Safe, healthy and happy Thanksgiving
Coyote incident report in LA Times includes UC info
A man lying down for a nap in Los Angeles' Griffith Park woke up to a coyote biting his foot, according to a brief article in the Los Angeles Times over the weekend. The man was not seriously injured, but the unusual encounter with wildlife increased local alarm over a spate of coyote-related incidents in the southland.- Another person was bitten by a coyote in Griffith Park in August.
- Pop singer Jessica Simpson's poodle-maltese mix was snatched by a coyote on Monday night.
- On Wednesday, another maltipoo was nabbed in Hollywood Hills.
The article cited a 2004 UC study that found coyote aggression and attacks on people and pets on the rise in the state, particularly in “suburban-wildland interface” areas of Southern California.
For more on coyotes, see http://coyotebytes.org, a UC Cooperative Extension Web site that provides information to homeowners, land managers, agency personnel, and others to help solve coyote-human conflicts.
Coyote
Winemaking venture initiated by former UCCE advisor
Former Fresno County UC Cooperative Extension farm advisor, Lowell Zelinski, and his wife are launching a new luxury winemaking course in Paso Robles to operate in conjunction with their agricultural management business, according to a story in the Santa Maria Times.The Zelinskis began working with Central Coast vineyards in 2003; a few years later they began making wine from vines they were managing, a process documented by Becky Zelinski, an aspiring photographer.
Their friends were envious, the newspaper reported. "The Zelinskis then wondered if their friends’ interest could translate into a do-it-yourself winemaking business," wrote reporter Laurie Jervis.
In 2008, 14 friends and friends of friends spent a weekend in a cabernet sauvignon vineyard, picking and de-stemming the grapes by hand.
In 2009, the couple offered three weekend sessions on three different varietals. The weekends included meals prepared by a local chef to complement the varietal under study.
“These are the vineyards that we have relationships with all year," Mrs. Zelinski was quoted in the paper. "Many of the people (involved in those vineyards) are excited about our concept and want to help."
vineyard
$50,000 firebreak successfully halts flames
Just a year after its completion, a 1.5-mile J-shaped swath of cleared land protected John Middlebrook's 428-acres of forested Yuba County from a raging wildfire, according to a story in the The Grass Valley Union.A $52,000 state grant paid for the firebreak. Compared to $1.5 million per-day cost of fighting a wildfire, it appears the firebreak was a sound investment.
“Even when you know the science, you doubt yourself,” UC Cooperative Extension natural resources advisor Glenn Nader told reporter Ben van der Meer. “You see this, and you know with the right kind of fire, the right kind of wind, this will work.”
Middlebrook said he nearly abandoned the idea of building a firebreak when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service asked that anyone working on it be trained to understand the life cycle of the red-legged frog, which could have habitat in the area. Nader responded to the issue diplomatically.
“I know every agency has the best of intentions, and I work for one,” he was quoted. “But I do not run from the fact (Fish and Wildlife staff) were a hindrance."
Californians have an unhealthy thirst for soda
A report released today said that Californians' thirst for soda and other sugar-sweetened beverages is one of the reasons too many of the state's residents are fat.The study, by UCLA Center for Health Policy Research and the California Center for Public Health Advocacy, says 24 percent of California adults drink at least one sugary drink every day, according to news stories published by media outlets throughout the state.
Sacramento Bee reporter Anna Tong sought comment about the trend from Judith Stern of the UC Davis Department of Nutrition.
"When you eat food, it makes you full," she was quoted. "When you drink a soda, it doesn't make you feel full, so it's wasted calories."
According to the Fresno Bee, Central Valley residents drink more soda than people living in other parts of the state. In Fresno, Kings, Madera and Tulare counties 35 percent of adults drink soda every day. Rural Kings County adults led the state in daily soda consumption at 39 percent.
Imperial County had the highest rate of daily soda-drinking among children (60.7 percent) and Tulare County ranked first for teens (71 percent). The lowest rates of soda consumption for children, teens and adults were in Marin and Mendocino counties.
The study also found that soda drinking is linked to obesity. According to the Los Angeles Times story, 62 percent of adults who drink soda daily are overweight or obese, compared with 52 percent who don’t drink soda at all.
The stories reported that the new study may renew calls for imposing a soda tax. According to the Sacramento Bee article, a one cent per ounce soda tax would generate $1.8 billion per year in California. Currently, six states have soda taxes: Missouri, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia.
When soda is cut from the diet, UC Berkeley nutrition professor Patricia Crawford suggests parents give their children water to drink, not sports drinks or fruit juice.
“Nearly all fruit juices provide sugar that children don’t need,” Crawford said. “Sports drinks have fewer calories than sodas, but the calories add up. A student who drinks an extra 20-ounce sports drink every day for a year consumes enough calories to gain 13 pounds over the course of the year.”
For more from UC on healthful beverage choices, click here.
Drinking water
UC Riverside gets $1M to map barley genome
Barley suffers from an image problem. Who would guess that it is one of the world's most important crops? A quick review of a recent UC Riverside press release uncovers the reason: Besides being a healthful cereal, animal feed and potential bio-fuel crop, barley is the grain of choice for making beer. Barley beer was probably the first drink developed by Neolithic humans, according to Wikipedia.The release, written by Iqbal Pittalwala, says UC Riverside will receive a $1 million grant from USDA to map the barley genome, a necessary step in breeding new barley varieties that improve yield, disease resistance, and food and malt quality.
The release said barley is one of the first domesticated cereal grains and today No. 4 in terms of production. It is geographically adaptable and can withstand cold, drought, alkali and salinity. Pittalwala wrote that barley has been a favorite target of geneticists for decades. The genome – with 5.3 billion letters of genetic code – is one of the largest among cereal crops and nearly twice the size of the human genome.
The story was picked up by some technical publications - Genome Web News and Medical News Today, to name two. But ultimately, the research will benefit a wide swath of peoples the world over.
Barley.