Safe, healthy and happy Thanksgiving
Joshua Trees could vanish in Joshua Tree National Park
Under any of six models of climate change, in 100 years there will be no new trees in Joshua Tree National Park and a significant number of existing trees will be dead, according to a recent Riverside Press-Enterprise story. The climate models, developed by Ken Cole, a biologist and geologist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Flagstaff, Ariz., and plant ecologist Kirsten Ironside of Northern Arizona University, suggest a temperature increase of seven degrees.
Joshua Trees were prolific and widespread 11,000 years ago, Cole told newspaper reporter Janet Zimmerman. Their seeds were carried long distances from Mexico to Nevada in the dung of the Shasta ground sloth. Now, seeds are transported only short distances by rodents.
Climate change is expected to combine with other human impacts to threaten Joshua Trees. Factors mentioned in the Press-Enterprise article include:
- Non-native grass species, such as red brome and cheatgrass, are transported along roads by passing cars.
- The non-native grasses are fertilized by nitrate and ammonium deposited in the soil by car emissions. Edith Allen, a UC Riverside professor of plant ecology, has found that the levels of those chemicals in the park are 15 to 30 times higher than those in an undisturbed ecosystem.
- Dirt patches that separated native plant species are being replaced with a continuous carpet of non-native grass.
- Wildfire is increasing in frequency and intensity as the continuous bed of tinder dry grass carries fire long distances from plant to plant.
A possible bright side: Joshua Trees are taking root in areas to the north, such as Tonapah, Nev., where none existed a century ago because it was too cold.
JoshuaTree
UCCE report addresses ag on national parkland
This month, the UC Cooperative Extension office in Marin County released a carefully researched and written report on The Changing Role of Agriculture in Point Reyes National Seashore. PRNS is unusual in the National Park system because it has contained a "pastoral zone" with working cattle ranches, dairies and other farms since its establishment in 1962.
Now, some area residents and environmentalists are questioning the existence of commercial farming in the park, particularly an oyster farm in Drakes Bay. A controversy generated by the release of the new UCCE report was covered in yesterday's Marin Independent Journal.
Reporter Rob Rogers wrote that members of several environmental groups have called the report inaccurate, and have expressed anger with what some see as the report's support for an oyster farm within the national seashore.
"We bent over backwards to make this as neutral and positive as possible," the article quoted Ellen Rilla, UCCE county director and one of the authors of the report. "We knew we would be attacked by people who had extreme opinions."
Rilla told me this morning that she wrote the report with Lisa Bush, Marin County's agricultural ombudsman, to bring some scientific information into the conversation. "That was the point of paper," Rilla said.
The 21-page report describes current county, regional and state policies, including those contained in the Marin Countywide Plan and Local Coastal Program, economic statistics, research studies, and the historic record to support the continued existence and viability of agriculture at PRNS.
Rogers wrote that Rilla and Bush realize that their suggestions may carry little weight with the National Park Service. But Marin County Supervisor Steve Kinsey believes the conclusions drawn by the university researchers could be important in determining the future of the park.
"I think their suggestions may have less importance with the federal park, but they are of significant importance to the Board of Supervisors," Kinsey was quoted. "And if the Board of Supervisors expresses its collective will, federal legislators pay close attention to that."
The new UCCE report.
Media outlet takes notice of new ANR council
The University of California issued a news release about a new Animal Welfare Council on May 19. Jim Downing of the Sacramento Bee picked it up, writing in a story published today that "The University of California, hoping to insert itself as a peacemaker, formed a new animal welfare council last month."
Downing's article focused on voters' overwhelming support of Proposition 2 last November, which, among other things, requires farmers to give egg-laying chickens room to spread their wings. However, the story says the battle over hen housing has "only just begun."
The story mentions that:
- The university is being sued by the Humane Society over what the group says was an industry-biased analysis of Proposition 2 during the campaign.
- The Human Society is backing Assembly Bill 1437, which would require all eggs sold in the state - not just those produced in the state - be laid by cage-free hens.
- Farmers are looking at various options for complying with Prop 2, such as a 60-hen "colony" cages used on some farms in Europe.
Olive oil to be the focus of three-day event at UC Davis
The Sacramento Bee ran a story yesterday about an international olive oil conference, "Beyond Extra Virgin," to be held at UC Davis this week. Also on the SacBee site is a six-minute video in which the reporter and Alexandra Kicenik Devarenne, an olive consultant and member of the UC Davis Olive Center advisory board, go over the basics of olive oil sampling.
(The article, sans video, also appeared on individual.com, flanked by an advertisement for "Sciabica's Extra Virgin Oil of the Olive." Food ads have always appeared in the newspaper food section; garden ads adjoin garden stories. But this is the first time I've seen such a specific connection between a product and a story from a newspaper like the Sacramento Bee.)
The article gave credit to the grape harvester for boosting olive oil production in California, which grew by 50 percent this year. Currently, 99 percent of olive oil consumed in America is imported.
CDFA secretary A.G. Kawamura told reporter Gina Kim that olive oil production has a place in California.
"Any time we can compete with imports, when we can become domestic producers, that's a good thing because that keeps the dollars in this country," Kawamura was quoted.
Kim also spoke to Paul Vossen, a UC Cooperative Extension farm advisor who has researched and promoted California olive oil production. He said the primary obstacle to the growth of the California olive oil industry is a lack of consumer awareness about the superiority of the local product.
"A good analogy is wine," Vossen was quoted. "When you first started drinking wine, you had to educate your palate. People just need to go out and try and buy and use olive oil over a period of 10 years. It's not going to happen overnight."
For more on the California olive oil industry, plus videos about olive oil tasting and the environmental benefits of California olive oil, see California olive oil is worth the splurge on the UC ANR Web site.
Paul Vossen in an olive orchard.
Farmers see piles of potatoes at Kern County park
A potato rainbow appeared on the grass at Hart Park in Bakersfield this week, offering farmers the opportunity to see a wide array of potato varieties developed by breeders across the United States and Canada.
The potatoes are the product of the UC Cooperative Extension and California Potato Research Advisory Board's Kern County Potato Variety Trial, which has been collecting potato variety data since the 1970s, according to an article about the annual field day in yesterday's Bakersfield Californian.
"The piles at the park contained every kind of potato imaginable. Big ones. Small ones. Lumpy ones. Round ones. In hues ranging from yellow to purple," wrote reporter Courtenay Edelhart.
She spoke to the event coordinator, Kern County vegetable crops farm advisor Joe Nunez.
"Most of the country hasn't even planted yet and we're harvesting already, so we get a lot of out-of-state interest," he was quoted.
Eldelhart listed the most-sought-after potato attributes:
- Red and purple varieties - because they are higher in antioxidants
- Small - because they don't take as long to cook
- Disease resistant
- High yielding
Texas A & M potato breeder J. Creighton Miller Jr. offered an analogy about finding potatoes with all the right characteristics:
"If I were breeding humans, it would be a little like crossing a National Merit Scholar with an All American football player to get kids that were both scholars and athletes," Miller was quoted. "You can imagine how difficult that is."
Potatoes of a different color.