- Student Author: Dani Danielsson Bidia
- Livestock & Range Management Advisor and SRJC Adjunct Faculty: Stephanie Larson
- Editor: Karen Giovannini
This spring, I am teaching the Santa Rosa Junior College Rangeland Management class. This is my opportunity to educate aspiring students on the importance of rangelands and how to manage them. Their educational experiences include classroom lectures and field trips, learning about rangeland principles and then practice application.
Students are also required to give their impressions of what they are learning in the form of a blog. This blog was written by student Dani Danielsson Bidia. Stephanie Larson
The state of Texas has a long tradition of private property rights. Many privately owned ranches are home to Rio Grande River. These families have used their ranches for agriculture for centuries. Over the last decade and a half farmers, ranchers and property owners along the border have had threats looming of government officials constructing a stronger barrier through their ranches. Farmers and ranchers face concerns that building a stronger barrier will cut them off from acreage, water and disrupt movement of wildlife. Farmers and ranchers depend on water from the Rio Grande to irrigate crops and water livestock. Ranch owners also depend on water access for recreational use, such as fishing for Catfish and Alligator Gar; and rely on wildlife for fire risk reduction.
Studies conducted on areas where there is already a border wall in place, such as the analysis co-authored by Stanford biologists, Paul Ehrlich and Rodolfo Dirzo have shown negative effects on the environment and wildlife. The wall has prevented natural wildlife migration. Thus creating hardships for animals when in search of water, food and mates. Migration of wildlife is not only important to the existence of wildlife but to maintain a healthy ecosystem and is critical in reducing wild fire risk. Plant species such as the last surviving Sabal Palm Trees in Southern Texas are also at risk.
Sixty-two threatened, endangered and candidate animal species would be potentially threatened by the implementation of a stronger barrier. These species include Mexican Gray Wolves, Jaguars, Ocelots and Quino Checkerspot Butterflies. Of these sixty-two species, twenty-five of them will have their critical habitats degraded or destroyed. Among the species with potential for critically degraded and destroyed habitats would be Jaguars, Arroyo Toad and Peninsular Bighorn Sheep. Low flying birds, such as the Cactus Ferruginous Pygmy Owl will also be isolated on one side of the border or the other.
As outlined here, there are far reaching consequences for the roughly 2,135,000 acres within 50 miles along our southern border that will affect rangelands, agriculture and ecosystems if a stronger barrier is built.
Citations
Website Title: National Geographic
Article Title: 6 ways the border wall could disrupt the environment
Date Published January 10, 2019
Date Accessed April 09, 2019
Website Title: UANews
Article Title: Border Fence Blocks Wildlife Movement, UA Study Finds
Date Published February 19, 2018
Date Accessed April 09, 2019
Website Title: Newsweek
Article Title: The environmental impact of the U.S.-Mexico border wall
Date Published May 22, 2016
Date Accessed April 09, 2019
Website Title: American Rivers
Article Title: Lower Rio Grande (Rio Bravo) [TX]
Date Accessed April 09, 2019
Website Title: OUP Academic
Article Title: Nature Divided, Scientists United: US–Mexico Border Wall Threatens Biodiversity and Binational Conservation
Date Published July 24, 2018
Date Accessed April 09, 2019
Website Title: Woods Institute for the Environment
Article Title: New study examines effects of border wall on wildlife
Date Published August 02, 2018
Date Accessed April 09, 2019
Website Title: The Washington Post
Article Title: Trump's border wall threatens to end Texas family's 250 years of ranching on Rio Grande
Date Published September 08, 2018
Date Accessed April 09, 2019
Website Title: Los Angeles Times
Article Title: Trump promised a border wall. Now these Texans worry the government will take their land
Date Published April 07, 2017
Date Accessed April 09, 2019
Website Title: The New York Times
Article Title: Why a Border Wall Could Mean Trouble for Wildlife
Date Published January 24, 2019
Date Accessed April 09, 2019
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Over the last 100 years, the UC ANR 4-H Youth Development Program has taught California children about food, agriculture, leadership and community service using learn-by-doing practices. To offer 4-H expertise to children south of the border, Vice President Glenda Humiston traveled to Mexicali to sign a memorandum of understanding with Baja California Secretary of Agriculture Manuel Vallodolid Seamanduras on Jan. 20.
“The need for education doesn't stop at the border,” said Lupita Fábregas, assistant director for 4-H diversity and expansion and UC Cooperative Extension 4-H advisor. “The wonderful educational opportunities available to California youth are now being offered to a group of children in Mexicali. And that program will be a model for the rest of Baja California and Mexico.”
Today, projects in new technologies – like drones and rocketry – join more traditional projects – like cooking, sewing, animal husbandry and farming – to give youths channels to explore a wide variety of options and interests.
“We are looking into expanding to community colleges and offering education for future entrepreneurs or youth interested in skilled trades,” said Humiston, who credits 4-H with enabling her to be the first in her family to attend college.
The establishment of a club like 4-H in Mexico is the fulfillment of a life's dream for Claudia Diaz Carrasco, 4-H youth development advisor in Riverside and San Bernardino counties.
“I found my passion,” said the native of Mexico City. “To solve world hunger, we need to find solutions one community at a time. 4-H does that.”
- Author: Vanessa Ashworth and Philippe Rolshausen
Department of Botany and Plant Sciences, University of California Riverside.
Evidence of avocado selection by human hand as far back as 8,000 BC is preserved in archaeological sites in Puebla State, Mexico. At the time of European contact, written records indicate that there already existed three distinct types of avocado, each from a separate geographic center of origin. Today, we refer to them as botanical races, and they represent the “primeval soup” that gave rise to modern avocado cultivars. Here is what we know about the three botanical races of avocado, respectively called (1) the West Indian (formerly known also as the South American), (2) the Guatemalan, and (3) the Mexican (also known as the “criollo”): Each exhibits a characteristic suite of traits that includes differences in leaf chemistry (a distinctive anise scent is found only in Mexican race avocados), peel texture and color, fruit oil content, and sources of tolerance (diseases and salinity). The races were domesticated in separate geographic regions, the “West Indian” race in lowland coastal Mesoamerica (possibly Yucatán), the Guatemalan race in upland Guatemala, and the Mexican race in highland Mexico. The Guatemalan and Mexican races remained fairly local, so their names reflect their respective centers of domestication, but the “West Indian” race seems to have been spread far and wide by indigenous cultures in Meso- and South America and was, incorrectly, named for a much later destination. The explorations of the 15th and 16th centuries kicked off the worldwide distribution of (mostly West Indian race) avocados, reaching Spain in the early 17th century, Jamaica in the mid-17th century, and Indonesia by the mid-18th century. It wasn't until the mid- to late 19th century that the three races of avocado found their way to the United States, primarily Florida and California, where they underwent many rounds of selection and hybridization. ‘Hass', the cornerstone of the California avocado industry, was patented in 1935 but its ancestry is unknown. It is considered to be a Mexican x Guatemalan hybrid because its leaves lack the anise scent and its fruits combine the thick, rough skin of the Guatemalan race but the high oil content of the Mexican race.
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
California farmers will have to pay millions of dollars to Mexican authorities to export their products to the neighboring country if a trucking dispute is not resolved before summer, according to an article in La Opinión. Mexico plans to impose the new tariff in retaliation for the cancellation of a U.S. pilot program that permitted Mexican trucks to transport goods on U.S. highways.
The Border Trade Alliance reported this week that California agriculture will be the second most impacted economic sector if the two countries do not reach an agreement in relation to the free passage of Mexican trucks in U.S. territory, the article said.
"The retaliatory tariffs that Mexico has imposed on U.S. goods in response to the trucking impasse are hurting the U.S. economy and are a drag on President Obama's goal to double exports," BTA president Nelson Balido said in a statement released by the organization. "As Texas A&M University's Center for North American Studies recently reported, the U.S. agriculture sector alone has been negatively affected by the tariffs to the tune of $153 billion."
La Opinión reporter Claudia Nuñez spoke to the director of the UC Agricultural Issues Center, Dan Sumner, about the potential economic impact of the trade dispute.
"California exports about 20 percent if its agricultural production, principally to Mexico," he was quoted in the article.