrita, la radio y ahora las redes sociales le permiten cumplir su objetivo de llevar información veraz, oportuna y constante a las comunidades desfavorecidas a las que sirve UC ANR.

“Este no solo es un reconocimiento a mí en particular, es el reconocimiento a la labor que hacemos como comunicadores en UC ANR”, dijo Vela, quien además estuvo a cargo de impartir dos conferencias: la primera sobre cómo grabar y editar con teléfono inteligente y la segunda sobre formas y medios de informar a la comunidad latina.

Entre los comunicadores que recibieron un reconocimiento por su trabajo están Doralicia Garay, Saoimanu Sope, Michael Hsu y Ethan Ireland, comunicadores digitales de UC ANR.

La conferencia no solo brindó un espacio para el intercambio de ideas y conocimientos entre comunicadores, sino que también reafirmó la importancia de la labor informativa y educativa que llevan a cabo las instituciones académicas. El reconocimiento a Ricardo Vela y a otros comunicadores subraya la influencia positiva que pueden tener en las comunidades a través de su compromiso y dedicación, sirviendo como inspiración para todos aquellos dedicados a la difusión del conocimiento y la información.

Con eventos como la Conferencia ACE, se fortalece la red de comunicadores dedicados a mejorar la sociedad a través de su trabajo, reafirmando el valor de la excelencia en la comunicación.

 

 

 

Many gardeners have fountains, ponds, and other water features in their landscapes. Water gardens are beautiful and calming, but, if not managed properly, can add an unpleasant element to the landscape—mosquitoes. How can you prevent mosquito infestations?

How do mosquitoes develop?

First, it is important to understand mosquito biology. Mosquitoes are small flies that lay their eggs in, on, or near stagnant water. The larvae, or wigglers that hatch from the eggs live in water and feed on organic debris until they transform into a motile pupa, or tumbler, and finally into the familiar adults. This process, from egg to adult, requires as little as one week when conditions are favorable. Emerging females must mate and ingest blood to produce new eggs.

Mosquitoes can be managed using an integrated approach that relies mostly on prevention, using biological and chemical controls when necessary. The key strategy is to eliminate all potential breeding sites; even one ounce of standing water can support a population of larvae. What can be done, however, when an outdoor space contains a water element?

Tips for managing mosquitoes in water features

Water features in the landscape will invariably attract adult mosquitoes, but attempting to control them or prevent their egg laying is difficult. Larvae are easier to manage, since they are concentrated in known areas, don't yet bite, and can't fly away. Larvae prefer shallow water that is less than 24 inches deep, so install water features that are deeper than 2 feet. Ponds or features that provide a steep slope or have vertical walls that quickly drop off into deep water will also be less favorable to mosquitoes. Add a fountain, waterfall, or other device that increases water circulation and reduces the stagnation that allows mosquitoes to breed.

Remove excess vegetation and organic debris that provide mosquito larvae with food, shelter from the sun, and hiding places from predators. For larger ponds, a pond skimmer will help keep mosquitoes and the algae that favors them under control. If you have a smaller pond, you can use pond skimmer nets. If fertilization is required, use pond spikes designed to prevent algae blooms.

In natural environments, bacteria, nematodes, other insects, crustaceans, and fish often keep numbers of mosquito larvae low. Protect predators such as dragonflies and backswimmers, which may have colonized ponds, by avoiding broad-spectrum insecticides and consider introducing fish. County vector control services may provide free mosquito fish, voracious consumers of mosquito larvae and pupae. Never release mosquito fish into natural water bodies, since these fish aren't native to California and can disrupt ecosystems.

Although these measures will prevent problems in most cases, mosquito larvae may still develop in some ponds. In gardens with lots of plants growing in still water, it may be impossible to keep mosquitoes from breeding. Regularly check their water features for larvae, which periodically come to the surface to breathe through abdominal siphons. Watch for the larvae's characteristic wriggling movement, or use fine dip nets to monitor for larvae. It is important to act quickly to kill mosquitoes when they are small, easiest to manage, and before they become adults and start biting.

Pesticides for mosquito larvae

Use larvicides specially designed for use against mosquitoes in water. Larvicides containing spores or metabolites of the bacterium Bacillus thuringiensis ssp. israelensis (Bti) (e.g., Mosquito Dunks, Mosquito Bits, Microbe-Lift, and other products) act as stomach poisons when ingested, killing larvae within a few days. Bti affects only fly larvae, so it won't harm predatory insects living in the pond or water feature. Another effective larvicide is the insect growth regulator (IGR) methoprene (e.g., Pre-strike Torpedos). IGRs interfere with larval molting and also take a few days to kill, but they have a broader spectrum of activity, affecting most juvenile insects and other arthropods that might be in the pond. Both Bti and methoprene are available as granules or pellets and remain effective for about a month. As with all pesticides, use these only according to label directions.

For more information about mosquitoes, visit https://ipm.ucanr.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/mosquitoes.html.

 

[Featured in the Summer 2024 edition of the Home and Garden Pest Newsletter]

It has been a while since I posted and much has happened in that time. UC ANR has begun to wrap up the Vision 2040 process. We have successfully navigated a call for positions and will soon be announcing some of the approved positions. We have engaged in budget planning as an organization. The merit and performance cycle is drawing to a close. Spring is halfway through and summer is on the horizon. We have endured challenges and seen opportunities for growth emerge as a result. Change is ever present and so it is sometimes the greatest challenges that bring the greatest opportunities. 

Authors across the globe have for centuries posited on the notion that inherent in challenges lie the seeds of opportunity. Our challenge individually and organizationally is to see possibilities in our challenges and then turn those possibilities into reality. We are seeing this come to fruition with the reorganization of SAREP, with past and impending retirements of key personnel, and with the budget challenges that we face as Californians. 

We also experience personal challenges. Three weeks ago, I received word that my father who has terminal pancreatic cancer was going to need round the clock care as he prepares for his self-described, "graduation from mortality." My wife and I loaded our vehicle and immediate came to Utah to assist my mother and siblings in providing this care. I have spent the last three weeks taking shifts providing this care while simultaneously trying to navigate the challenges of remotely working. I have also experienced three weeks of unbridled gratitude for the home health and hospice workers that have worked with us to provide my father with his end of life care. 

To be honest, I didn't foresee me still being here in Southcentral Utah. My dad has suffered these last three weeks and multiple times we thought that we were at the end of the road. However, he has rallied each time. Each high he experiences is not quite as high and his inevitable lows continue to get lower. This is the natural progression that accompanies a diagnosis of this magnitude. He has indicated on numerous occasions that he is ready to make the inevitable transition. However, his body seems to be approaching this transition in the same stubborn way that my father has taken on life. As a farmer, coal miner, and one of the hardest working men I have ever met, he has taken challenges on like many of the bulls he raised. He simply drives forward and keeps his face to the wind. 

I have seen opportunities to learn throughout this journey. I have watched a humble man accept assistance that I could not have ever foreseen him take. I have watched his sincere gratitude well up and spill over into tears of gratitude and love for all of us. I have watched my siblings and my mother take on the day-to-day care with love and with grace. In all, I have been grateful to be part of this process. While not an opportunity that I have sought, it is one that I would never pass up. To be able to provide this care has brought me closer to my family and enabled me to share my love with my dad in nearly every interaction. 

I want to express my sincere gratitude to Glenda, to the entire ANR leadership team and to the Second Street staff that have worked with me to be able to provide this care for my father. I sincerely appreciate the flexibility that everyone has shown to accommodate my remote working arrangement. I look forward to being back in the office and getting back out on the road to the county offices, RECs and UC campuses. Until that time, I express my sincere gratitude to everyone in the ANR family for what you do and how you do it. You are the reason that we are able to take on challenges and turn them into opportunities. You are the reason that ANR is and will remain strong, in spite of the challenges that come our way. 

 

Projects will support socially disadvantaged farmers, increase urban access to healthy food and more

The UC Sustainable Agriculture Research & Education Program (SAREP) is pleased to announce the recipients of the Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems 2024-25 Small Grants Program. This grant program will fund planning, research and education projects that support the development of sustainable community food systems and environmentally sound and economically viable farming enterprises.  

Of the 33 eligible applications, eight applicants were selected to receive approximately $80,000 in combined funding to support their work. Individual grants are limited to $10,000. “The Small Grants Program is an important part of our mission,” said Ruth Dahlquist-Willard, interim director of UC SAREP. “By facilitating these grants, SAREP is able to support ANR in engaging a wide range of food systems stakeholders, outcomes show that a small financial investment can have a large impact in improving the lives of Californians.”

The eight recipients of this year's grants are:

Planning

Building Capacity and Resiliency Among Networks of Socially Disadvantaged California Farmers

Fresh Approach will establish a network of pooled learning and technical support that will aid emerging food-aggregation businesses in accessing sustainable market channels, including emergency food distribution. As part of the project, they will enhance an interactive GIS mapping tool of value chains to streamline market opportunities for socially disadvantaged farmers and aggregators. (Project lead: Andy Ollove, Fresh Approach)

Sustainable Urban Resident Food Gardens Expansion Planning Project

Growing Hope Gardens will systematize the process of outreach, discovery, design, planning and implementation in creating new urban resident food gardens. The project will document Growing Hope Gardens' garden development process into a training and implementation manual to more effectively duplicate food garden programs in more low-income urban communities. (Project lead: Carolyn Day, Growing Hope Gardens)

Research

Evaluating Best Management Practices for Cover Crops to Minimize Nitrogen Losses in California's Salinas Valley

This project will quantify the effectiveness of cover cropping at different planting times and termination dates to scavenge excess nitrogen in the soil and reduce nitrate leaching in a Salinas vegetable cropping system. The results will inform Ag Order 4.0 for cover crop credits and help stakeholders in the Salinas Valley better understand crop management for efficient nutrient cycling. (Project lead: Scott Fendorf, Stanford University)

Implications of American Kestrel Diet, Dispersal and Migration on Pest Control in Northern California Farming Systems

Investigators will study how the diet, post-breeding dispersal, and migration of nesting kestrels influences biological pest control on Northern California farms. The project will generate management recommendations for using the predatory bird for biological pest control in sustainable agriculture programs across California. (Project lead: Breanna Martinico, UC Cooperative Extension)

Education and Outreach

EAT! Community Farms Market Access and Promotion Project

This project helps socially disadvantaged and indigenous farmers in Riverside County create pathways for realizing economic return. EAT! will provide mentoring for marketing strategy development, connect farmers to buyers, promote the farmers market so it's more profitable for farmers, and provide a cooperative farm stand in the city of Norco for farmers to sell produce directly to consumers. (Project lead: Patrick Mitchell, Ecological Agricultural Training Cultural Center [EAT!])

Cultivating Cooperative Education, Stewardship and Connection at the Agroecology Commons Cooperative Incubator Farm

Agroecology Commons aims to address challenges faced by young, first-generation, BIPOC, queer and femme farmers at the Agroecology Commons Cooperative Incubator Farm in the Bay Area. The project will focus on education and outreach, providing technical assistance and training in regenerative agriculture practices such as soil health, pest management and crop diversification to socially disadvantaged farmers. (Project lead: Jeneba Kilgore, Agroecology Commons) 

Signage and Mural Refurbishment for Southeast Asian Farmers to Improve Direct-to-Consumer Marketing

This project will build new, long-lasting farm signs for Southeast Asian farmers growing diversified vegetables and berries in the Sacramento region. Improving the appeal and durability of farm signs will increase the profitability of the farm stands as these resource-limited farmers rely on direct-to-consumer marketing strategies to promote their businesses. (Project lead: Margaret Lloyd, UC Cooperative Extension) 

Community Nutrition Security and Education Program

Farm Discovery at Live Earth will increase access to organic produce for individuals and families experiencing food and nutrition insecurity in the Santa Cruz and Monterey Bay area. This will be accomplished through farming, outdoor education and nutrition education programs focusing on regenerative agricultural practices to connect youth and families to their regional agricultural and ecological systems. (Project Lead: Jessica Ridgeway, Farm Discovery at Live Earth)  

The UC SAREP Small Grants Program has a big impact! Help us fund more projects that support sustainable community food systems and environmentally sound, economically viable farming enterprises. To support this program, please donate here. Choose SAREP Small Grants Program for the designation.