UC Blog
Fall is the perfect time to plant native perennials
There are many good reasons to plant California native plants in the landscape, and right now is a good time to do so, according to an article that ran over the weekend in the Sacramento Bee.
Native plants attract beneficial insects and birds, use up to 75 percent less water than conventional shrubs and lawn, require less work and are resistant to pests.
In September and October, the soil is warm enough in most parts of California to encourage native plant's root growth and winter rain will irrigate the new plants. The plants will be ready to produce abundant flowers in the spring, the article said.
Gardeners worried that native plants could appear weedy may wish to visit one of the University of California's native plant displays, including:
- The Honey Bee Haven on the UC Davis west campus
- The UC Davis Arboretum
- Garden of the Sun in Fresno
- Fair Oaks Horticulture Center
A number of UC training sessions about incorporating native plant's in California landscapes are planned:
Napa County, Sept. 15
Sutter-Yuba counties, Sept. 15
Placer-Nevada counties, Sept. 18
Fresno County, Oct. 2
Honey bee on tidy tips, a native California wildflower. (Photo by Kathy Garvey)
Sierra Nevada red fox spotted on Sonora Pass
UC Davis researchers' recent confirmation that Sierra Nevada red fox is still roaming the forest 200 miles further south than thought could ignite a political battle about endangered species, according to an article by Michael Doyle of McClatchy News Service.
The story appeared in the Sunday Fresno Bee, but online was only available on the Miami Herald website.
California law currently protects the fox, but the federal Endangered Species Act does not. According to the McClatchy story, it is a long, politically charged process to add an animal to the federal list, and the local congressman, George Radanovich, is unlikely to support such a move.
"Our state water supply has been hijacked by the radically irresponsible Endangered Species Act," Radanovich said in a House speech last year, according to the story.
A Sept. 2 UC Davis news release about the red fox find has captivated the media. The release, picked up by dozens of news outlets and blogs, said DNA analysis of saliva from the tooth punctures on a bait bag allowed UC Davis wildlife genetics researchers Ben Sacks and Mark Statham to determine for certain that the animal is a Sierra Nevada red fox.
"It's got a genetic signature that we haven't seen outside of the skulls and skins of museum specimens collected before 1926," Sacks was quoted in the Los Angeles Times. "So we now have two small, isolated populations, and we don't know how big the second group is. That's about as endangered as you can get."
Federal biologists, UC Davis genetics researchers and university students began setting up additional monitoring stations and cameras to try to determine the size and health of the Sonora Pass population.
"It is very unusual to discover a new large animal species," a Forest Service spokeswoman told the Times. "In this case, it was like finding a rare jewel in a totally unexpected place."
UC Davis wildlife genetics researcher Ben Sacks holds a native Sacramento Valley red fox.
Marin team designed the Honey Bee Haven
When Jessica Brainard picked up a pint of Häagen-Dazs ice cream at a Sausalito 7-Eleven in 2008, she added a link to a chain of events that culminate tomorrow with the official grand opening of the Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven at UC Davis.
Brainard was featured in a Marin Independent Journal article that detailed how she and three other local landscape designers followed a link on that fateful ice cream carton, leading to their having a substantial role in the creation of the half-acre garden that will raise awareness about the plight of the honey bee.
Interpretative planner Brainard, landscape architect Donald Sibbett, landscape architect Ann F. Baker and exhibit designer Chika Kurotaki won the garden design competition and a year's supply of Häagen-Dazs ice cream. Their winning design plan (pdf) can be viewed online.
The team designed the garden with:
Honeycomb Hideout, a space with large-blossomed plants and an over-sized honey bee sculpture that gives visitors a sense of a garden from a bees-eye point of view Waggle Dance Way, a path on which visitors can meander through a natural landscape Pollinator Patch, full of berries and fruit trees Save-the-Bee Sanctuary, which tells the story of how bees pollinate much of America's food My Backyard Garden, with perennials and a lawn substitute, which illustrate how almost anyone can make a garden bee-friendly Nectar Nook, shows how to create a natural-looking oasis for bees with native and drought-tolerant Mediterranean plants Langstroth Lane, a walkway with a pair of trellises that gives visitors the sense of entering and exiting frames of a bee box "It was really important to give visitors an emotional connection to the plight of honey bees," Brainard told reporter Debbie Arrington. "We wanted them to understand how important they are to our food production and to our life. This garden celebrates that and provides practical examples to promote bee-friendly backyards." The garden, planted last year, already houses a vast diversity of bees, including bumblebees, carpenter bees, leaf cutters, borer bees, mason bees and sweat bees. The grand opening event, free and open to the public, is from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Saturday, Sept. 11, at the Harry H. Laidlaw Jr. Honey Bee Research Facility, Bee Biology Road, University of California, Davis. More information is available in a news release by Department of Entomology writer Kathy Keatley Garvey.
The honey bee haven at UC Davis.
Grapes put the squeeze on Riverside citrus
The value of Riverside County citrus crops dropped 25 percent in one year, from $135.7 million in 2008 to $101.6 million in 2009, according to an article in the Riverside Press-Enterprise. The story credits the growth of the wine industry in Temecula for the decline in citrus production.
A farmer told reporter Jeff Horseman it makes more sense to grow citrus in California's San Joaquin Valley, where land and water are cheaper, or to import the fruit from other countries - such as Mexico and South America - where fewer regulations cut into profits.
The story said Temecula's future is now tied to wine as county officials and vintners collaborate on a plan to make the Southern California wine country a premier tourist destination. UC Cooperative Extension staff research associate Tom Shea told the reporter that the popularity of agricultural crops can shift with time. He recollects farmers in Sonoma County grew apples and prunes decades ago, but the wine industry proved more profitable when restaurants and other tourism amenities were added. "I believe the official name of the 'appellation' is Temecula Valley Wine Country," Horseman e-mailed in reply to my question about the capitalization. "Technically, Wine Country lies outside the City of Temecula proper. However, it's common for folks around here to refer to the area as 'Temecula Wine Country' or even just 'Wine Country.'"
A Riverside County vineyard.
Lake Tahoe clarity not impaired by Angora Fire
The clarity of the Sierra Nevada's largest alpine lake - Lake Tahoe - was not significantly impaired in the aftermath of the 2007 Angora Fire, according to a story in the Reno Gazette-Journal.
Proactive steps taken by the U.S. Forest Service to reseed the land charred by the fire, which burned 254 homes and blackened 3,000 acres, were credited for helping stave off erosion that could have clouded the lake.
The story was prompted by the release in August of the results of an annual survey of Lake Tahoe clarity by the UC Davis Tahoe Environmental Research Center. TERC reported that the lake was clear to an average depth of 68.1 feet in 2009, holding steady for the ninth year in a row. However, the lake is considerably less clear than it was when researchers first began tracking its clarity in 1968, when it was clear to an average depth of 102.4 feet.
"There was concern that erosion from the (Angora) burn area would get into the lake and cause problems," TERC director Geoff Schladow told the Reno paper. "But we found that the impact from the fire was negligible, which was a great relief for us. All we can say is we may have dodged a bullet on that one."
The newspaper also presented other findings from the 2009 TERC report:
- Invasive quagga mussels were found on 10 boats inspected by Tahoe management agencies as they headed for the lake.
- More precipitation fell as rain and less as snow.
- Algae attached to rocks and docks increased along the northeast shoreline.
- The amount of water-clouding particles and nutrients reaching the lake by west-side streams increased as precipitation rose from previous years.
Lake Tahoe clarity holding steady. (Photo by Roy Tennant, freelargephotos.com)