Posts Tagged: construction
Collaboration may be an effective way to fund wildland weed control
Many funding sources for weed eradication have been reduced or completely eliminated. According to the California Assembly Budget Committee’s annual Preliminary Review of the Governor’s Proposed 2012-13 State Budget, the California Department of Food and Agriculture will absorb a permanent budget reduction of $12 million in program cuts, in addition to a $19 million budget reduction in 2011-12. Funding for weed management areas (WMAs) has been reduced to the point that many WMAs have become inactive or are being managed voluntarily as an adjunct to other duties.
![Mature yellow starthistle, Centaurea solstitialis Mature yellow starthistle, Centaurea solstitialis](http://ucanr.org/blogs/Green/blogfiles/10501.jpg)
Enter the collaborative grant-funded project. Agencies are looking for applications that demonstrate community support from a diverse range of stakeholders. For example, the Sierra Nevada Conservancy (SNC) is currently reviewing proposals received in response to their Healthy Forests initiative. Proposition 84 — The Safe Drinking Water, Water Quality and Supply, Flood Control, River and Coastal Protection Bond Act of 2006 — will fund approved projects. Five million dollars is available this year for healthy forest projects; next year an equal amount will be available for rangeland projects.
Two weed control projects created by UC Cooperative Extension Central Sierra received SNC invitations to submit complete grant applications. One project is a collaboration between UCCE, the U.S. Forest Service, and Yosemite National Park; another works in partnership with Cal-IPC.
As an example of the collaborative partnerships being sought by funding agencies, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation is offering the ‘Pulling Together Initiative’ which “seeks proposals that will help control invasive plant species, mostly through the work of public/private partnerships such as Cooperative Weed Management Areas.” Successful projects must “have a project Steering Committee composed of local cooperators who are committed to working together to manage invasive and noxious plants across their jurisdictional boundaries.”
Clearly, in light of decreased federal and state funding, a strategic direction for weed-control projects will be to leverage resources, working together to do what no one agency can accomplish alone.
Two additional collaborative projects, created by Wendy West of UCCE Central Sierra, are highlighted here:
- A Weed-Free Forage List providing California resources for weed-free feed and erosion control materials will soon be posted on Cal-IPC’s website. The site will also contain explanatory information about weed-free certification, along with links to inspection procedures and noxious weed lists.
- Workshops designed to help prevent the spread of weeds during construction, aggregate production and maintenance activities are being offered throughout the state. The workshop is hosted and sponsored by U.S. Forest Service, National Park Service, California Department of Food and Agriculture, University of California and University of Nevada Cooperative Extension, and the California Invasive Plant Council.
A Fresno County workshop was held in January and a sold-out workshop is scheduled for March in Los Angeles County. If you are located in the central California region that includes Amador, Calaveras, El Dorado, Madera, Mariposa, San Joaquin, Stanislaus or Tuolumne counties, please consider attending the next workshop, scheduled for April 9 in Sonora. The final workshop will be held in Truckee on May 2. Register for the workshops here.
/span>Prevention Workshop 2012 flier
Workshop Schedule.Agenda
It only takes a spark
The Las Conchas fire that recently consumed nearly 137,000 acres in Los Alamos, N.M., serves as a reminder of how quickly fire can move if given fuel. I can’t light a barbecue with matches and lighter fluid, but a small ember drifting on the wind can find so many ways to burn down people’s homes if given the right conditions.
Removal of vegetation near Los Alamos National Laboratory, which is part of the UC system, created a buffer and helped spare the lab from the Las Conchas fire, which came within 50 feet. Creating a buffer is one of many preventive measures that can be taken to protect property from wildfires.
In a wildfire-prone area, even if you have a house with a concrete tile roof and noncombustible siding, an ember landing on landscape mulch, igniting plants around the home or floating into a vent on the house or under decks may set the house ablaze, warns a UC Cooperative Extension fire expert.
“From years of observing the aftermath of fires and testing fire-resistant building materials, we have developed a much better understanding about what happens,” says Steve Quarles, UC Cooperative Extension wood performance and durability advisor.
![Photo points out parts of house that may make it vulnerable to wildfire embers. Photo points out parts of house that may make it vulnerable to wildfire embers.](http://ucanr.org/blogs/Green/blogfiles/7878.jpg)
Quarles lists six priority areas for evaluating the vulnerability of homes in fire hazard zones: the roof, vents, landscape plants, windows, decking and siding. For details on how you can reduce the threat of wildfire to your home, visit Quarles' Homeowner's Wildfire Mitigation Guide.
![Rubber mulch, shown flaming, produced the highest flames and temperatures of the eight mulches tested. Rubber mulch, shown flaming, produced the highest flames and temperatures of the eight mulches tested.](http://ucanr.org/blogs/Green/blogfiles/7877.jpg)
“We know that the zone within about five feet of the home is very important to home survival during a wildfire,” Quarles says.
Landscape mulch provides many benefits to a garden, but Quarles and his colleague Ed Smith, University of Nevada Cooperative Extension natural resource specialist, found that many types of mulch are capable of catching fire and burning. Within five feet of a house, they recommend placing only rock, pavers, brick chips or well-irrigated, low-combustible plants such as lawn or flowers.
Quarles and Smith have published a new manual comparing the relative susceptibility of eight mulch treatments to igniting and burning. To download a free copy of “The Combustibility of Landscape Mulches,” visit the UC Fire Center website.
The scientists tested eight types of landscape mulches, shown in this test plot.
If I Had a Hammer...
The number of new housing developments throughout the country continues to shrink as we struggle...
Queen Bee
Line-Up
Inspecting a Cell