Facebook
X (Twitter)
Reddit
Pinterest
Tumblr
Delicious
LinkedIn
StumbleUpon
Posts Tagged: Susan Kocher
August 2018 News Clips 8/16-8/31
Enormous wildfires spark scramble to improve fire models
(Nature) Jeff Tollefson, Aug. 31
…“Something is definitely different, and it raises questions about how much we really know,” says Max Moritz, a fire scientist at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
… The problem, Moritz says, is that most of the fire models in use today are based on data from the past two or three decades. But it seems that fire behaviour might be shifting in response to climate faster than anybody expected, and that makes it increasingly problematic to extrapolate from past trends, he adds.
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-06090-0
Rodent control critical in subsurface alfalfa systems
(Farm Press) Todd Fitchette, Aug 31,
For alfalfa growers seeking other methods of rodent control, Dr. Roger Baldwin, Cooperative Extension specialist at UC Davis, says rodenticides, fumigants and trapping can be moderately to highly effective, depending on method and means used.
https://www.westernfarmpress.com/alfalfa/rodent-control-critical-subsurface-alfalfa-systems
Deeply Talks: Fire & Drought–The Extremes Become Routine
(Water Deeply) Matt Weiser, Aug. 30,
The American West has entered an era of permanent water scarcity, a marked shift from previous periods of episodic drought. The same can now be said for fire: In California, there hasn't been a month without a wildfire since 2012. Join us for a conversation about the ways in which water and wildfire management intersect, and about the West's adaptation to its new, and far from normal, reality. We'll be joined by experts Crystal Kolden, associate professor of forest, range, and fire sciences in the College of Natural Resources at the University of Idaho, and Van Butsic, cooperative extension specialist at the University of California, Berkeley. Email our community editor with questions for the panelists (lindsay@newsdeeply.com) or tweet us @waterdeeply using the hashtag #DeeplyTalks.
https://www.newsdeeply.com/water/talks/153877805
Deadly poultry ailment, Newcastle disease, reaches Ventura County
(Ventura County Star), Aug. 29
Maurice Pitesky, a veterinarian and University of California extension specialist in the School of Veterinary Medicine at UC Davis, said one of the challenges in keeping a lid on the disease is the continued popularity of raising backyard chickens.
“While people have the best intentions, unfortunately a lack of biosecurity practices in people's backyards is one of the contributing factors of the disease spreading,” Pitesky said.
The longtime head of the UFW is stepping down. His replacement will be the first woman to lead the union
(LA Times) Geoffrey Mohan, Aug. 28
At its heart, the UFW remains torn between whether it can be both a grass-roots union and a broad social movement operating in the halls of power, said Philip Martin, a UC Davis agricultural economist and farm labor expert.
...“It is worth noting that the UFW does not have union locals, and so therefore does not have a system under which current farmworkers are trained in leadership development with the idea that they will rise within the union,” he said.
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-ufw-president-20180828-story.html
Expert Views: Managing Wildfires to Protect Water Resources
(Water Deeply) Lindsay Abrams, Aug. 28
Van Butsic, cooperative extension specialist at the University of California, Berkeley:
"Managing forest and wildfires to benefit water resources is difficult because there are trade-offs between short-term costs and long-term benefits. In the short term, wildfires can lead to increased erosion and sedimentation in streams and reservoirs. This contributes to lost revenue for downstream power generators and at times even requires water to be treated before it is potable."
Can Angelenos and Coyotes Coexist?
(LA Magazine) Henry Cherry, Aug. 27
…Intrigued by the animals, I stumbled across Coyote Cacher, an interactive website operated by University of California's Dr. Niamh Quinn. A native of Ireland, Quinn has been studying coyotes for about four years. “There are no coyotes in Ireland, but when I came here there was the need for coyote research in Southern California,” Quinn says. “There is a need for professional extension to the cities and the police departments, the people that never managed coyotes before but all of a sudden find themselves needing to do so.”
http://www.lamag.com/citythinkblog/coyotes-los-angeles/
Why homes are lost to wildfire — is yours as safe as it could be?
(Mercury News) Lisa Krieger, Aug. 27
…“When you start to understand why homes burn, often through embers igniting fuel in home attics or adjacent to homes, then it is easier to understand these patterns,” said Kate Wilkin, a fire specialist for UC Cooperative Extension.
Limiting suburban sprawl can ease the devastation of wildfires
(Mother Nature Network) Matt Hickman, Aug. 27
…But there's a bigger issue at hand. Max Moritz, a wildfire specialist with the University of California's Division of Agriculture & Natural Resources, relays to Martin Kuz of the Christian Science Monitor that inaction from state lawmakers who are reluctant to lead the charge in restricting development in vulnerable areas is only worsening the situation. Presently, local officials, developers and homeowners face few limitations when building in fire-prone wild land urban interfaces. Moritz refers to this as a “political will problem.”
What are GMOs?
(KYMA 13 On Your Side) Caitlin Slater, Aug. 27
Take a look in your refrigerator or pantry and you most likely find something with a NON GMO label on it.
13 On Your Side reporter, Caitlin Slater received an award at the annual Yuma County Farm Bureau meeting. The keynote speaker at the event was genomics and biotechnology researcher at UC Davis, Dr. Allison Van Eenennaam. She presented on how GMOs are actually better for us and our environment.
https://www.kyma.com/news/what-are-gmos-/786983339
Irrigation Tips to Mitigate Almond Hull Rot & Bark Damage
(Pacific Nut Producer) Aug. 27
The posting of this video is a little belated as almond harvest has already begun, but if you've had hull rot issues this season, be sure to watch this brief video interview with Nut Crops Advisor Mae Culumber as she provides some tips to prevent hull rot and trunk damage through better irrigation practices, as explained at a mid-July Nut & Vine Irrigation seminar at the UC Cooperative Extension office in Fresno. Read more about it in Pacific Nut Producer Magazine. Culumber will also be addressing almond growers at the Annual Grape, Nut & Tree Fruit Expo coming up on November 13th at the Big Fresno Fairgrounds, so be sure to attend!
http://www.pacificnutproducer.com/2018/08/irrigation-tips-to-mitigate-almond-hull-rot-bark-damage
Three Tips on Managing Pocket Gophers
(American Vineyard) Aug. 24
Pocket gophers can be very detrimental for growers, especially those with young orchards. So how do you minimize populations of these pesky critters? Watch this brief interview with Julie Finzel from the UC Cooperative Extension as she offers growers three quick tips for effective management. Julie will also be addressing growers on wildlife issues at the upcoming Grape, Nut & Tree Fruit Expo at the BIG Fresno Fairgrounds on November 13th, so be sure to attend. Learn more about it on AgExpo.biz.
http://www.americanvineyardmagazine.com/2018/08/24/three-tips-on-managing-pocket-gophers/
Master Gardeners: gardening in an age of climate change
(Napa Valley Register) Aug 24
This article is a summary of a seminar conducted by Susanne von Rosenberg, UC Master Gardener of Napa County, on gardening in an age of climate change.
Idea to Reduce Glyphosate Use with Grapes
(Cal Ag Today) Mikenzi Meyers, Aug. 23
John Roncoroni, a UC Cooperative Extension Weed Science Farm Advisor in Napa County, has made strides toward meeting this challenge. “Many times, growers will do two applications of herbicides during the year … but what I'm trying to do is push it back to post-leaf fall after the season to clean up and come back with a pre-emergent material right before bud break then maybe skip that last glyphosate treatment after bud break.”
https://californiaagtoday.com/idea-reduce-glyphosate-use-grapes/
California Today: The Human Element in California's Wildfires
(New York Times) Tim Arango, Inyoung Kang, Aug. 23
William Stewart, an expert on forestry at the University of California at Berkeley, said that part of the California dream was keeping “nature as it is,” with minimal management of forests.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/23/us/california-today-fires-humans.html
Editing the Future of Aquaculture
(Hatchery International) Eric Ignatz, Aug. 23
…Dr. Alison Van Eenennaam, a cooperative extension specialist at the University of California, Davis, and a collaborator on the Recombinetics project, says that gene editing in the case of polled cattle is used to address an animal welfare concern. Typically, horns must be burned off to better protect the safety of farmers and other animals.
http://magazine.hatcheryinternational.com/publication/?i=517633&article_id=3159268#
Industrial hemp could be an alternative crop of the low desert
(Imperial Valley Press) Oli Bachie, Aug. 23
Hemp, Cannabis sativa L., is a dioecious annual plant that has not been grown legally in California for many years, due to regulatory restrictions.
UCSB SmartFarm uses cloud computing to help farmers increase sustainability
(Santa Maria Sun) Kasey Bubnash, Aug. 22
"They're basically taking what Google and the internet are doing with information and applying it to ag," said Beth Grafton-Cardwell, a research entomologist at UC Riverside. "And that hasn't really been done."
The Social Costs of Living in Wildfire-Prone Areas
(East Bay Express) Alastair Bland, Aug. 21
…"But that's so politically contentious — it's a line politicians walk up to but turn away from," said William Stewart, a UC Berkeley forestry and wildfire specialist.
… “People seem to have short memories," said Sabrina Drill, a natural resources advisor for the UC Cooperative Extension, a statewide off-campus division of the university system that focuses on agriculture and natural resources. "I think people might think twice about building a home where there had just been a fire, but people seem to forget after about three years."
… Van Butsic, a UC Berkeley researcher who studies forestry and land use, has closely studied this. In a paper now under review for publication, he and scientist Anu Kramer, from the University of Wisconsin, describe an alarming trend of building homes in known fire-risk areas.
"We studied 30 of the largest fires since 1970," he said. On average, they found that 20 years after an inhabited area burns, not only were most of the destroyed homes rebuilt but many new homes were added — about twice as many homes in total as there were at the time of the burn.
… In 2016, researcher Susan Kocher spent nine months on sabbatical in Provence, the arid region of southern France that resembles much of inland California. Here, Kocher — the Central Sierra Natural Resources Advisor for the UC Cooperative Extension — compared building patterns in high-fire risk parts of California and France.
"In California we often say, 'We should be able to tell people they can't build here,'" said Kocher, whose research, coauthored with Butsic, was published in March of 2017 in the journal Land. "In France, they just tell people they can't build somewhere."
Cooperative Extension adapts to a less agricultural America
(Washington Post) Dean Fosdick, Aug. 21
In its century of existence, the Cooperative Extension System has been a valuable resource distributing university-driven, science-based information — mostly about farming and gardening — to the public. But in today's less agricultural America, the Extension network is adapting, expanding its rural focus into cities and suburbs too.
Karuk Tribe And University Expand Food Partnership
(Jefferson Public Radio) Geoffrey Riley, April Ehrlich & John Baxter, Aug. 20
The Karuk Tribe and the University of California-Berkeley developed a partnership several years ago to rebuild Traditional Ecological Knowledge.
Lisa Hillman from the tribe's Píkyav Field Institute and Jennifer Sowerwine from UC-Berkeley are our guests.
http://www.ijpr.org/post/karuk-tribe-and-university-expand-food-partnership#stream/0
Finding the Sweet Spot for Carb Consumption
(KQED) Forum, Aug. 20
A Summary of the Study (The Lancet)
Guests:
- Lorrene Ritchie, director, Nutrition Policy Institute, University of California
- Rick Hecht, professor of medicine, University of California San Francisco
https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101866786/finding-the-sweet-spot-for-carb-consumption
Officials give updates, answer questions at Mendocino Complex virtual recovery meeting
(Lake County News) Aug. 17
After weeks of fire update meetings, on Thursday night local, state and federal officials participated in a meeting focused on recovery from the Mendocino Complex.
Speakers included County Administrative Officer Carol Huchingson, Cal Fire Incident Management Team 2 spokesman Jeremy Rahn, Paul Gibbs of federal Incident Management Team 1, Lake County Sheriff Brian Martin, Supervisor Jim Steele, Public Health Director Denise Pomeroy, James Scott of Lake County Environmental Health, Lake County Water Resources Director David Cowan, Rachel Elkins of the University of California Cooperative Extension, Lakeport Mayor Mireya Turner and Lake County Recovery Coordinator Nathan Spangler.
The USDA Is Buying Milk And Giving It To Food Banks
(NPR Marketplace) Mitchell Hartman, Aug. 17
...Agricultural economist Daniel Sumner at the University of California, Davis said the purchase is only a drop in the bucket.
"How much can you move the needle on price buying one-tenth-of-one percent of milk?" Sumner said. "Not very much."
https://www.marketplace.org/2018/08/17/economy/milk-usda-50-million-food-bank
Israel and UC deepen water technology collaboration
(Jewish News of Northern California) Hannah Jannol, Aug 17
S.F.-based Consul General of Israel Shlomi Kofman attended the MOU signing ceremony on July 16, held during a three-day workshop titled, “The Future of Water for Irrigation in California and Israel.” The document was signed by an agricultural division of the University of California, UC Davis and the Agricultural Research Organization of Israel.
… Doug Parker, director of the California Institute for Water Resources, helped put the MOU together. He said California and Israel already work together frequently on water research, but formalizing the relationship could give the two parties more leverage when applying for grants and funding.
https://www.jweekly.com/2018/08/17/israel-and-uc-deepen-water-technology-collaboration/
‘Batnadoes' Can Protect California's Crops
(Atlas Obscura) Anne Ewbank, Aug. 16
… He's likely right, according to Rachael Long, a farm advisor with the UC Cooperative Extension in the Sacramento Valley. She's researched for decades how bats can help farmers control pests. “Armyworms are always a big problem in rice production,” she says. “Bats are predators, of armyworms, cutworms, and other pests.” Bats' nocturnal feasts prevent adult moths from laying eggs that will hatch into hungry, rice-eating caterpillars, and, Long says, their impact cannot be overstated. When pest populations get out of control, “it can be really devastating.”
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/bats-and-farming
Wildfires Are Inevitable – Increasing Home Losses, Fatalities and Costs Are Not
(KQED) The Conversation, Max Moritz, Naomi Tague and Sarah Anderson, Aug. 16
Wildfire has been an integral part of California ecosystems for centuries. Now, however, nearly a third of homes in the state are in wildland urban interface areas where houses intermingling with wildlands and fire is a natural phenomenon. Just as Californians must live with earthquake risk, they must live with wildfires.
Scientific consensus says U.S. Forest Service should implement proposed forest treatments
“There is currently a great need for forest restoration and fire hazard reduction treatments to be implemented at large spatial scales in the Sierra Nevada,” the scientists wrote. “The next one to three decades are a critical period: after this time it may be very difficult to influence the character of Sierra Nevada forests, especially old forest characteristics.”
The scientists' recommendation is in the final report of a unique, 10-year experiment in collaboration: the Sierra Nevada Adaptive Management Project (SNAMP). A 1,000-page final report on the project was submitted to the U.S. Forest Service at the end of 2015. In it, scientists reached 31 points of consensus about managing California forests to reduce wildfire hazards and protect wildlife and human communities.
“SNAMP was founded on a desire to work collaboratively to protect the forests of the Sierra Nevada,” said John Battles, professor of forest ecology in the Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management at UC Berkeley and SNAMP principal investigator. “The challenges are multifaceted with a huge diversity of perspective among the public, among managers, and among scientists. SNAMP tried to bring all these interests and talents together to safeguard a vital resource and a natural wonder."
SNAMP was created to help develop a collaborative management and monitoring plan consistent with the Sierra Nevada Forest Plan Amendment, signed by regional forester Jack Blackwell on Jan. 21, 2004. The amendment called for the use of fuel reduction treatments – such as prescribed burning, mechanical chopping of underbrush, and harvesting certain trees – in strategically placed areas to slow down potential wildfires and improve forest health.
Because of disagreements over forest treatments in the past, which often led to lawsuits that languished in court for years, the U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the California Natural Resources Agency decided to take a new approach in 2005. They asked the University of California to provide unbiased scientific assessments of the impacts of the proposed treatments. UC was also charged with engaging the public concerned about repercussions of the forest treatments on wildlife habitat and water quality.
The scientific efforts and the forest treatments were all conducted in an open and transparent process. To ensure the greatest number of stakeholders were taking part, SNAMP included a public participation team of social scientists and UC Cooperative Extension outreach professionals to conduct and study the collaboration process.
Susan Kocher, UC Agriculture and Natural Resources Cooperative Extension forestry advisor in the Central Sierra, was a member the project since 2008 and served as the leader of the public participation team during the final two years, succeeding Kimberly Rodrigues, a UC forestry scientist who is now the director of the UC Hopland Research and Extension Center in Mendocino County. Kocher said having outreach and public participation included as a funded part of a science project is unusual.
“We were able to make great strides in getting everybody on the same page,” Kocher said. “That's what our data shows, too.”
A large volume of new scientific information was generated by the science team, and was published in 46 journal articles. The science spread fast and far, according to citation analysis conducted by the public participation team.
“We found that the average time it took for a SNAMP publication to be cited in another journal was about seven months,” Kocher said. “Citations to our articles came from all over the United States and around the globe.”
In addition, SNAMP science-based information was immediately useful to forest managers, according to a 14-page response to the SNAMP final report by the Forest Service, Fish and Wildlife and the California Natural Resources Agency. For example, an excerpt of the response submitted by California Fish and Wildlife noted that “SNAMP proved successful at modifying treatment methodology to meet the ever-changing reality of forest management.”
“The results were able to prove useful for managers past and future regarding how management can be implemented, in the face of wildfires while still retaining important owl nesting/roosting and foraging habitat features in and near owl activity features,” the document said.
SNAMP – funded with $15 million in grants mainly from the U.S. Forest Service, with support from U.S. Fish and Wildlife, California Natural Resources Agency and University of California – ran from 2007 to 2015. The project ended with the submission of the final report that contains details about the study areas, the treatment processes and reports from each of the six science teams. The science teams and their final reports are:
- Fire and forest ecosystem health
- Spatial - The study of forest canopy and understory with remote sensing technology called lidar, which uses reflected light for analysis.
- Wildlife: California spotted owl – A bird that is dependent on high-canopy forests.
- Wildlife: Pacific fisher – A weasel-like nocturnal animal that roams a wide area and nests in the hollows of old-growth trees.
- Water quality and quality
- Public participation
A key chapter in the publication is titled Integrated Management Recommendations. In it, the 31 points of consensus are outlined.
“The integration in this project is also unique,” Kocher said. “Scientists tend to work in their own focus areas, but we can learn a lot from each other's research projects.”
Working together, the scientists looked at all the research outcomes. The first 18 recommendations in the chapter are the direct result of scientific research conducted in SNAMP projects; the remainder of the recommendations are based on other scientific work and research.
Each of the recommendations is linked to a management goal. Some goals may conflict with achieving one or more of the other management goals. This approach to organizing the recommendations was taken to demonstrate that, while many of the management recommendations do not clash, a few may. For example, suggesting treatments across a landscape in a way that minimizes the negative effects on wildlife might reduce the efficiency of treatments aimed at reducing wildfire behavior and impacts.
The next steps are for the U.S. Forest Service to consider and adapt the SNAMP results and recommendations to continue to restore and protect the natural resources at risk in the Sierra.
“My hope is the SNAMP will be seen as a promising first try to apply adaptive management in the Sierra Nevada,” Battles said. “We gained important new insights about the ecology of these forests and we learned how to conduct applied research in an inclusive manner that engages not only scientists from multiple disciplines but also managers and the public."
UCCE supports Tahoe fire awareness week and Oroville nutrition decathlon
“With 2012 shaping up to be a high risk year for wildfires, the more people can prepare to survive the threat the better we all will be,” said Susan Kocher, University of California Cooperative Extension advisor, natural resources.
Kocher speaks in session three of the seminar series on May 30 about defensible space landscaping. The session also includes a talk by Wendy West, UC Cooperative Extension program representative, natural resources, titled "Learning how to garden at Lake Tahoe."
See the UCCE Lake Tahoe Basin Wildfire Awareness Week website for more details and links to the webinars.
Nutrition Decathlon
UC Cooperative Extension in Butte County offers local schools a "Nutrition Decathlon," a full-day nutrition and physical activity program, reported the Oroville Mercury-Register.
UCCE is beginning its Nutrition Decathlon season, hosting activities at schools that are making changes on their campuses, said Jona Pressman, UCCE program manager, nutrition.
"To participate, they need to be making significant changes with physical activity and nutrition," Pressman said.
At Helen Wilcox School last Friday, students ran, jumped, balanced on beams, tossed balls into nets, hopped in sacks, ducked through hoops, balanced bean bags on their heads, crawled through tubes, did pushups and lifted slight weights, reported Barbara Arrigoni, Mercury-Register staff writer.
Winter warmth and wildfires reported in Nevada
In contrast to typical winter weather patterns, in 2012 Nevada has experienced some early January days that were downright hot, wrote Dennis Myers in the Reno News and Review. Wildfires, normally a feature of summer and fall, have been experienced during this winter.
The article said Nevada's cloud seeding program is prepared for any break in the weather pattern that will provide storms that can be seeded. Truckee Meadows is dependent on the snowpack for its water supply and a lack of snow threatens the tourist economy. Nevada’s farming areas have a stake in the cloud seeding program and forest recovery after wildfire also relies on winter rain.
After the 2007 Angora Wildfire, for instance, the effectiveness of reseeding was undercut by the dry winter. According to Susan Kocher of the University of California Cooperative Extension, “that very dry winter did reduce the survival rate of newly planted tree seedlings. … The later in the spring season they were planted, the worse the survival was as the drought just kept getting worse.”
Kocher said the California Tahoe Conservancy had to keep planting and replanting in 2008, 2009, and again in 2010 before it started having success in getting the number of trees up to pre-fire levels.
Dry winter weather inhibited forest recovery after the 2007 Angora Wildfire near Lake Tahoe.
