Posts Tagged: water quality

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.

“California's water quantity, quality and security are increasingly impacted by uncertainty and scarcity,” said Dahlke. “As leader of the water SI, I hope to learn about the water challenges in California to develop and communicate solutions with the UC ANR team and our stakeholders.”

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.

$1 million grant expands climate-ready landscape plants program

A research project initiated in the Department of Plant Sciences at UC Davis evaluates landscape plants in two-year trials under varying irrigation levels to determine the best irrigation level for optimal plant performance in regions requiring supplemental summer water. Creating water budgets is required by California's Model Water Efficient Landscape Ordinance (MWELO), and the results from these research trials help landscape professionals and home gardeners make informed decisions when specifying, selecting or promoting low water-use landscape plant material.

This year, the CDFA/USDA Specialty Crops Multistate Program funded a new Climate Ready Landscape Plants project, which will replicate the successful fields that are currently installed at UC Davis and UC ANR South Coast Research and Extension Center in Irvine.

Loren Oki, UC Cooperative Extension specialist in the UC Davis Department of Plant Sciences, is the lead principal investigator and collaborators include researcher Jared Sisneroz;  project leader Karrie Reid, UC Cooperative Extension environmental horticulture advisor in San Joaquin County; and Darren Haver, UC Cooperative Extension water resources and water quality advisor and director of South Coast REC and UCCE in Orange County.

Under Oki's oversight, this new $999,992 grant will support the development of additional fields at several western universities:

• University of Washington, Soo-Hyung Kim
• Oregon State University, Lloyd Nackley and Ryan Contreras
• Utah State University Center, Youping Sun and Larry Rupp
• University of Arizona, Ursula Schuch

Conducting these new experiments on landscape plants at diverse sites across the western U.S. will reveal differences in recommendations since irrigation guidelines for landscapes vary depending on climate and soil type.

The initial project was initiated as Reid's master's degree thesis research in 2004, with Oki as her major professor, and has been ongoing since then.

Project descriptions, results and images can be seen at the UC Landscape Plant Irrigation Trials website at https://ucanr.edu/sites/UCLPIT.

Apply by Nov. 9 to be SI leader for Water or Healthy Families and Communities

ANR academics are invited to apply for Strategic Initiative leader positions, which play key roles in unifying, communicating and advocating to strengthen UC ANR's research and outreach agenda. Given the ongoing evolving role of the UC ANR Strategic Initiatives (SI), the SI leaders agreed that it would again be beneficial to conduct an open search – from across the breadth of expertise of the division – for the next rotation of SI leaders.

Open Positions. Two SI leader positions are scheduled to rotate off at the end of 2018. This change offers opportunities for others to take the lead for

• Healthy Families and Communities and 
• Water Quality, Quantity and Security.

Who is eligible to apply? The positions are open to all UC ANR academics, including Agricultural Experiment Station faculty and Cooperative Extension advisors and specialists. Strategic Initiative leaders are appointed by the Associate Vice President on a rotating basis for three years, with a possibility of extension.

Current SI leaders

• Endemic and Invasive Pests and Diseases Jim Farrar 
• Sustainable Food Systems Deanne Meyer and Neil McRoberts
• Sustainable Natural Resources David Lile
• Water Quality, Quantity and Security Doug Parker
• Healthy Families and Communities Keith Nathaniel

The SIs help unify, communicate and advocate for what UC ANR does. See the UCANR Strategic Initiatives website for more information.

To apply for one of the SI leader positions, complete the simple form at http://ucanr.edu/survey/survey.cfm?surveynumber=25782. Applications will be accepted until Nov. 9.

Applicants will be contacted for interviews in late November or early December. The new leaders are anticipated to start on Jan. 2, 2019.

For information regarding the roles and responsibilities of the Strategic Initiative leader position, see the Terms of Reference for Strategic Initiative Leaders. If you have questions, contact Mark Bell, vice provost of Strategic Initiatives and Statewide Programs.

Center for Regional Change hosts public dialogue at Kearney REC

Linking UC Davis researchers with regional changemakers is core to the mission of the Center for Regional Change. One new program designed to achieve this goal is the Regional Change Public Dialogue series. The dialogue series, supported by a grant from the UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, is intended to share cutting edge research from CRC-affiliated faculty with a diverse array of community leaders, as well as catalyze new research partnerships.

On May 11, the CRC hosted its third public dialogue at the Kearney Research Extension Center in the San Joaquin Valley town ofParlier. Kearney was an ideal site for this event as one of the experiment field stations that the University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources system dedicated to applied and solutions-oriented research. 

[The event was streamed live on May 11 and recorded on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/UCDavisCRC.]

Complementing the agricultural and environmental focus of much of the Kearney projects, the research presented at the public dialogue focused on improving social, economic, health and political conditions in rural communities such as Parlier.

Keith Taylor, UC Cooperative Extension economic development specialist, introduced his research on cooperatives as engines of community economic vitality. Bernadette Austin, CRC associate director, presented the forthcoming work of UC Davis professors Anne Visser and Catherine Brinkley on agricultural and community sustainability in the Sacramento- San Joaquin Delta. I shared the new report, "The Struggle for Water Justice in the San Joaquin Valley."

Following the lightning talks, the participants -- including leaders in the agricultural, environmental justice, immigrant rights, economic development, transportation, and air quality sectors among others -- divided into discussion groups to highlight the key insights and potential applications of the research. Some of the most compelling ideas of the evening included developing a map to represent the relationships between water and social/economic/political power in the San Joaquin Valley and an action research agenda on rural cooperatives as a way to diversify and localize the regional agricultural economy. 

Given the success of the Regional Change Public Dialogue series, the CRC will be seeking ideas and resources to expand the program in the future. We welcome your ideas on new directions!

Jonathan K. London, Faculty Director, Center for Regional Change

 

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