Backyard Orchard News
A Summit to Save the Butterflies
Let's wing it, they said. And they did. But this event wasn't "winged"; it was well planned and...
Tora Rocha (left), founder of the Pollinator Posse of Oakland (soon to be statewide), and Mia Monroe, coordinator of the Xerces Society's Western Monarch Thanksgiving Count, address the crowd. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Entomologist/author Sally "Sal" Levinson speaks to the crowd. On the panel (from left) are Mia Monroe of the Xerces Society, Amber Hasselbring of San Francisco's Nature in the City, and Tora Rocha of the Pollinator Posse. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
UC Master Gardener Suzanne Clarke of Sonoma County urges "Plant milkweed and the monarchs will come." (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
A hand shoots up to ask a question. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Butterflies ruled at the Butterfly Summit. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
UC ANR Kearney Agricultural Research and Extension Center (KARE) helps students and teachers explore healthy food choices and learn how food is grown.
In March, Kings County has a Farm Day where students and teachers explore healthy food choices, learn how food is grown, interact with farm animals, and build an increased awareness of how agriculture helps our local community and economy. This is achieved by the Kings County Farm Bureau, The Kings County Office of Education and the Kings Fairgrounds partnering to bring the students and presenters together at the Fairgrounds. On March 16, 2017, over 2400 third-graders and 100 teachers and chaperones from 32 schools, as well as presenters for 60 stations attended Farm Day. With the generous donations from The Plant Food People, Greenheart Farms, and awesome volunteers, KARE provided all attendees with short presentations on what it takes to be a healthy plant and what it takes to be a healthy person, followed immediately by workshops where attendees planted leaf lettuce transplants to take home and enjoy.
Fresno County had Farm and Nutrition Day on March 17, 2017, allowing over 4000 third-grade students, teachers, and chaperones from 38 schools experience over 55 interactive presentations at the Big Fresno Fair grounds. Experiential workshops, presentations and displays helped increase participant awareness of agriculture as well as the benefits of making healthy choices. Fresno County Farm Bureau organized the event with the help of several sponsors, volunteers and presenter groups. Again with the generous donations from The Plant Food People, Greenheart Farms, and awesome volunteers, KARE provided all attendees with short presentations on what it takes to be a healthy plant and what it takes to be a healthy person, followed immediately by workshops where attendees planted leaf lettuce transplants to take home and enjoy.
At both events, other UC ANR programs, like 4-H, master gardeners, food and nutrition, small farms advisors, etc., from Kings and Fresno counties also had animals and presentations for the attendees.
Click here to see a Fresno Bee article.
National Poison Prevention Week was March 19-25, 2017.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), poisoning is the number one cause of injury-related death in the United States, and 1073 people in California were poisoned by pesticides in 2014 alone. Each year since 1962, National Poison Prevention Week has taken place during the third week of March, to raise awareness about avoiding these tragedies. No one wants their workers or family members to experience illness or death from pesticide exposure, so the UC IPM Pesticide Safety Education Program (PSEP) would like to bring special attention to preventing pesticide poisoning this week. The program also published a new edition of The Safe and Effective Use of Pesticidesin 2016, which contains a wealth of pesticide safety and hazard prevention information for people who work with pesticides.
Both agricultural and household pesticides can poison people if they are not properly handled. In agriculture, poisoning most often results from pesticide mixing and loading, and the most harm occurs due to spills, splashes and equipment failure. In the home, many pesticide poisoning incidents involve children swallowing pesticides, including garden products, disinfectant cleaners, or other chemicals used to control pests.
One of the most important things you can do to prevent pesticide poisoning is to follow the instructions on the pesticide label. Labels address critical information about how to use a pesticide safely, including the kind of personal protective equipment (PPE) you should wear to prevent overexposure, how much of the product to apply, the minimum time you must wait to enter the area after applying the pesticide (the restricted entry interval), and the minimum time that must pass between application and harvest (preharvest interval).
Labels also include important signal words such as “Danger,” “Warning,” or “Caution” that indicate how acutely toxic the chemical is to humans, as well as directions to avoid pesticide contamination of sensitive areas such as schools and hospitals. These instructions are meant to protect anyone who is at risk of being exposed to hazardous pesticide residues. It is essential to thoroughly read and understand the pesticide label before working with the pesticide, and to carefully comply with label instructions throughout the process. The UC IPM guide to Understanding Pesticide Labels for Making Proper Applications can help you do this, and is available in both English and Spanish.
If you apply pesticides in or around your home, be sure to store them properly and keep them out of the reach of children. Keep in mind that even mothballs may look like candy to very young children. It is illegal and unsafe to store pesticides in food or drink containers, which can easily fool people into consuming them and being poisoned. According to the California Department of Pesticide Regulation, these mistakes caused 62 incidents of child poisoning from pesticide ingestion in California in 2014, and 47 of those cases involved children under six years of age.
To learn more about poisoning and how to prevent it, consider visiting the following resources:
Center for Disease Control and Prevention Leading Causes of Death Reports
National Poison Prevention Week website
National Pesticide Information Center
UC IPM online course: Proper Pesticide Use to Avoid Illegal Residues
There's Gold on Them Thar Roses
There's gold on them thar roses. No, not the kind of gold found during the California Gold Rush...
Matched pair: Two multicolored Asian beetles on rose leaves in Vacaville, Calif. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
The lady beetles lay their eggs in a cluster or row. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Close-up of lady beetle eggs. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Drones are used for research and land management; do you want to learn how to use drones?
Jeffery Dahlberg, director of UC ANR Kearney Agricultural Research & Extension Center (KARE), specializing in plant breeding and genetics, is working with drones to collect data for one of his sorghum programs. Work will continue the development of field scale drought nurseries at both KARE and West Side Research & Extension Center (WSREC) under a DOE ARPA-e funded project that utilizes drone technology to phenotype sorghum lines on a weekly basis as they are stressed under pre- and post-flowering drought stress. Research will continue this coming summer to gather additional phenotypic data, along with heat stress measurements and soil moisture monitoring. These nurseries are part of an effort to identify genes that are expressed under different field stress conditions and relate them to sorghum's ability to withstand and recover from stress.
If you are interested in learning how to use drones for research and land management, you may want to explore attending the UCANR Informatics and GIS Program's Dronecamp July 25-27, 2017 at UCANR in Davis, Calif., the application period is March 1 – April 15, 2017. Dronecamp costs $500 for UC affiliates (UC employees and enrolled students), and $900 for non-UC participants. Dronecomp is designed for participants with little or no experience in drone technology, and want to learn how to use drones for mapping applications. The intensive workshop covers drone science; safety and regulations; mission planning; flight operations; data processing; data analysis; visualization; and the latest trends and technology. Read more.