Ongoing research

A new caterpillar was found this fall on alfalfa in the Palo Verde Valley of California and several other alfalfa growing areas of western Arizona.

I was asked by a newsletter to which I contribute for a few remarks on coming 2023; thought they might be worth sharing here too: Get ready for a more muscular and responsive UC Cooperative Extension.

"Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall" F.

The reach of The Nature Conservancy (TNC) is global, with projects that range from pristine habitat preservation in Equatorial Africa to promoting regenerative agriculture in Northwest India to protecting old growth forests in Clayoquot Sound in British Columbia.

Recently we received notification about the national broadband challenge. Thank you, Andy Lyons, for putting together a brief summary of the broadband challenge and WHY each of us should participate. We all know internet access is a requirement to be successful in business and life.

You may learn about ideas such as turf replacement, bioswales, and drip irrigation also. Even if you don't live in the IRWD, Juan's advice and references to the IRWD water saving resources may be better than what your own water district provides.

What are you doing on New Year's Day? Well, weather permitting, you can begin searching for the first bumble bee of the year in the two-county area of Yolo and Solano. If you photograph it and you are judged the winner, a prize awaits you--in addition to bragging rights.

To catch a cabbage white butterfly... It was early October and a gravid praying mantis, almost ready to deposit her ootheca, was hungry. She crawled behind a cactus in our yard, waiting for prey. It did not take long.

When the annual Beer-for-a-Butterfly Contest, hosted by UC Davis distinguished professor Art Shapiro as part of his scientific research, gets underway on Sunday, Jan. 1, it will be of special interest.

by David George I was honored with the opportunity to interview Dawn Kooyumjian, the Coordinator of both the Alameda and Contra Costa Countys UC Master Gardener programs for this special Class of 2023 issue.