Safe, healthy and happy Thanksgiving
Farm Bureau paper expands on state water woes
An AgAlert story by Kate Campbell expands on earlier news coverage of a recent State Board of Food and Agriculture meeting, where UC Davis agricultural economist Richard Howitt offered depressing news about water allocations for the 2009 growing season.
Howitt told the board that, based on an 85 percent cut in water deliveries for the State Water Project and the federal Central Valley Project, "We're estimating a 50 percent increase in groundwater pumping, compared to 2005. We're also factoring in the removal of older permanent crops and the use of stress irrigation, as well as the likelihood of water trades."
The expected economic impact of water woes in the Central Valley:
- 40,000 lost jobs
- $1.15 billion lost income
"If there are further reductions in water supplies to the east side of the San Joaquin Valley, these losses can go up," Howitt was quoted. "We cannot predict prices for cross-valley water transfers because they are complicated by the role of second- and third-party water districts."
Earlier this week, the Fresno Bee reported that Westlands Water District will receive no federal water deliveries at all in the 2009 season.
"What am I supposed to do, if I have no water?" farmer Bob Diedrich was quoted in the story. "I have five guys that I employ year-round, and now I may have to tell them they don't have jobs."
Gary Rush obituary in the Record-Searchlight
The Redding Record-Searchlight ran an obituary today for retired UC Cooperative Extension county director Gary Rush. Rush was also a community development advisor emeritus. According to the story, Rush, 73, suffered an accident some weeks ago and succumbed to his injuries on Saturday, Jan. 24.
Rush retired from his post in the UCCE Shasta-Trinity office in 1993, after 30 years of service to the Northern California community.
"Gary was educated and wise in life as well as books. He was insightful, intelligent, ambitious, patriotic and just one heck of a good guy," the obituary said.
Friends and acquaintances may contact the family at (530) 275-4704.
Irrigation experts dispute water report
University of California Cooperative Extension irrigation specialist Lawrence Schwankl joined with irrigation scientists from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and Fresno State University in writing a rebuttal to a September 2008 report by the Pacific Institute titled "More with Less: Agricultural Water Conservation and Efficiency in California—A Special Focus on the Delta."
The university scientists' commentary was published in part yesterday in AgAlert and the full, 13-page PDF version is available from the California Water Institute Web page.
In AgAlert's summary, the authors wrote that, "The Pacific Institute paper directly draws incorrect conclusions, or infers incorrect conclusions, based on significant errors in its underlying assumptions."
They said the Pacific Institute asserted their report fills an important gap.
"This report is not a comprehensive analysis of agricultural water use and it fills no gap. As a means of prompting more discussion it only states the obvious," the commentary's authors wrote.
The commentary goes on to point out what it calls "fatal flaws" in the Pacific Institute's report.
"The (Pacific Institute's) conclusions assume that on-farm water savings can be directly translated into equivalent basin-wide savings. Such an assumption is incorrect," the scientists wrote. "You simply cannot apply an estimate of on-farm water savings to an entire basin to estimate net transferable water conservation. We note that the Pacific Institute paper implicitly agrees with this argument, but then goes on to ignore the basin-wide concept completely."
UC expertise sought on coyotes and organic chicken feed
University of California Cooperative Extension advisors and specialists are go-to people for the press when they are looking for expertise on a wide variety of topics. Here are a couple subjects UC academics tackled in recent days:
Suburban coyotes culled - Los Angeles Times
Times reporter Joe Monzingo wrote a feature story on suburban coyote trapper Jimmie Rizzo. According to the article, coyotes are becoming an increasing problem in some Southern California neighborhoods, putting small dogs, cats and even young children at risk. The article cited a 2004 UC Davis finding that the first reported coyote attack in California not attributed to rabies occurred in 1978. In the next 25 years, there were 89 attacks on people or on pets in the presence of people. More than three-quarters of those came after 1994.
"Our main thrust is to re-educate the public that wild animals are wild," the article quoted Rex Baker, a retired California Polytechnic State University, Pomona, professor who co-wrote with study with UC Davis wildlife specialist Robert Timm. "Once a coyote loses its fear of man, you have to re-instill it."
Warning to animal lovers: The last seven paragraphs of the article vividly recount Rizzo's MO as coyotes' "Angel of Death." For people with a tender heart for animals, it is not pleasant reading.
Growing grain for organic chickens - Stockton Record
Two UC advisors provided commentary for a story on an organic chicken producer who is attempting the unusual task of growing his own feed on a hillside farm near Mountain Ranch.
"We do almost no grains here in the foothills," the article quoted Kenneth Churches, the University of California Cooperative Extension farm advisor for Calaveras County.
Reporter Dana Nichols also spoke to farm advisor Mick Canivari of San Joaquin County UCCE. He said the practice of dryland farming that the organic grower is undertaking saves the expense of irrigation, but it's risky.
"If you don't get the moisture, you don't get the yield," he was quoted.
Mercury-News reports on new Master Gardener coordinator
The San Jose Mercury-News ran a story this week about Santa Clara County UC Cooperative Extension's new Master Gardener coordinator, Carole Frost. Frost earned a bachelor's degree in horticulture from Pennsylvania State University in 1987 and worked as a horticulture educator with the Penn State Cooperative Extension program, never intending to leave her hometown of Hershey, Penn.
However, her husband took a job with the Air National Guard at Moffet Field, and the family moved west. The UC job, she told reporter Holly Hayes, "was like a dream come true."
"I will again have the best of both worlds — working with plant material and providing educational opportunities for the Master Gardeners and for the community," Frost was quoted in the story. "The organization is top-notch and the amount of work and community outreach that is completed is amazing."
Carole Frost