Posts Tagged: UC Cooperative Extension

Lawn-pocalypse! Surviving Drought

Ah, summer! The season of sunburns, pool parties, and… lawn droughts. If your once lush, green carpet now looks like a crunchy brown doormat, you're not alone. Let's dive into why your yard is staging a dramatic death scene and what you can do to...

Bermuda grass and weeds overtaking drought stressed turf grass.

A patch of former lawn, mostly dead, with a few green weeds and Bermudagrass

2024-25 UC Cooperative Extension positions announced

Dear Colleagues,

It is with great pleasure that I announce that the University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources (UC ANR) is continuing to support the research and extension needs of California through placement of new University of California Cooperative Extension (UCCE) Advisor and Specialist positions. Thanks to extensive collaboration with campuses across the UC system, our UC Research and Extension Centers (RECS), UCCE County offices, and our many partners in government and the private sector, the following positions have been approved for recruitment:

UCCE Advisors:

Discipline/Specialty	Counties Served	Office Location
4-H Youth Development: College and Career Readiness	Lake and Mendocino	To be determined (TBD)
4-H Youth Development: College and Career Readiness	Alameda and Contra Costa	Alameda
4-H Youth Development: College and Career Readiness	San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ventura	TBD
4-H Youth Development: Leadership and Civic Engagement	Modoc, Lassen, Plumas and Sierra	Lassen
Agricultural Workforce Development	San Joaquin Valley	TBD
Agronomy	Sacramento, Solano and Yolo	Yolo
Avocado, Citrus, and Subtropical Fruits	Riverside and San Diego	San Diego
Citrus and Pistachio	Kern, Kings and Tulare	Tulare
Commensal Rodents & Urban Wildlife Integrated Pest Management	Alameda, Contra Costa, San Mateo, San Francisco and Santa Clara	Santa Clara
Disaster Preparedness, Response, and Resiliency	Monterey, San Benito and Santa Cruz	TBD
Environmental Horticulture	Riverside and San Bernardino	TBD
Environmental Horticulture & Controlled Environment Agriculture	Monterey, San Benito, San Mateo and Santa Cruz	TBD
Field and Vegetable Crops Integrated Pest Management	Fresno, Kings, Madera and Tulare	West Side REC
Food Systems	Los Angeles and Ventura	Ventura
Fruit Postharvest Handling	Fresno, Kern, Kings, Madera and Tulare	Lindcove REC
Horticulture and Small Farms	Nevada and Placer	Placer
Livestock and Natural Resources	Lake and Mendocino	Mendocino
Livestock and Natural Resources	Marin and Sonoma	Sonoma
Livestock and Natural Resources	Shasta and Trinity	Shasta
Low Desert Weed Management	Imperial and Riverside	Imperial
Nutrient Management & Forage Systems	Merced, San Joaquin and Stanislaus	Stanislaus
One Health Integrated Produce Safety	Monterey, San Benito and Santa Cruz	TBD
Orchard Systems: Almond, Apricots, Peaches, and Pistachio	San Joaquin and Stanislaus	Stanislaus
Orchard Systems: Apples, Cherries, Olives, and Walnuts	San Joaquin and Stanislaus	San Joaquin
Outdoor Recreation/Connected Communities	Lassen, Plumas and Sierra	Plumas
Vegetable Crops	Butte, Colusa, Glenn, Sutter and Yuba	Colusa
Vegetable Crop and Weed Science	Monterey, San Benito and Santa Cruz	Monterey
Viticulture and Tree Fruit	Sacramento, Solano and Yolo	Sacramento
Weed Science	Marin, Napa and Sonoma	Sonoma

 

Specialists:

Discipline/Specialty	Host / Location
Agricultural Acarologist	UC Riverside Dept. of Entomology / Kearney REC
Agricultural Economics: Small Farms and Rural Economic Development	UC Santa Cruz Department of Economics; Center for Agroecology
Agricultural, Food and Natural Resources Computational Data Science	UC San Diego Supercomputer Center
Agricultural Waste Management and Bioenergy Production	UC Merced Dept. of Mechanical Engineering
Agricultural Policy	UC ANR / California Dept. of Food and Agriculture
Agricultural Technology Workforce Development	UC ANR / TBD
Beef Cattle Production Systems	UC Davis Dept. of Animal Science
Climate Resilient Orchard Systems	UC Davis Dept. of Plant Sciences
Climate Resilient Rural Community Development	UC Berkeley ESPM
Coastal Hydrology Agriculture and Water Resilience	UC Santa Cruz Dept. of Earth and Planetary Sciences; Center for Agroecology
Coastal Produce Safety Systems	UC ANR / USDA ARS Salinas
Field Trials and Testbeds Design and Operation	UC ANR VINE / Kearney and Westside RECs
Food Safety/Drones/Remote Sensing	UC Santa Cruz / Monterey Bay Education, Science and Technology Center (MBEST)
Groundwater Quantity and Quality	UC Merced Dept. of Civil & Environmental Engineering / West Side REC
Mental and Emotional Health in Youth Families and Communities	UC Davis Dept. of Human Ecology
Oak Woodland Management and Conservation	UC ANR / Hopland REC
Organic Production: ANR OAI Academic Director	UC Merced Dept. of Life and Environmental Sciences
Outdoor Recreation	UC ANR / CA Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development
Recycled Water Reuse and Brackish Water Desalination	UC Davis Dept. of Land, Air and Water Resources; Biological and Agricultural Engineering
Sustainable Dairy Cattle Nutrition	UC Davis Dept. of Animal Science

The UCCE Advisor positions will be released for recruitment in small batches over the next several months to facilitate engagement of various selection committees.  The UCCE Specialists will be released to campuses for recruitment upon completion of the Memorandums of Agreement (MOAs) currently being renewed between UC ANR and the campuses/host sites.

We wish to thank the UC ANR program teams, county and REC directors, leadership from the UC campuses, the Program Council, and all of our collaborative partners who assisted with this position call, submissions and reviews. We truly could not be successful without your engagement and expertise.

Glenda Humiston
Vice President

Rachel Surls has cultivated a healthier LA County through gardens

UC Cooperative Extension advisor who promotes school gardens, urban agriculture to retire after 35-year career

A stroll through a leafy, green garden can give one temporary relief from life's harshness. During her career, Rachel Surls has used gardens to cultivate healthier communities, whether they are growing nutritious food or providing science lessons for students.

Over the past 35 years, Surls, University of California Cooperative Extension sustainable food systems advisor in Los Angeles County, has witnessed many changes – such as promoting public events on Instagram rather than typing and mailing press releases. A comforting and consistent presence has been the UC Master Gardener Program, part of UC Agriculture and Natural Resources. 

“As I look back, the UC Master Gardener Program has been a constant in my work. It helps so many people,” said Surls, who joined UCCE as a school and community garden coordinator in 1988.

“My new job with UCCE-LA was my dream job. I organized community gardens around the county and supported teachers who wanted to start school gardens,” recalled the Michigan native, who plans to retire at the end of the year. “I had a bachelor's degree in agronomy and was freshly out of a stint with the U.S. Peace Corps in rural Honduras. My work there inspired me to pursue community development work related to gardening.”

Louisa R. Cardenas, trustee of Los Angeles County Natural History Museums, was a UC Master Gardener volunteer for 25 years.

“Among Rachel's many skills and assets are her willingness to listen to and consider ideas from Master Gardeners that eventually reach and empower Los Angeles County residents to grow food that supplements their nutritional needs,” Cardenas said. 

To complement the nascent UC Master Gardener Program in Los Angeles County, Surls organized “Gardening Angels,” a cadre of volunteers to work with teachers and students to develop school gardens. She edited a guide for teachers, parents and volunteers to build gardens for children.

“I met Rachel in 1992 and was so blessed to come up through the ranks with her,” said Rose Hayden-Smith, UCCE emeritus advisor in digital communications in food systems and extension education. “We were in neighboring counties, and had many similar programmatic interests, including school gardens. Her research informed my work and was so helpful to me.”

Advancing food security, community nutrition

In 1994, after earning her master's degree from Cal Poly Pomona in agricultural science with a focus on agricultural education, Surls accepted a newly created position: UC Cooperative Extension urban horticulture advisor.

To retain Los Angeles County funding in 1992, the UCCE staff had become part of the county's Housing Authority/Community Development Commission. As the UCCE urban horticulture advisor, Surls was tasked with developing gardens at five public housing sites. At one of these locations, Carmelitos Housing Development in Long Beach, she worked with community partners to select landscape trees, hire a greenhouse contractor and design a horticulture job training program for public housing residents. This site became known as the Growing Experience Urban Farm.

“I'm pleased that 29 years later, the Growing Experience is still an active community farm where UC Master Gardeners offer workshops for the community,” Surls said. 

In 1997, when George Rendell retired as director of UCCE in Los Angeles County, Surls applied for the job. For the next 14 years, she oversaw more than 70 employees and local programs, including the 4-H youth development program, which launched afterschool, hands-on learning for children. 

Surls, who participated in 4-H herself as a child, worked closely with 4-H funders. She helped secure grants, contracts and gifts for 4-H as well as the UC Master Gardener Program and UCCE nutrition programs for projects that encouraged Angelenos to eat more fruits and vegetables.

“Rachel was incredibly creative and innovative as a leader,” said Hayden-Smith, who served as director of UCCE in Ventura County. “Rachel models a kind of quiet leadership that invites people into the process, honors the group and moves work forward in important ways.” 

While working, Surls earned her Ph.D. in higher education administration at Claremont Graduate University in 2008, with an eye on pursuing other leadership roles. Instead, the global financial crisis inspired her return to working directly with Los Angeles County residents on urban gardening to reduce food insecurity.

To focus on outreach, the UCCE sustainable food systems advisor handed her UCCE director duties to Keith Nathaniel, UCCE 4-H advisor, at the end of 2011.

Developing, sharing resources for urban farming and gardens

In 2012, she organized colleagues within UC Agriculture and Natural Resources and community partners to study the needs of urban farmers and begin offering workshops for them. She led the development of an urban agriculture website, with resources covering business management, food safety, marketing and regulations. She served on the leadership board of the Los Angeles Food Policy Council and began advising cities on policies that would make it easier for residents to grow food.

“These have been my favorite and most productive years of my career,” Surls said.

Drawing on skills she began honing as an undergraduate at Virginia Tech as a news writer for the Virginia Extension Service, Surls co-authored a book about the history of agriculture in Los Angeles County, called “From Cows to Concrete: The Rise and Fall of Farming in Los Angeles.” She is currently working on a second book about urban farming in the U.S.

The Grow LA Gardens Initiative – which helps aspiring gardeners start their own gardens quickly – is one source of pride for Surls. Hundreds of people have taken the four-week course and, after participating, nearly 70% planted gardens. 

In 2018, Surls was honored with the Bradford-Rominger award by the Agricultural Sustainability Institute at UC Davis for her work promoting community gardens, school gardens and urban agriculture.

With community gardens and school gardens now commonplace, Surls chuckles as she recalls veteran UCCE colleagues advising her to choose a more “serious” academic focus early in her career.

“It's gratifying to see so many people in academia working on farming in cities, school gardens and community gardens,” Surls said.

Advocating for equity

In 2022, while Surls was on sabbatical, she and Cardenas – the longtime UC Master Gardener volunteer – requested and received $100,000 from the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors to hire an equity, diversity and inclusion coordinator and to fund outreach. This UC Master Gardener project championed by Supervisor Sheila Kuehl specifically reaches underserved populations within the county. “Such a significant achievement would not have been possible without Rachel's encouragement and support,” Cardenas said.

After she retires, Surls plans to volunteer her expertise for online training of UC Master Gardener volunteers statewide. To support their program efforts including outreach to the Spanish-speaking community and scholarships for underserved communities, Surls has pledged to give $5,000 as a matching gift to donations to the UC Master Gardener Program in Los Angeles between Giving Tuesday, Nov. 28, and Dec. 31 at https://ucanr.edu/LAmastergardener.

Becky Wheeler-Dykes: New Extension Advisor is UC Davis Entomology Alumna

Rebecca “Becky” Wheeler-Dykes, the newly selected Cooperative Extension orchard systems and weed ecology advisor for Glenn, Tehama and Colusa counties, is a UC Davis alumna who grew up on a prune and walnut farm in Gridley, Butte...

Becky Wheeler-Dykes working in an orchard. She is the newly selected Cooperative Extension orchard systems and weed ecology advisor for Glenn, Tehama and Colusa counties.

Becky Wheeler-Dykes working in an orchard. She is the newly selected Cooperative Extension orchard systems and weed ecology advisor for Glenn, Tehama and Colusa counties.

Climate-Change Resources

University of California UC ANR Green Blog (Climate Change and Other Topics) https://ucanr.edu/blogs/Green/index.cfm?tagname=climate%20change (full index)

Examples:

     -  Save Trees First: Tips to Keep Them Alive Under Drought https://ucanr.edu/b/~CdD 

     - Landscaping with Fire Exposure in Mind: https://ucanr.edu/b/~G4D

     - Cities in California Inland Areas Must Make Street Tree Changes to adapt to Future Climate  https://ucanr.edu/b/~oF7

Drought, Climate Change and California Water Management Ted Grantham, UC Cooperative Extension specialist (23 minutes) https://youtu.be/dlimj75Wn9Q

Climate Variability and Change: Trends and Impacts on CA Agriculture Tapan Pathak, UC Cooperative Extension specialist (24 minutes) https://youtu.be/bIHI0yqqQJc

California Institute for Water Resources (links to blogs, talks, podcasts, water experts, etc.) https://ciwr.ucanr.edu/California_Drought_Expertise/

UC ANR Wildfire Resources (publications, videos, etc.) https://ucanr.edu/News/For_the_media/Press_kits/Wildfire/ (main website)

      -UC ANR Fire Resources and Information https://ucanr.edu/sites/fire/ (main website)

            -Preparing Home Landscaping https://ucanr.edu/sites/fire/Prepare/Landscaping/

UC ANR Free Publications https://anrcatalog.ucanr.edu/ (main website)

- Benefits of Plants to Humans and Urban Ecosystems: https://anrcatalog.ucanr.edu/pdf/8726.pdf

 -Keeping Plants Alive Under Drought and Water Restrictions (English version) https://anrcatalog.ucanr.edu/pdf/8553.pdf

  (Spanish version) https://anrcatalog.ucanr.edu/pdf/8628.pdf

-  Use of Graywater in Urban Landscapes https://anrcatalog.ucanr.edu/pdf/8536.pdf

-  Sustainable Landscaping in California https://anrcatalog.ucanr.edu/pdf/8504.pdf

 

Other (Non-UC) Climate Change Resources

Urban Forests and Climate Change. Urban forests play an important role in climate change mitigation and adaptation. Active stewardship of a community's forestry assets can strengthen local resilience to climate change while creating more sustainable and desirable places to live. https://www.fs.usda.gov/ccrc/topics/urban-forests

Examining the Viability of Planting Trees to Mitigate Climate Change (plausible at the forest level) https://climate.nasa.gov/news/2927/examining-the-viability-of-planting-trees-to-help-mitigate-climate-change/

Reports and other information resources coordinated under the auspices of the United Nations and produced through the collaboration of thousands of international scientists to provide a clear and up to date view of the current state of scientific knowledge relevant to climate change. United Nations Climate Action

Scientific reports, programs, action movements and events related to climate change. National Center for Atmospheric Research (National Science Foundation)

Find useful reports, program information and other documents resulting from federally funded research and development into the behavior of the atmosphere and related physical, biological and social systems. Search and find climate data from prehistory through to an hour ago in the world's largest climate data archive. (Formerly the "Climatic Data Center") National Centers for Environmental Information (NOAA)

Think tank providing information, analysis, policy and solution development for addressing climate change and energy issues (formerly known as the: "Pew Center on Global Climate Change"). Center for Climate & Energy Solutions (C2ES)

Mapping Resilience: A Blueprint for Thriving in the Face of Climate Disaster. The Climate Adaptation Knowledge Exchange (CAKE) was launched in July 2010 and is managed by EcoAdapt, a non-profit with a singular mission: to create a robust future in the face of climate change by bringing together diverse players to reshape planning and management in response to rapid climate change. https://www.cakex.org/documents/mapping-resilience-blueprint-thriving-face-climate-disaster

Cal-Adapt provides a way to explore peer-reviewed data that portrays how climate change might affect California at the state and local level. We make this data available through downloads, visualizations, and the Cal-Adapt API for your research, outreach, and adaptation planning needs. Cal-Adapt is a collaboration between state agency funding programs, university and private sector researchers https://cal-adapt.org/

Find reports, maps, data and other resources produced through a confederation of the research arms of 13 Federal departments and agencies that carry out research and develop and maintain capabilities that support the Nation's response to global change. Global Change (U.S. Global Change Research Program)

The Pacific Institute is a global water think tank that combines science-based thought leadership with active outreach to influence local, national, and international efforts to develop sustainable water policies. https://pacinst.org/our-approach/

Making equity real in climate adaptation and community resilience policies and programs: a guidebook. https://greenlining.org/publications/2019/making-equity-real-in-climate-adaption-and-community-resilience-policies-and-programs-a-guidebook/ 

Quarterly CA Climate Updates and CA Drought Monitor Maps (updated each Thursday) https://www.drought.gov/documents/quarterly-climate-impacts-and-outlook-western-region-june-2022

 

 

 

 

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