UC Blog
Effort under way to find home for water archive
UC ANR may extend another request for proposals to find a new home for the Water Resource Center Archives, now housed at UC Berkeley, according to an article this week in the Contra Costa Times.
ANR announced last October plans to move the archive in order to achieve budget savings.
"We don't believe we have the expertise to continue to manage a library," ANR associate vice president Barbara Allen-Diaz told reporter Mike Taugher. "I believe in these kinds of archives. I will do my best to find it a home."
The Times story gave examples of archives in the collection:
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Promotional materials for the "Reber Plan" to build a dam across the Golden Gate
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Old speeches about the peripheral canal
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Original photographs of the construction of the Los Angeles aqueduct
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Photos of the aftermath of the deadly 1928 collapse of St. Francis Dam near Los Angeles
In all, the archive contains more than 200,000 technical reports, 1,500 specialized newsletters, 5,000 maps and videos, 200 manuscript collections, 25,000 black-and-white photographs and 45,000 coastal aerial photographs.
"We specialize in collecting information nobody else has," the article quoted archive director Linda Vida. "These are the kinds of things you can't find at a regular library."
The archive is used by academics, authors, consultants, engineers, government officials, lawyers, students and water districts.
UPDATE, May 25, 2010: The San Francisco Chronicle ran an editorial today about ANR efforts to move the Water Resources Center Archives. The editorial was written by Daniel Holmes, a consulting geographer and librarian. Holmes has posted an open letter on the Web encouraging people to write to UC leaders about the water archive.
A LA aquaduct construction photo from the archive.
ANR town hall set for 9:30 a.m. May 25
Please join VP Dooley for a 60-minute ANR town hall meeting on Adobe Connect on Tuesday, May 25, at 9:30 a.m. PDT.
Dooley will discuss the governor's "May Revise" and implications for UC and ANR's budget, and thoughts on progress towards our Strategic Vision.
The governor released his revised budget proposal on Friday, May 14.
“We are grateful that the governor has provided for an increase to higher education in a very difficult budget,” said Dooley. “We have a lot to do over the next few months until the budget is signed.”
The town hall link will be https://admin.na4.acrobat.com/anrtownhall. You should also be able to log into Adobe Connect through the link in the upper right-hand corner of the ANR portal https://ucanr.org/portal.
If you have trouble connecting to the town hall during the event, contact Mike Poe at (530) 902-2058 or mlpoe@ucdavis.edu.View or leave comments for the Executive Working Group
This announcement is also posted and archived on the ANR Update pages.
European grapevine moth found in Merced Co.
Three European grapevine moths found recently in a northeast Merced County vineyard mean six grape-growing California counties are now dealing with the new pest, according to an article over the weekend in the Fresno Bee.
The pest, a native of southern Italy, made its first California appearance last fall in Napa County. It has also been trapped in Solano, Sonoma, Mendocino and Fresno counties.
Writer Robert Rodriguez reported that the Merced agricultural commissioner was surprised by the local find. Only about 12,000 acres of vineyards are within the county borders; by contrast, Fresno County as 190,000 acres.
Fresno County UCCE viticulture farm advisor Stephen Vasquez told Rodriguez that he has received dozens of calls from growers about the European grapevine moth since the ag commissioner announced the pest was trapped in three Fresno County locations in late April and early May.
"Farmers want to know how to kill it and what will they have to do as part of the quarantine," Vasquez was quoted in the story. "Many are concerned about their ability to move fruit in and out of the area."
UC Cooperative Extension is working with the ag commissioner's office to offer four grower meetings about the pest in Fresno County. They will be held:
- 10 a.m. to 12 noon Wednesday, May 19, at the UC Kearney Research and Extension Center near Parlier.
- 1 to 3 p.m. Wednesday, May 19, at UC KREC
- 10 a.m to 12 noon Saturday, May 22, at the California Tree Fruit Agreement office in Reedley.
- 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday, May 27, at the Fresno County Farm Bureau office in Fresno.
At each of the meetings, growers will learn about European grapevine moth life cycle, the monitoring program, quarantine guidelines and more. For details, see the meeting flyer. More information about the pest is available on the UC Integrated Pest Management website.
European grapevine moth.
UC nitrate *quick test* protects water quality
Lettuce farmers can use less fertilizer - saving money, cutting back water use and reducing nitrate groundwater contamination risk - without sacrificing crop yield by employing a "quick test" developed by UC Cooperative Extension, the San Francisco Chronicle reported today.
With the quick test, growers can determine how much nitrogen is in the soil and use only as much fertilizer as their lettuce needs to grow.
UC Cooperative Extension farm advisor Michael Cahn told reporter Julia Scott that he helped one company use 70 pounds less fertilizer per acre and get the same yield.
The Chronicle story was focused on imposing regulations to ease water nitrate contamination in California. Cal State East Bay earth and environmental science professor Jean Moran pointed to agriculture as the primary source of the problem.
"It covers a much larger area, it's a constant input of nitrates in groundwater and you have constant irrigation and over-irrigation, which drives the nitrates deeper into the groundwater," Moran was quoted. "But if you look for new evidence of regulations on nitrate issues in groundwater, you just don't find them."
Lettuce irrigation.
USDA and UC join forces against potato psyllid
Scientists at USDA's Agricultural Research Service and UC Riverside will work together to develop a chemical attractant to monitor and manage the potato psyllid, according to an ARS news release issued today.
The psyllid harms the potato industry in two ways. Toxins emitted when the pest feeds causes psyllid yellows and an organism vectored by the psyllids causes a condition known as "zebra chip."
Zebra chip happens when sugars accumulate in some areas of the tuber instead of starch. Dark lines run the length of affected potatoes. In chipping varieties, these areas turn black when the chips are fried, creating a black, striped effect that gives rise to the name "zebra chip," according to the UC IPM Pest Note on potato psyllid.
Under a six-month cooperative agreement, UC Riverside entomologist Jocelyn Millar and ARS scientists in Wapato, Wash., will together try to isolate, identify, synthesize and test the specific chemical or chemicals that female potato psyllids use to attract mates.
"The agreement between UC Riverside and ARS is a pooling of resources and personnel that leverages Millar’s research on insect chemical ecology with the Wapato team’s behavioral assay studies," said the news release, written by Jan Suszkiw.
ARS scientists look at "zebra chips."