- Author: Chris M. Webb
Susan Gloeckler, our Ventura County 4-H Program Representative, has been working to set up 4-H clubs at area military bases. This work is part of a larger federal initiative to create 4-H clubs at military bases across the world so that when families are transferred to a new base, children can continue to enjoy the program and have consistency of involvement in the same organization from one place to the next.
Recently 4-H youth at the Port Hueneme Naval Base and at Point Mugu have been participating a variety of activities including: visiting local farms, growing vegetables, learning where food comes from, and the importance of good nutrition. These fun learning experiences were provided by UCCE staff, 4-H volunteers, Master Gardener volunteers, and youth program leaders at the bases.
On Monday August 3rd, The Ventura County Star wrote a great article about the military 4-H program. The entire article can be read here.
- Author: Chris M. Webb
It would be difficult to find someone who is not feeling the strain of the current economic changes and uncertainty. While we are lucky to live in an era of easy access to information, another difficulty most of us share is finding a reliable source for financial advice.
The nation-wide Cooperative Extension System has put together a great collection of sound, practical and easy-to-digest financial advice. It can be found at http://www.extension.org/Financial%20Crisis.
The site is nicely broken down in the following way:
- Business related financial information
- Family related financial information
- Farm and Ranch related financial information
- Individual related financial information
- Youth related financial information
In the articles you will find many ways to save money, encouragement, suggestions for planning, and many other things to think about. The youth related financial information reminds those with children that financial worries affect them too, as well as ways for children to be involved in helping the family pull through.
On the same page you will find an “Ask the Experts” section. Here you can read previous sets of questions and answers as well as an opportunity to ask your own question. In addition to learning on a wide variety of financial subjects, the volume and topics in the “Ask the Experts” section will assuredly help remind you that you are not alone if you are currently experiencing financial challenges.
- Author: Chris M. Webb
Did you know that the Ventura County UCCE office has an advisor that works with local commercial fishermen? Her name is Carrie Culver, and she would like you to know our area is one of the top producing regions on the west coast!
The Santa Barbara Channel includes three ports in Ventura County and one in Santa Barbara County. The region is defined here as the ocean waters south of Point Conception to just south of Point Mugu, as well as the waters surrounding the four northern Channel Islands. This region is a unique place for California fisheries because it is the transition zone where both southern and northern species occur and there are natural conditions that typically provide an abundance of food for the fish.
So what are the top species caught by our local commercial fishermen? Halibut, rockfish, tuna, white seabass, squid, lobster, crab, sea urchin, and shrimp top the list. In addition abalone, oysters and mussels are locally farmed or cultured.
Research shows that including seafood in our diet is good for our health. If you enjoy eating seafood, please do what you can to support local fishermen by visiting fishermen’s market, or ask for it at stores and restaurants.
Great recipes, storage and handling information and much more can be found at these sites.
http://seafood.ucdavis.edu/consumer.html
Additional information about local fisheries, including availability, can be found in our Fish on Your Dish publication. Written by kids and for kids, there is much inside for all of us to learn.
- Author: Chris M. Webb
Below you will find a summary of what we did last month. By no means does this summary capture all that we accomplished or began, but it gives a nice glimpse of what we do.
1. Research Activities
This is a sampling of the research activity conducted in June.
- Established an experiment testing an herbicide for management of yellow nutsedge, a major weed in production agriculture costing Ventura County growers thousands of dollars annually to control. For more information on nutsedge and its impact, please read previous blog posts.
- Established an experiment testing an organic method of soil disinfestations by creating anaerobic conditions in strawberry beds and monitoring effects on plant pathogen Verticillium dahliae. This research makes direct contributions by addressing the issue of seeking alternatives to fumigants such as methyl bromide.
- Finished four field trials that evaluate management options for four pests detrimental to the strawberry industry. Management strategies included physical, thermal and chemical control measures.
- Initiated a project with CA Dept. of Food and Agriculture and local strawberry growers to introduce a biocontrol agent for Lygus bug, the #1 insect pest for strawberries and significant for other row crops.
- We are continuing research on minimizing irrigation needs for strawberries, which addresses both economic and environmental issues.
2. Educational Activities
This is a sampling of the educational activities conducted in June.
A. Grower/Clientele Education
- Jim Downer presented sessions at a regional meeting on nutrition of palms and diseases of shade trees. 100 in attendance.
- Ben Faber participated in a program at UC Riverside on Asian Citrus Psyllid (ACP), which poses a significant threat to the citrus industry. It was clear that fruit from affected areas coming into Ventura County packing houses could be a host for the psyllid. Ben spoke to Henry Gonzales about this and as a result the import of lemons from Imperial County (quarantine area) to Ventura for repacking has been restricted to reduce the likelihood of introducing the pest here. Both Faber and Rose Hayden-Smith participated in a meeting that brought packers together with the Ag Commissioner, where they hammered out a solution/agreement.
- Ben Faber delivered two grower workshops, one on avocado irrigation and the other on techniques to reduce surface water contamination.
- Rose Hayden-Smith presented her research on gardening and community development at a City of Minneapolis/IATP event attended by more than 100 people. She also presented a two-hour workshop on Victory Gardens, past and present, to a sold-out audience in Minneapolis. She offered a talk on gardening trends and public policy in Oxnard to an audience of 75. Earlier in the month, she facilitated an Urban Agriculture Symposium for 175 people in Chicago, which generated public policy recommendations for the USDA.
- Monique Myers presented the Ventura County RESTOR Project at the National Marine Educators conference in Monterey.
- Monique Myers organized a focus group for Ventura City/County Planners and city storm water experts addressing low impact development and emergency safety issues.
- 4-H staff trained staff at Pt. Mugu and Port Hueneme Naval Bases in the basics of 4-H program management. Also trained new 4-H club leaders.
B. Youth Education
- Monique Myers directed/facilitated the last of 8 RESTOR teacher/student field trips to Ormond Beach (~70 students per trip). RESTOR is a grant-funded wetlands/ecological restoration program linking teachers and youth with science education and community service opportunities.
- Monique Myers led a RESTOR Project field trip with 28 student essay contest winners and their teachers on the NOAA research vessel Shearwater.
- 4-H held a Science, Engineering and Technology Day at the military base.
- 4-H held events at both military bases kicking off the new 4-H programs there.
3. Publications
- UCCE staff. Launched a UCCE/Farm Advisor blog http://ucanr.org/blogs/venturacountyucce/
- UCCE staff. Produced a new UCCE/Farm Advisor educational brochure.
- Daugovish, Oleg and Maren Mochizuki submitted a paper to HortTechnology detailing the potential for carbon dioxide to be taken up by raspberry plants to boost productivity instead of being released to the atmosphere as a greenhouse gas. We hope this method will gain attention as one of the ways to tackle a global issue on a local scale.
- Downer, James and Maren Mochizuki.
- Two manuscripts accepted to HortTechnology.
- Pruning landscape palms
- Diseases of palms.
- Two manuscripts accepted to HortTechnology.
- Downer, James. Landscape Notes – Landscaping Trees. Available at http://ceventura.ucdavis.edu/newsletterfiles/Landscape_Notes17660.pdf
- Downer, James: Article on mulches in Western Arborist Magazine.
- Downer, James, Article on a new pest, the Date Bug, in Southwest Trees and Turf Magazine.
- Faber, Ben and Newman, Julie, et al. 2009. Re-evaluation of the roles of honeybees and wind on pollination in avocado. J. of Hort Science and Biotech (84)3:255-260.
- Faber, Ben and Newman, Julie, et al. 2009. Farm Water Quality Planning Project – From Education to Implementation. Statewide Conf., Sacramento April 27-30.
- Faber, Ben. 2009. Cherry Vinegar Fly in Ventura County. VC Farm Bureau Newsletter 41(7): 2-3.
- Hayden-Smith, Rose, et al. Proceedings of the Chicago Urban Agriculture Symposium. Includes policy recommendations for the USDA and other cities relating to urban agriculture. http://www.chicagobotanic.org/wed/index.php
- Myers, Monique, et al. Differences in benthic cover inside and outside marine protected areas on the Great Barrier Reef: influence of protection or disturbance history? was published on-line (in advance of printing) this week in Aquatic Conservation. (http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/84503925/issue)
- Newman, Julie. Wrote an article for Greenhouse Management & Production, a national grower magazine
- Monique Myers and Sabrina Drill won an Award of Merit from the 2009 Ecology Awards for their Quagga Mussel manual.
- Author: Chris M. Webb
See below for great news recently sent to the Ventura County UCCE office! For anyone who is interested we have copies of California Agriculture going back to 1950 in our library. Feel free to come by and take a look. To avoid disappointment, please call first to make sure the library is not being used for a meeting.
Sixty-three years of California Agriculture journal now online
This week, California Agriculture capped off a two-year effort with a keystroke, posting the full text of 63 years -- close to 6,000 articles -- to the World Wide Web. This rich store of peer-reviewed science dating back to 1946 is now freely accessible and searchable at the journal's redesigned Web site: http://californiaagriculture.ucanr.org/.
The previous California Agriculture Web site included articles back to 2000. Until now, however, most of the journal's long history of research has been in the shadows, accessible only as bound volumes in the stacks of a few UC libraries and others scattered around the world.
"This highly valuable research is now widely available online for the benefit of authors, readers and scientists worldwide," said Janet White, executive editor of California Agriculture journal. "Our old, well-worn hard copies have been transformed into high-quality, reusable XML-based content and full-text PDFs, with the highest levels of data integrity and readability."
Published by the University of California, California Agriculture began as a four-page broadsheet in December 1946. Today both print and Web versions are known for presenting new, peer-reviewed research in a meaningful context with technical terms defined -- making it accessible to a diverse audience of people who can use it, taking the final step in the research and delivery process.
California Agriculture is one of the oldest, continuously published, land-grant university research publications in the country, with one of the largest circulations among journals of its kind. Print subscribers include 17,000 growers, faculty members, environmental and health professionals, government researchers, public officials and others.
The California Agriculture archive includes landmark research that knits together our understanding of food and fiber production, forestry, fisheries, human health and nutrition, and how those endeavors have interacted with the natural environment and its ecosystems at every scale.
Aptara of Falls Church, Va., was hired to process over 550 back-dated journal issues, using the University's custom editorial specifications, converting them into XML files with cross-referencing for immediate posting online. The Web site redevelopment team included Janet White, Andrea Laue, Michael Talman, Davis Krauter, Karl Krist, Dave Krause and Janet Byron.
California Agriculture is still fine-tuning the Web site, and welcomes comments and feedback. Please take the online survey on the home page, or write to us at calagwebmaster@ucanr.org .
California Agriculture is the University of Californias peer-reviewed journal of research in agricultural, human and natural resources. For a free subscription, go to: http://californiaagriculture.ucanr.org write to calag@ucop.edu or call (510) 642-2431 x33.
EDITORS: To request a hard copy of the journal, e-mail janet.byron@ucop.edu.
For more ANR news, visit
http://news.ucanr.org