Safe, healthy and happy Thanksgiving
UC researchers discuss Sudden Oak Death on Quest
The continuing efforts of UC scientists to battle Sudden Oak Death were featured today on Quest, KQED's radio program about Northern California science and environment.
The story opens with UC Davis plant pathologist David Rizzo describing why the term "Sudden Oak Death" is a misnomer.
The disease, he said, "is not particularly sudden, it doesn’t just infect oaks and it doesn’t result in death of all plants."
The six-minute radio story includes interviews with Matteo Garbelotto, an extension specialist in forest pathology at UC Berkeley. He told reporter David Garn that bay laurel trees are harboring the pathogen in oak woodlands.
UC to work with new Placer County youth commission
UC Cooperative Extension may join with Placer County Health and Human Services to provide guidance to a new youth commission being considered by the Placer County Board of Supervisors, according to a story in the Auburn Journal.
The project aims to give a voice to youth in Placer County government. Fifteen young people aged 14 to 21 will be enlisted to identify issues facing local youth and bring ideas to the Board of Supervisors, all of whom are 40 or older.
Supervisor Jim Holmes will be asking the board to approve the commission at their meeting tomorrow.
“This is an opportunity for us to get a better sense of the issues,” Holmes is quoted. “We see the negative in the papers but there’s also a lot of good being done.”
Holmes wishes to have the youth commission, which would receive federal and state funds, in place at the beginning of the next school year.
Early-season Santa Barbara fire unexpected
UC Berkeley Cooperative Extension fire ecology specialist Max Moritz told a Bloomberg.com reporter that the wildfire raging in Santa Barbara County caught forest experts by surprise.
“It is very early, the plants still appear to be quite full of moisture, and when you look at the ferocity of this wind condition, that’s when you say it is surprising,” he was quoted in the story.
Moritz said overzealous fire suppression cannot be blamed for the devastating inferno that has already burned 75 homes and forced the evacuation of tens of thousands of residents.
“There isn’t any such thing as a low-severity fire in the shrub lands,” Moritz said. “The hot, dry wind event has opened the door to what looks like a catastrophe.”
UC studies the use of compost to restore burned areas
Scientists at UC Riverside will apply compost to wildfire-ravaged land after the flames have been doused to determine whether it helps reduce erosion and water pollution and restore vegetation. The project is one of several to be undertaken with funding from the California Integrated Waste Management Board aimed at finding uses for what is expected to be an abundance of compost made from organic waste diverted from landfills, according to a story in the April issue of BioCycle.
The Waste Management Board plans to cut the amount of organic materials now going to landfills by half in the next 10 years. Meeting that goal will require an additional 15 million tons of organic materials to be recycled annually.
The Riverside scientists will quantify the benefits of compost on fire-damaged land by absorbing water, thus reducing surface flow, and by dissipating the energy of rainfall. The study will also attempt to quantify the ability of compost to promote the growth of micro and mesofauna (microbes, worms, insect larvae) in the fire-damaged soil, the BioCycle story says.
Another UC Riverside study funded by the Waste Management Board is focused on using the compost in strawberry, lettuce and tomato production.
Developing crop-specific compost specifications helps farmers avoid using mismatched or poor quality composts, which could result in lower crop yields, according to the article.
Valley strawberry farms get a publicity boost
The second best thing about May -- the first being Mother's Day, of course -- is sweet, fresh and flavorful Central Valley strawberries, especially those purchased at a roadside stand next to the field where they were grown. Even as the number of small-scale strawberry growers dwindle, the extraordinary fruit is getting some ink in Valley newspapers.
Today, the Sacramento Bee ran a business-section article about Southeast Asian farmers featuring Lo Saetern, who has grown "impossibly sweet strawberries" on 25 acres south of Sacramento for 11 years.
The article was prompted by a UC press event slated for 10 a.m. tomorrow at Saetern’s strawberry stand, corner of Florin and Elk Grove-Florin roads, Sacramento. The media are invited to taste fresh strawberries and hear about University of California and Farm Bureau efforts to support local farms, according to a UC news release.
The Sacramento Bee story said a research team, led by UC Berkeley's Jennifer Sowerwine, is seeking new ways to bring Mien- and Hmong-grown berries to market, including a pilot program to provide berries to Sacramento City Unified School District's lunch program. The program will serve 19,000 schoolchildren fresh local strawberries once a week.
Many Hmong and Mien immigrants were farmers in their homeland and have translated their knowledge to their new world.
"Under the radar, through family connections, the farm became the primary means for information and for the transferring of cultural institutions," Sowerwine is quoted in the story. "They're finding patches of land that are close to roads, at the threat of development and maintaining a bit of green in places that were once agricultural."
This week the Fresno Bee ran a follow-up to an April article on finding local, environmentally green strawberry stands. Food writer Joan Obra devoted her Tuesday column to reader feedback on the green strawberry story. As Obra often does, she sought assistance from the UC Cooperative Extension office in Fresno. Agricultural assistant Michael Yang was able to help her determine where certain preferred strawberry varieties are being grown.
UC researchers work with a Southeast Asian farmer.