UC Blog
High Sierra not the place for cattle, scientists say
A UC Davis emergency room doctor and the director of the UC Davis Tahoe Research Center have launched a publicity campaign calling for cattle grazing to be suspended in the high Sierra, according to a story in Sunday's Sacramento Bee.
The article, billed as a "Bee exclusive" and written by Tom Knudson, said the doctor, an avid backpacker, took hundreds of water samples from pristine streams and lakes in the Sierras. He found that high-elevation water bodies on land managed by the Forest Service had bacterial contamination high enough to sicken hikers with Giardia, E. coli and other diseases. However, at high elevations in Yosemite and Sequoia/Kings Canyon National Parks, where cattle do not graze, the lakes and streams were pollution-free.
Doctor Robert Derlet and Tahoe Research Center director Charles Goldman believe cattle should be moved to lower elevations and that high Sierra areas now managed by the Forest Service should be converted into national parks.
"At one time, cattle were important for developing civilization here," Derlet was quoted in the story. "But now, with 40 million people in California, the Sierra is not for cattle. It's for water. We need water more than Big Macs."
The story also quoted Anne Yose, the regional rangeland program manager for the Forest Service. She said Forest Service studies show that "we can still successfully manage livestock and maintain water quality."
However, she also acknowledged in the story that it is "logistically really, really difficult" for the Forest Service to sample backcountry water.
The article said Derlet devised an insulating nylon kit and procedure for keeping water samples fresh, which includes rushing back to his car, icing the samples in a cooler and driving directly to a UC Davis lab.
Cattle grazing on low lands.
Valley ozone story takes off
Research by UC Davis scientists that revealed a substantial amount of San Joaquin Valley ozone is generated by animal feed is getting wide coverage in the news media. Google News reported 126 articles on the subject.
Many newspapers ran the Associated Press version of the story, written by Fresno-based Tracie Cone. She reported that the study — funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, California Air Resources Board and the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District — was initially intended to measure the impact of animal manure, urine and flatulence on ozone levels.
However, the researchers discovered that millions of tons of fermenting cattle feed bears greater responsibility.
Mark Grossi of the Fresno Bee noted in his story that the study was published last month in the journal Environmental Science & Technology. This week's flurry of interest was generated by an April 21 news feed from the American Chemical Society press office. ACS publishes the journal.
In his story, Grossi wrote that the cattle feed explains only half of the Valley's ozone problem. The other half, Nitrogen oxide, or NOx, comes from vehicles. San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District believes NOx is more important to control, the Bee article said.Meanwhile, Capital Press reported yesterday that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has rescinded its long-standing exemptions for agriculture under emission-control rules.
"Air quality in the San Joaquin Valley is consistently among the worst in the nation," said Deborah Jordan, director of the Air Division for the EPA's Pacific Southwest region, in a statement. "New and modified facilities will now be subject to the most stringent requirements, which will contribute to the health of our communities."/span>/span>
A dairy cow eats its rations.
Animal feed generates lots of valley ozone
Scientists have been puzzled by the fact that the San Joaquin Valley often suffers high ozone levels even though the mostly rural, agricultural domain has fewer cars and trucks than big cities. Research by UC Davis scientists is now showing that some of the ozone in the valley is being generated by fermented animal feed, according to a story posted yesterday on the website Science News.
While ozone provides a protective barrier for the earth in the stratosphere, it is an unwelcome molecule to have around where people are breathing. Ozone (O3) is a powerful oxidizing agent, far stronger than O2. It can harm lung function and irritate the respiratory system.
The UC Davis team, led by environmental engineer Cody Howard, tested seven types of animal feed in a one-meter-square tented chamber, according to writer Janet Raloff, author of the Science News story. They added a mix of gases that matched the valley’s air and simulated sunlight with lamps. The result was lots of ozone.
Corn silage generated about 125 parts per billion ozone, alfalfa silage a little less, and mixed oat-wheat silage 210 ppb, Raloff reported. These emissions pale in comparison to cars. However, because the San Joaquin Valley has so much silage to feed its animal agriculture industry, the feed appears to be the single biggest contributor to the region’s ozone problem, the story said.
Cars and light-duty trucks in the valley can generate 13 metric tons of ozone per day, while feed for the valley’s 10 million head of dairy cattle can produce 24.5 million tons of ozone per day.
Corn silage livestock feed.
Herb-infused manure nourishes contentment
After a hard life - which included multiple divorces, alcoholism, drug addiction, the loss of a young son and bankruptcy - specialty fertilizer producer Denise Ritchie is now finding gratification by rescuing dairy cows before slaughter and using manure to create biodynamic compost.
Ritchie's story was featured this week in a Los Angeles Times Column One article by Martha Groves. She and her husband Randy purchased a dairy cow at auction last August. The animal was christened Bu, ensconced at a friend's organic dairy farm near Fresno, and became the namesake for the Ritchies' "Bu's Blend Biodynamic Compost."
According to the Times article, Ritchie stumbled upon and was inspired by the biodynamic process, which mixes organic principles with cosmic spirituality. The Ritichies believe their compost emanates "energetic life forces to vitalize vegetables, plants, flowers, lawns, gardens, farms and our earth," according to their website. While much of mainstream agriculture is unconvinced about the value of biodynamic tenents, UC Cooperative Extension farm advisor Glenn McGourty sees their value.
"There are lessons for all of agriculture in some of the basic agronomy that biodynamic farmers practice," McGourty was quoted in the story.
Bu's Blend is sold in about 50 California nurseries, running about $20 for a 1.5 cubic foot bag, easily double the cost of other organic composts.
"You're healing your soil with this stuff," the story quoted Sarah Spitz, a KCRW producer and a graduate of the Los Angeles County UC Cooperative Extension Master Gardener program.
The LA Times story says the Master Gardener became a customer of the fertilizer after studying various approaches to gardening and concluding that biodynamics "was the purest, healthiest and cleanest system." Every seed she has planted using Bu's Blend, she told Groves, has sprouted and grown "big and beautiful."Program Support Unit launches website
The Program Support Unit (PSU) has launched a new website, http://ucanr.org/sites/PSU, which details its services and the process for requesting assistance from the staff. The site also has a blog that the unit plans to use to communicate the latest news on ANR Competitive Grants, sources of funding, and event planning. A page called “Resources” will be added to offer tips and tricks on event planning, database management, websites and more.
The program support team, which includes the Program Support Unit and AVP Barbara Allen-Diaz’s staff in Oakland, will also provide support to facilitate preparation of grant documents and/or coordinate meetings to discuss AFRI proposals. Contact your Strategic Initiative Leader to obtain approval for AFRI assistance.
ANR Strategic Initiatives
Endemic & Invasive Pests and Diseases (EIPD), Ian Gardner
Healthy Families and Communities (HFC), Sharon Junge
Sustainable Food Systems (SFS), Joe DiTomaso
Sustainable Natural Ecosystems (SNE), James Bartolome
PSU was created to provide programmatic support in key areas to ANR members working in the area of initiatives, programmatic and advocacy efforts, statewide programs and leadership groups. Some of the services PSU provides include:
- Assisting with planning, coordination of meetings to facilitate development and implementation of advocacy goals.
- Facilitating development of requests for proposals, coordination of review panels, compilation of funding decisions and interface with Business Operations Center for distribution of funds.
- Providing support for workshops, conferences, symposia that are of regional or statewide scope.
- Providing meeting agenda development, facilitation and note taking assistance for ANR efforts, such as Program Council, Executive Working Group, and others as requested by ANR leadership.
- Working with the leaders of the Strategic Initiatives to plan, coordinate and conduct meetings of advisory teams and other groups to facilitate the development and implementation of the Initiative missions and programs.
For more information about PSU, contact Joni Rippee at joni.rippee@ucop.edu.
View or leave comments for the Executive Working Group
These announcements are also posted and archived on the ANR Update pages.