News & Information Outreach

trickle
How new FCC “Covered List” restrictions on foreign-made UAS and critical components may shape future drone access and operations.

FCC Covered List Update: Two Temporary Exceptions for Drone Supply in 2026

January 12, 2026
By Paramveer Singh
The Federal Communication Commission (FCC)'s January 7, 2026 notice builds on its December 22, 2025 Covered List update for foreign-made drones and “critical components,” but it creates two temporary exemptions through December 31, 2026. Drones and components on the DCMA Blue UAS list and those meeting the…
View Article

Upcoming Winter Grower Meetings

January 12, 2026
2026 Rice Winter Grower Meetings CE Credits: 2 DPR (0.5 L&R, 0.5 Aerial, 1 Other) & CCA Pending Wednesday, Jan 21Richvale: 8:00 AM @ Evangelical Church (5219 Church St)Willows: 1:00 PM @ Willows Memorial Hall (525 W Sycamore St)Thursday, Jan 22Colusa: 8:00 AM @ CIP Conference…
View Article
ALB defoliation

Association of Applied IPM Ecologists Annual Meeting

January 12, 2026
By Sandipa Gautam
Don’t miss the Association of Applied IPM Ecologists Annual Conference, February 5–6 in Modesto, CA. Join IPM professionals, researchers, and pest control advisors for two days of engaging presentations and discussions focused on today’s most pressing pest management challenges. The program features…
View Article

Update: 3 Citrus Trees in 1 Pot

January 12, 2026
Blog by Loralei Dewe To refresh you on the subject, here are some of the important points I found:1) Plant trees of the same species. In other words, citrus with other citrus, stone fruit with other stone fruit, etc. 2) If you are doing a backyard orchard and not a commercial orchard, you don't…
View Article
California coast line

When Ornamentals Escape

January 12, 2026
By Cherie Shook
You might be surprised to learn that a few of your favorite ornamental plants are invasive to California and can “escape” your yard causing big problems in the wild. When plants escape landscape and garden boundaries, it is often due to seed distribution or aggressive roots. An invasive plant species can…
View Article
Honey mushrooms

A Tale of Two Fungi

January 9, 2026
By Cindy Watter, UC Master Gardener of Napa County.Last year I was fired up with the urge to clean out my junk shed and turn it into my tool shed. I marched to the southwest corner of my yard and promptly fell, thigh deep, into a hole that opened beneath me. It didn’t take me long to realize what had…
View Article
Short mushrooms growing at the edge of a lawn along mowing strip. Caps of mushrooms are whitish to light brown and appear cracked. Caps are flat with edges rolled down slightly.

Rains Bring Lawn Mushrooms

January 9, 2026
By Belinda Messenger-Sikes
Winter rains and damp conditions in many parts of California may have brought a surprise visitor to your lawn: mushrooms! A few mushrooms sprouting in your lawn can be a good sign: it means there's plenty of organic matter in the soil. But if patches of mushrooms are sprinkled across your lawn, something…
View Article
persimmon tree seedling in a pot

My Favorite Fuyu Persimmon

January 9, 2026
My favorite fruit tree is a Japanese 'Diospyrus Kaki Fuyu' persimmon growing in our front side yard.  It was a thin, spindly 3-foot stick when we planted it around 18 years ago.  Our soil is heavy rock and clay, but persimmons are hardy trees known to tolerate less than ideal conditions, although…
View Article
Earthworms from a Amanda Hodson lab field study. (Photo courtesy of Hodson lab)

Amanda Hodson Seminar: Earthworms and Nematodes

January 9, 2026
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
 "Did you know that in one acre of almond orchard there can be more earthworms than the entire population of Los Angeles? What are they doing down there?"So asks Amanda Hodson, assistant professor of soil ecology and pest management, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematolgy, who will present a…
View Article

Climate Change Workshop

January 9, 2026
By Ben A Faber
Climate And Agriculture: Farming in a Changing Climate WorkshopWhen: Tuesday January 20, 2026Time: 8:30 - 2:30 (lunch will be provided)Where: Ventura County Community Foundation, 4001 Mission Oaks Blvd, Suite A, Camarillo, CAUC ANR CLIMATE AND AGRICULTURE WORKSHOPCamarillo, CA…
View Article

Announcing UC ANR leadership change

January 9, 2026
Dear UC ANR Colleagues,I have important news to share regarding a change to our executive leadership team. Associate Vice President Brent Hales will be stepping away from his role at UC ANR, effective today, to pursue other professional opportunities. We are grateful for the contributions he has…
View Article

Slop: Word of the Year from The Economist

January 9, 2026
By Mark P Bolda
The Economist, a leading British news and current affairs magazine, wrote recently that “slop” is the word of the year 2025, “representative, if not of the whole year, at least of much of the feeling of living in it.” It seems that this word “slop” was first officially described in the 15th century and…
View Article

[PODCAST] Indoor House Plants

January 8, 2026
This week on In the Garden with UC Master Gardeners, we bring you a new show on the topic of “Indoor House Plants”! Master Gardener Dece Morgan met Julie Bawden-Davis, who is a fellow MG and a resident expert on indoor houseplants, at her home for a relaxed tour and conversation about Julie’s vast home…
View Article
well and turbine pump

Monterey County Well Registration- Free Until January 31, 2026!

January 8, 2026
By Carly Deitsch, Michael D Cahn
As part of the Groundwater Monitoring Program, the Monterey County Water Resources Agency, together with the Salinas Valley Basin Groundwater Sustainability Agency, has launched a new county wide Well Registration Program.  The Groundwater Monitoring Program consists of four parts: well…
View Article
Slug on milkweed. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

The Slugfest

January 8, 2026
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
 Talk about a slugfest.Slugs took a liking to the milkweed in our pollinator garden. They stripped the leaves from one tender young plant and were munching on two other plants--until we dispatched them. We don't think they crossed the Rainbow Bridge. If they did, they left a slimy trail."Sorry,…
View Article
Colony of bright yellow, pear-shaped aphids with black legs, antennae, and cornicles (tail pipes) on their abdomens surrounded by exoskeletons on a green leaf.

Top Ten Pests of 2025

January 8, 2026
By Yulie Velez, Karey Windbiel-Rojas
Forget Spotify Wrapped – can you guess which pests received the most hits on UC IPM’s Pests Notes page this year? Here are the top ten pests that made your year: (1) Carpet Beetles  For several years, carpet beetles have been in the top 5 on our playlist. Immature carpet beetles feed on…
View Article

With Rain, Mulch is Bad and Weeds are Good?

January 8, 2026
By Ben A Faber
Rain is wonderful stuff. If it comes and washes the accumulated salts of the last several years out of the root zones of citrus and avocado, that's a good thing. But what happens if there is a little too much of the good stuff? In the winter of 2005, Venture got over 40” of rain, which is 200% of what is…
View Article
UC Davis Distinguished Emeritus Professor Robbin Thorp with his image of Franklin's bumble bee on his computer screen. (Photo by Kathy Kealtey Garvey)

Who Won the UC Davis Bumble Bee Contest?

January 7, 2026
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
 We have a winner!Drum roll...the winner of the 2026 Robbin Thorp Memorial First-Bumble-Bee-of-the-Year Contest, sponsored by the Bohart Museum of Entomology is Lesley Hamamoto of Sacramento.She photographed a black-tailed bumble bee, Bombus melanopygus, nectaring on manzanita at  9…
View Article
Previous Next

Contribute for a Better Future

Make a Gift