Safe, healthy and happy Thanksgiving
Good news
Economic woes have been widely publicized in recent months, so they've made lots of appearances in this news blog. Today, we interrupt this trend to bring a tidbit of good news. The USDA announced with a press release yesterday it will award a $400,000 grant to UC Riverside for water quality research.
The award is administered through the Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service’s National Research Initiative Water and Watershed competitive grants program.
The funds going to UC Riverside will develop cost-efficient treatment strategies that harness natural ways to eliminate bacterial pathogens from agricultural runoff. It is one of 17 grants going to 16 universities around the country that amounts to $5.3 million in all, acccording to the release.
Dairy operators crying over surplus milk
California's dairy operators are struggling with a bleak bottom line as the commodity price for milk has tumbled. According to a story over the weekend in the Fresno Bee, milk prices dropped 50 percent in the last six months, from about $20 for every 100 pounds to about $10. The overall cost to produce milk in California is estimated at $19 per 100 pounds, the story reported.
Bee ag reporter Robert Rodriguez spoke to UC Davis dairy specialist Leslie "Bees" Butler for his perspective on dairies' dismal numbers. He blamed the drop in milk value to dramatic changes in the export market. Australian producers are recovering from a recent drought that had boosted world milk price, the U.S. dollar is stronger and the global recession has reduced demand.
"The export market was booming, literally booming, expanding by 30% to 40%," Butler was quoted. "But all of a sudden that market has dried up."
Milk demand in the U.S. is also declining, Rodriguez wrote.
"And it's not like we are talking huge percentage points. But it does not take a lot to change dairy prices," Butler was quoted.
Dairy cow.
The country's all a twitter with the latest guac news
The creamy, healthy complement to spicy, crunchy nachos - avocados - may be in short supply this spring, according to a Los Angeles Times story that has been picked up all over the nation. California farmers expect to harvest the smallest avocado crop since 1990 and possibly even as far back as 1980, the story said, and prices will creep higher.
"Holy guacamole," joked LA Times reporter Jerry Hirsch in promoting the story on his Twitter account.
For the article, Hirsch spoke to UC Cooperative Extension farm advisor Ben Faber to get his take on California's looming avocado deficit. He assured Hirsch that, even in the absence of California avocados, growers in other parts of the world with keep Americans in guacamole.
"Mexico is so huge that if they see good prices here, they will divert fruit up here to capture those higher prices. And that drives up prices in Mexico too, so it is very clever," Faber was quoted in the story.
Here are a few of the places the Times' California avocado story appeared:
California avocados.
Sierra Nevada Conservancy funds halted
In another sign of our dire economic times, grant funds allocated by the state of California's Sierra Nevada Conservancy came to a screeching halt last month. The agency announced funds made available after the passage of Proposition 84 will no longer be dispersed. The November 2006 proposition had authorized the state to issue bonds for the protection and restoration of rivers, lakes and streams and other natural resources.
One of the projects losing its funding would have collected and analyzed data on three riparian/meadow monitoring sites in the South Ash Valley area of Lassen County, where landscape junipers were being removed to assist in the restoration of sagebrush steepe habitat, according to an article in the Lassen County News.
The article quoted a Sierra Nevada Conservancy press release that noted UC Cooperative Extension's involvement in the project.
“The University of California Cooperative Extension, Lassen County and faculty at the University of California, Davis have assisted in developing the monitoring methods for this project and will act as the quality control. Information gathered from these sites will provide valuable insight into the effectiveness of the restoration efforts throughout the sagebrush steepe ecosystem," the story said.
The state asked all grantees to stop work on their projects until further notice.
Lake County declares emergency over fish stocking
In a move that might only occur in a county named for a body of water, the Lake County Board of Supervisors declared a state of emergency last week after Fish and Game officials decided not to stock several local lakes and streams with fish.
Fish and Game made the decision after the Pacific Rivers Council and the Center for Biological Diversity filed a lawsuit that blamed the fish stocking program for threatening native fish and amphibians, such as the hardhead minnow, spring- and winter-run chinook salmon, California red-legged frog, arroyo toad and foothill yellow-legged frog.
Fish and Game had decided to drop Upper Blue Lake, Cache Creek, Indian Valley Reservoir and Pillsbury Reservoir from agency's fish stocking program this year, according to an article in the Lake County News. For analysis of the fish stocking controversy, reporter Elizabeth Larson turned to the director of UC Cooperative Extension in Lake County, Greg Giusti.
He said the Board's message got through to the state. As of Monday, state officials reacted to the news by removing both Indian Valley Reservoir and Lake Pillsbury from the list of lakes that won't be stocked.
“Those lakes are back to status quo,” Giusti was quoted.
However, Cache Creek and Upper Blue Lake still won't be stocked. Giusti told the reporter that Upper Blue Lake is the county's highest priority when it comes to the stocking question.
Fish and Game will conduct surveys to look for the hardhead minnow and red-legged frog in Upper Blue Lake. If the surveys don't find those species, Fish and Game will recommend to U.S. Fish and Wildlife that the lake be removed from the list.
According to the article, Giusti said the probability of finding the hardhead minnow in Upper Blue Lake is small. However, Cache Creek may never be removed from the list of water bodies that won't be stocked because of the red-legged frog.
Red-legged frog.