UC Blog
Retired county directors continue their life's work
Two retired UC Cooperative Extension county directors were recognized in the media as they continue work to build better communities.
The article said Cochran and Yee are working together to develop Food Commons, a project that aims create a more localized infrastructure for food production and distribution. Among its goals are to create land trusts, community banks and hubs.
The book aims to show readers how to be alerted to the danger and subtlety of seducing spirits and helps believers maintain their focus on Jesus for effective ministry.
"All believers are in a spiritual war. The spiritual weapons of the enemy are subtle and strategically employed to hinder effective ministry," Barrett was quoted.
She is pastor of the Antioch African Methodist Episcopal Church, which she founded in 2001.
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Mushroom collecting impacted by sudden oak death
A Northern California mushroom hunter blames sudden oak death for a dramatic decline in wild golden chanterelles, according to a feature story in the East Bay Express, but the article points to myriad pressures on landscapes that used to produce the edible fungi.
Mushroom enthusiast Todd Spanier told writer Alistair Bland that 10 years ago he could harvest nearly 200 pounds of golden chanterelles from a handful of patches.
"Now, I can go to the same canyons, do all the same hikes to all the same patches, and collect maybe five pounds of chanterelles," Spanier was quoted.
Among other things, Spanier blames sudden oak death.
"In places the forest looks like a checkerboard of dead trees," Spanier said.
The story outlines the other landscape impacts that may be partly responsible for the decline in wild mushrooms:
- Grazing cattle, which gather in the shade of oaks and trample seasonal mushroom patches
- Wild pigs, which tear up the soil beneath oaks rooting for acorns
- Suburban sprawl and development
The tanoak — not actually an oak but still important for mushrooms — have meanwhile been decimated by sudden oak death in its native range along the central and north coasts of California. UC Berkeley SOD expert Matteo Garbelotto believes the tanoaks could disappear from some areas altogether, the article said.
Mushroom hunting is illegal in state and national parks and a permit is required for mushroom hunting in national forests. Bland said, however, that many avid collectors regularly break such laws. Spanier suggested there's a primal drive for collecting the rare delicacies.
"Wild mushrooms are our last connection to our ancestral hunting and gathering roots, and cultivated mushrooms can't replace that," he is quoted in the story. "If and when we lose the California live oak and tanoak, it's going to be tragedy in so many ways. It'll be a culinary loss, a cultural loss, and an ecological and environmental loss."
Wild golden chanterelle mushrooms. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)
Alameda Master Gardeners help develop garden to feed the hungry
In addition, plans are in place to make the organic planting and composting operation a demonstration garden with a monthly curriculum and teaching cycles for anyone who wants to learn about gardening, the story said.
The pastor of Asbury United Methodist Church, Chuck Johnstone, suggested last year that open land behind the church could be used to grow food for the hungry. In August, Alameda County Master Gardeners Bruce Campbell and Mark Brunell and a team of volunteers prepared the soil for planting by digging down 18 inches by hand, screen-sifting the soil to remove the pebbles and rocks, and forming five 80-foot-long raised beds. In December they held a four-hour planting party.
"We're doing all this on a shoestring. We replaced a large cash outlay with a lot of (volunteer) labor," Campbell was quoted in the article.
Reporter Thomas Petty said the Master Gardeners have two simple goals for the garden:
- Use an organic market garden model. Food scraps from the food kitchen are composted and put back into the garden for fertilizer. No artificial fertilizers or pesticides are used and the group is working toward "bio-intensive" beds.
- Have a closed system in which proper crop rotation increases soil fertility. Nothing goes into the system except sun, water and compost.
The Garden of Grace blog reported that 50 heads lettuce - romaine, green and red salad bowl, red sails lettuce, and some Russian red kale leaves - 12 broccoli heads, 6 Bull's Blood beets, and 6 turnips were harvested from the garden on Easter Sunday.
Strategic Initiative conferences set locations, open registration
The Sustainable Natural Ecosystems Strategic Initiative Conference will be held at the Radisson in Sacramento Sept. 20–22. Details about the SNE conference will be posted at http://ucanr.org/sites/SNE as they become available.
Registration for the Healthy Families and Communities Strategic Initiative Conference is now open. California Health and Human Services Secretary Diana Dooley will be the keynote speaker for the conference, which will be held May 17–19 at ARC at UC Davis. To register for the HFC conference or for more information, go to http://ucanr.org/sites/HFC.
The Sustainable Food Systems Strategic Initiative Conference will be held Oct. 11–12 at the ARC at UC Davis. More information about the two-day SFS conference will be posted at http://ucanr.org/sites/SFS as it becomes available.
View or leave comments for the Executive Working Group
This announcement is also posted and archived on the ANR Update pages.
Trade conflict with Mexico impending
California farmers will have to pay millions of dollars to Mexican authorities to export their products to the neighboring country if a trucking dispute is not resolved before summer, according to an article in La Opinión. Mexico plans to impose the new tariff in retaliation for the cancellation of a U.S. pilot program that permitted Mexican trucks to transport goods on U.S. highways.
The Border Trade Alliance reported this week that California agriculture will be the second most impacted economic sector if the two countries do not reach an agreement in relation to the free passage of Mexican trucks in U.S. territory, the article said.
"The retaliatory tariffs that Mexico has imposed on U.S. goods in response to the trucking impasse are hurting the U.S. economy and are a drag on President Obama's goal to double exports," BTA president Nelson Balido said in a statement released by the organization. "As Texas A&M University's Center for North American Studies recently reported, the U.S. agriculture sector alone has been negatively affected by the tariffs to the tune of $153 billion."
La Opinión reporter Claudia Nuñez spoke to the director of the UC Agricultural Issues Center, Dan Sumner, about the potential economic impact of the trade dispute.
"California exports about 20 percent if its agricultural production, principally to Mexico," he was quoted in the article.
U.S. and Mexican governments are involved in a a cross-border trucking dispute that could hurt both countries.