Tom Lanini is a fisherman first and foremost. Yet since 1978 he has devoted his time and energy to being a Cooperative Extension specialist at UC Davis, fighting the weeds that plague farmers across California. And with his retirement last spring, he has returned full time to his first passion, fishing.
In his career at UC Davis he occasionally mixed both pursuits, such as long ago when he and a couple colleagues went up to Twin Lakes in the Central Sierras to write a research paper and in their downtime they snuck in some fishing. And he once pushed the physical limits of Cooperative Extension Specialist Joe DiTomaso. Both graduate students at UC Davis, the two snow skied several miles and hiked several more to a remote fishing spot, struggling later to return to the car and only reaching it at 9 p.m.
“He was always one of those guys who’s always in great shape,” said DiTomaso. “And he could do those things without complaining.”
CE Adviser Gene Miyao likes to remember Lanini as being well-rounded and committed to bringing applied research to growers’ hands.
“He’s always been enthusiastically positive and that sort of attitude was productive for me to be associated with,” said Miyao. “Some of these projects were grueling and Tom would hang in there and take a leadership role.”
When Lanini came to UC Davis as a graduate student in 1978, he was fresh from working for the US Forest Service, where he spent time in the backcountry checking permits, building trails and fighting fires and where he first became interested in forestry. He finished a doctoral degree in Forestry in 1983 and, after three years in an extension weed program at Penn State, he thought he’d try his luck in applying to a new weed ecologist position at what would eventually become UC Davis Plant Sciences. He got the job and was likely the first person in the western U.S. to hold the weed ecologist title.
For the next 27 years, Lanini specialized in ways to reduce chemicals in weed control, ranging from the use of geese and chickens to better irrigation systems, organic herbicides, biological control and other low-input methods. While vegetable weed control was his primary focus, Lanini handled most areas of weed management at one time or another, including forestry, trees and vines, agronomic crops, rangeland and urban areas. He became an expert in the parasitic plant dodder as well as herbicide drift onto non-target plants. He played an important part in organizing and moderating the Weed Science School for several years, along with the annual UC Weed Day.
“Both of my boys cut their teeth in the working world by working with Tom in the field,” said DiTomaso. “Tom’s always hired a lot of young kids and helped them in their pathway of the working world.”
With his own kids grown up, Lanini now travels more, often with his wife during her work trips abroad. Yet he remains close to his former colleagues at Plant Sciences.
“He’s been a good friend for a long time,” said DiTomaso. “It seems like my whole career in weed science has been with Tom.”
And when he does swing by the department to see DiTomaso, Lanini always stresses: “I’m not dying; I’m just retiring!”
