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Posts Tagged: Water
Names in the News
Wheeler-Dykes returns to roots with tree crops, weeds
“I was born and raised on a small prune and walnut farm in Gridley, in nearby Butte County, and am very excited to be putting down roots close to family,” said Wheeler-Dykes, who started in this role on June 1.
Covering olives, prunes, walnuts and almonds, with an emphasis on weed management research in those cropping systems, Wheeler-Dykes is spending her first months on the job getting to know the region's growers and broader agricultural community.
“I hope to really form great relationships with the clientele in my counties, providing a resource that they can trust and rely on,” she said. “I want to serve as an advocate for our region in developing research and finding answers for the unique systems we have here. My interests are alternative weed management in orchard systems and canopy management, but I look forward to hearing what other areas need to be addressed.”
After earning both a bachelor's in crop science and business management and a master's in entomology (with a focus on integrated pest management in tree crops) from UC Davis, Wheeler-Dykes has conducted extensive agricultural research.
“I'm excited to bring those experiences to the Sac Valley as the newest advisor,” she said, encouraging growers and producers in the region to contact her with the challenges they are facing.
Based at the UCCE Glenn County office in Orland, Wheeler-Dykes can be reached at bawheeler@ucanr.edu and (530) 884-9313.
Castiaux expands role with Small Farms and Specialty Crops Program
Aiming to build capacity to address growing challenges across California agriculture, she is excited to continue with the Small Farms and Specialty Crops Program in Fresno, where she has been working for the last 3½ years as a project manager for the Healthy Soils Program.
Castiaux earned a Master of Science in conservation leadership from Colorado State University and a bachelor's degree in ecology and evolutionary biology from University of California, Santa Cruz. She has eight years of practical cross-cultural experience in agriculture, teaching and implementing climate-smart agricultural practices and summarizing complex topics in a more simplified form to various diverse audiences.
Fluent in Spanish, Castiaux was a bilingual lead educator for community-based participatory climate change resiliency programs for sugar cane farmers in Paraguay and coffee farmers in Mexico. She also worked with the California Strawberry Commission as a grower education specialist for three years teaching farmworkers and growers food safety, practices and research.
Castiaux is based in Fresno County and is best reached by email at mjcastiaux@ucanr.edu.
Angeles brings weed expertise to San Joaquin Valley
“I was born and raised in Tulare County and have been working in agriculture my entire life,” he said.
After receiving his bachelor's degree in plant science from Fresno State, Angeles conducted pesticide efficacy trials at the DuPont Research Farm in Madera. He later earned a master's in plant science from Fresno State, writing his thesis under the supervision of weed science professor Anil Shrestha and retired UCCE advisor Kurt Hembree.
An employee of UCCE for the past six years, Angeles worked with a pair of emeritus UCCE academics, Steve Wright and Bob Hutmacher.
Currently, Angeles is talking with growers, pest control advisers and other farm advisors on the pressing weed management issues across the region.
“One of my main goals is to find alternative control methods for some of the herbicide-resistant and invasive weeds that are a problem in different agricultural crops,” he said.
Based in Tulare, Angeles can be reached at jaangeles@ucanr.edu and (559) 684-3300.
Johnson joins UC ANR as urban ag tech advisor
Johnson provides unbiased, research-driven information to people working in urban agriculture, with a focus on controlled environments such as greenhouses. His clientele is interested in adopting technologies that can improve plant production, ranging from nurseries and commercial growers to community members managing local gardens.
In his newly created role, Johnson's efforts will influence the scope of work for urban agricultural technology advisors to come. One of the challenges that he anticipates is “focusing knowledge” or choosing a specific problem to prioritize.
“I'm really interested in irrigation, soil and plant culture. There's a lot to consider and there's a lot that can be done,” said Johnson.
Before he was hired as an advisor, Johnson worked as a staff research associate for five years at the South Coast Research and Extension Center in Irvine under Darren Haver, director of UC ANR's Research and Extension Center system.
“I learned a lot while I was an SRA, but there was only so much that I could do. I wanted more freedom to explore as a researcher, so I decided I wanted to become an advisor,” Johnson said, adding that his career goal inspired him to return to school.
Johnson earned a master's degree in horticulture and agronomy from UC Davis, as well as a bachelor's degree in biology from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.
One of the exciting aspects of the job, according to Johnson, is the ability to get creative and explore new territory. “I have some fun research interests, like how to grow wasabi or maximize saffron production using hydroponics,” Johnson explained.
“I'm interested in the kind of things that might be culturally important or significant to certain communities, and how they can be made more affordable and accessible,” he added.
Johnson is based out of the South Coast Research and Extension Center and can be reached at gejohnson@ucanr.edu.
Cohen joins UCCE as entomology advisor in Ventura County
Cohen earned her Ph.D. from UC Santa Cruz, where she studied how to develop agricultural practices to promote a diversity of beneficial insects and ecosystem services. She then conducted postdoctoral research at UC Riverside, where she studied pollinator health in Yolo County sunflowers.
Her research has been presented at national and international conferences, published in more than 14 peer-reviewed publications, and shared through blogs, factsheets and field days with her local grower community.
Prior to joining UC ANR, Cohen worked as a commercial horticulture agent with the Institute for Food and Agricultural Sciences at the University of Florida. This summer she will work with industry and university partners across Ventura County to evaluate the needs of the local growers and design an applied research and extension program.
Cohen is excited to address a myriad of issues related to pest management, including identification and monitoring, pest biology and phenology, crop loss assessment, pesticide resistance prevention, and evaluation of integrated pest management methods with an emphasis on biological and cultural controls. She is eager to conduct this work in regional crops such as berries, avocado, citrus and more.
“Ventura County is an important place to advance agricultural practices that reduce economic damage from pests while minimizing impacts on the environment, farmworkers and consumers,” said Cohen.
Cohen is based out of the UCCE office in Ventura and can be reached at hcohen@ucanr.edu. You can also follow her on Instagram @beescientista.
Tang joins UCCE in Napa County to work on water issues
Tang will be developing water resiliency strategies for stakeholders and diverse ecosystems across Napa County. In addition, he will design and implement creative research, acquire and share technical knowledge, and promote stewardship of surface and groundwater resources to meet the needs of competing users and natural systems.
This summer, Tang will collaborate with growers, UC Davis researchers and UC ANR colleagues to measure the crop coefficient of Napa grape vineyards.
“This work aims to support groundwater sustainability planning with water budget calculations and to provide crucial information for irrigation management,” he said.
Prior to joining UC ANR, Tang earned a Ph.D. in soil science from Pennsylvania State University, where his work focused on the ecohydrology of oak-maple forest. Fluent in Mandarin, he also holds a bachelor's degree in hydrogeology from Nanjing University in China. Tang took a one-year training at North Carolina State University as a postdoctoral scholar working on large-scale nutrient modeling.
He is looking forward to applying his experience and learning new skills in his new role.
“I am very excited about this new journey,” said Tang. “Water problems are pressing, important and interesting.”
Tang is based at the UCCE office in Napa and can be reached at qictang@ucanr.edu, LinkedIn and Twitter @qicheng_tang.
Water Talk podcast wins Conservation Innovation Award
The Water Talk Podcast Team received the 2023 Conservation Innovation Award by the Soil and Water Conservation Society, an international organization based in Ankeny, Iowa.
Water Talk is hosted by Faith Kearns, California Institute for Water Resources academic coordinator, and UC Cooperative Extension water specialists Mallika Nocco and Samuel Sandoval Solis, with production support from UC Davis students Victoria Roberts and Paloma Herrera-Thomas.
The goal of Water Talk is to bring communities across California together to talk about water issues, including climate change, scarcity and access.
The podcast's fourth season just wrapped, and the hosts have interviewed a wide range of guests. They have talked with UCCE colleagues Leslie Roche and Dan Macon about livestock water use, Angel Fernandez-Bou and Jose Pablo Ortiz Partida of the Union of Concerned Scientists about water equity, journalist Ian James of the Los Angeles Times about reporting on contentious water issues and Laurel Firestone of the State Water Resources Control Board discussing water governance, leadership and policy implementation and many others.
The award will officially be presented to the team at the SWCS International Annual Conference in Des Moines, Iowa, on Aug. 8.
Water resources research proposals due Feb. 28
The California Institute for Water Resources is pleased to announce its 2023-25 Request for Proposals for junior investigators.
Funded projects are slated to begin Sept. 1. Please note that the funding period may fluctuate and is based on budget appropriations.
The deadline for submission is Feb. 28 at 5 p.m.
Visit the CIWR website to download the RFP (ciwr.ucanr.edu/Request_for_Proposals/), including budget request and justification forms.
Doug Parker retires from bicoastal career of water research
Working to solve California water challenges, Doug Parker coordinates water-related research, extension and education efforts across the University of California system, other academic institutions and government agencies. Since 2011, Parker has served as director of the California Institute for Water Resources for UC Agriculture and Natural Resources.
From 2011 to 2018, he also led UC ANR's Strategic Initiative on Water Quantity, Quality and Security. After more than 30 years solving agricultural water-related issues in California and Maryland, Parker will retire July 1.
“Doug has been instrumental in the implementation of some of California's new state programs for those who produce our food,” said Amrith Gunasekara, director of science and research for the California Farm Bureau Federation's California Bountiful Foundation.
“He has handled multiple contracts with the state totaling several million dollars, which brought existing and new technologies to farmers and ranchers and helped the state in meeting some of its climate change goals. He put together a boots-on-the-ground, climate-smart agriculture team and served as a subject-matter expert for many years on a scientific advisory body at the state,” said Gunasekara, former director of the Office of Environmental Farming & Innovation for the California Department of Food and Agriculture.
CDFA partnered with Parker and UC ANR to help farmers use the State Water Efficiency and Enhancement Program, Healthy Soils Program, Dairy Digester Research and Development Program and Climate-Smart Agriculture Technical Assistance through UCCE.
Over his career, Parker has overseen water research and education projects totaling over $42 million. Connecting people has been the part of the job that he has most enjoyed “to help bring science to bear on California water solutions.”
“When I first got here in October of 2011, I spent my first six months researching who was working on water across the state, mostly at the UC system, but elsewhere as well, then going and visiting them, finding out what they were working on and basically building a database,” Parker said. “Having that knowledge allowed me to go to work with CDFA and the Department of Water Resources and say, ‘Oh you're having a problem with this? I know somebody at UC San Diego. Let me connect you two and let you work on this problem together.' That has always been the most rewarding part of this job, making those connections.”
In 2019, through a collaboration between the Strategic Growth Council, CDFA and UC ANR, Parker assembled a team of 10 community educators to provide technical assistance and outreach to promote climate-smart agriculture incentive programs. The climate-smart projects have reduced greenhouse gases equivalent to removing roughly 7,000 gasoline-powered cars from the road.
With his affable personality and ability to simply explain California's complex water issues, Parker has frequently been interviewed by news reporters. He has authored more than 100 articles, reports, books or book chapters and delivered over 230 presentations.
“I've always been interested in water,” said Parker, noting he wrote his bachelor's thesis on New Melones Dam. He earned his bachelor's degrees in economics and environmental studies at UC Santa Barbara and Ph.D. in agricultural and resource economics at UC Berkeley, then began his career at University of Maryland's Center for Public Issues in Biotechnology in 1990 studying the economic benefits of innovation in the burgeoning agricultural biotechnology industry before focusing on water issues.
Parker, who grew up in the Bay Area and San Diego area, returned to the West Coast from 1993 to 1997 to work as a UC Cooperative Extension economist at UC Berkeley studying approaches to dealing with drought and water supply shortages.
His analysis of the California Irrigation Management Information System, or CIMIS, showed that growers using the system run by the state Department of Water Resources reduced agricultural water use by 100,000 acre-feet per year and generated almost $65 million per year in statewide benefits. As a result of the study, the CIMIS program was expanded across the state. A recent study found that CIMIS enables growers to reduce water use by 20% annually and generates $150 million to $422 million in benefits per year.
In addition to his university service, Parker served on the board of the national Universities Council on Water Resources from 2014 to 2021. As UCOWR president in 2016-17, he initiated a strategic planning process. When Parker received the “Friend of UCOWR Award” at the council's annual conference held June 14–16 in Greenville, South Carolina, the presenter noted, “Doug's extraordinary leadership, cooperative spirit and sense of humor helped his cohort and successive UCOWR Board members and staff to accomplish major Strategic Plan goals.”
“Doug was incredibly easy to work with – a wealth of knowledge and walking science dictionary, and tireless problem solver, someone who brought people together with a vision and a great leader,” Gunasekara said. “He will be surely missed and have big boots to fill.”
Even as he enters retirement, Parker is launching a project with Khaled Bali, UC Cooperative Extension specialist, to help growers prevent nitrogen from leaching into groundwater. He plans to spend a year helping the UC Cooperative Extension specialists, advisors and six staff research assistants who will work with growers across the state. With funds from the project, growers will be able to buy equipment such as flow meters to improve management and efficiency of their irrigation and fertilization systems.
Strategic Initiative Brief: Dahlke named Water Strategic Initiative leader
Following an open call, Helen Dahlke has agreed to take on the role of leader for the Strategic Initiative for Water Quality, Quantity and Security.
Dahlke is associate professor in integrated hydrologic sciences in the UC Davis Department of Land, Air and Water Resources. She brings a rich history of experience having completed her undergraduate and master's degrees in her native Germany before earning her Ph.D. at Cornell University. After her Ph.D., she did postdoctoral work at Stockholm University in Sweden before joining UC Davis in 2013.
Dahlke's current research interests include surface water – groundwater interaction, water resources management, vadose zone transport processes, and applications of DNA nanotechnology in hydrology. She comes with a broad appreciation of the multiple roles for addressing issues facing water across the state from the mountains to the sea. One of her main research efforts focuses on testing the feasibility of using agricultural fields as recharge sites for groundwater replenishment.
“We welcome and thank Helen for adding this new role to her ongoing activities,” said Mark Bell, vice provost for strategic initiatives and statewide programs. “The SI leaders are the champions for the broad umbrellas of work across the organization.”
The Strategic Initiatives help people connect while helping unify, communicate and advocate for UC ANR's work across the state. The SI leaders are part of Program Council, which provides input for programmatic policy and direction for the organization.
ANR team wins ANREP educational materials award
The “Ranch Water Quality Planning Instructor's Guide and Lesson Plan” won the Association of Natural Resource Extension Professionals bronze award in the category of Book or Comprehensive Program Curriculum.
The team includes Toby O'Geen, Bill Birmingham, Brooke Latack, DJ Eastburn, Dan Macon, David Lewis, David Lile, Devii Rao, Fadzayi Mashiri, Jeffrey Stackhouse, Jim Downing, Josh Davy, Julie Finzel, Kenneth Tate, Laura Snell, Leslie Roche, Lucien Crowder, Matthew Shapero, Michael Lennox, Morgan Doran, Randy Dahlgren, Rebecca Ozeran, Rob Atwill, Sandra Osterman, Stephanie Larson, Theresa Becchetti and Tracy Schohr.
The Ranch Water Quality Planning Instructor's Guide and Lesson Plan represents the evolution of the UC Ranch Water Quality Planning Partnership and shortcourse program. The Instructor's Guide was published in two formats – a dynamic PDF document and an HTML webpage. Both formats integrate 29 educational and instructional videos in a curated playlist on the UC ANR YouTube channel. This comprehensive training resource gives instructors the tools to plan and deliver a shortcourse that trains private and public grazing land managers to develop land stewardship and water quality management plans. The Instructor's Guide provides a wealth of contemporary information and resources about water quality management on rangelands and supports adaptation of the curriculum content and elements to local conditions and needs. The team began outreach and extension of these resources in November 2020. Through January 2021, the materials were downloaded 110 times and received 240 unique page views.
