Posts Tagged: ecosystems

UCANR Seeks Public Comment on Proposed Livestock, Forestry and Natural Resources CE Positions By July 21, 2014

The University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources created a call in January of 2014 for new UCCE Advisor and Specialist positions. The goal for filling these positions is to strengthen and rebuild the UC ANR network to meet programmatic gaps and emerging issues facing California identified in the Strategic Vision (see: ANR Strategic Vision 2025 full report or ANR Strategic Vision 2025 Executive Summary) and further refined in each of the 5 Strategic Initiatives entitled: Endemic and Invasive Pests and Diseases, Healthy Families and Communities, Sustainable Food Systems, Sustainable Natural Ecosystems and Water Quality, Quantity and Security. All 123 new proposed positions are listed on a public web page at this link.

These proposed positions are presently undergoing internal review until August 18, 2014. The public is invited to comment on these proposed positions until July 21, 2014.

Of the 123 positions proposed, 23 positions could benefit California's livestock, forestry and natural resources based industries. Those same 23 positions would have overlapping impact on both sustainable natural ecosystems, water quality, quantity security and sustainable food systems. I have listed in the table below those 23 positions with their identifying number, title, type of position (Advisor or Specialist) and where those positions would be located. Area Advisors are housed in one county but cover multiple counties. Specialists are statewide and support Advisor research and educational programs. If you click on the ID Number it will take you to the page where you can add comments for that position. There is also a link on that same page that describes the position in more detail.

ID Number	Position Title	Advisor or Specialist	Location, County or Campus
003	Area Livestock & Natural Resources	Advisor	Tuolumne
017	Area Desert Livestock	Advisor	Imperial
020	Area Forest & Natural Resources	Advisor	Ventura
021	Area Forest & Natural Resources	Advisor	Sutter-Yuba
024	Area Livestock & Natural Resources	Advisor	Placer-Nevada
025	Area Livestock & Natural Resources	Advisor	Sutter-Yuba
026	Area Livestock & Natural Resources & Community Development	Advisor	Plumas
027	Area Livestock & Natural Resources	Advisor	Ventura
028	Area Natural Resources – Fire & Restoration	Advisor	San Diego
045	Dairy	Advisor	Sonoma
046	Dairy	Advisor	Humboldt
057	Livestock & Natural Resources	Advisor	Siskiyou
066	Applied Limnology (Lakes & Fresh Water)	Specialist	UCD
067	Aquaculture	Specialist	UCD
070	Beef Cattle Herd Health	Specialist	UCD Vet Med
081	Dairy Cattle Production Health Management	Specialist	Vet Med Teaching & Research Center -Tulare
087	Forest Products and Woody Biomass	Specialist	UCB
092	Livestock & Rangeland Economist	Specialist	UCD
102	Plant Conservation	Specialist	UCR
107	Rangeland Management	Specialist	UCD
108	Rangeland Policy & Planning	Specialist	UCB
109	Rangeland Ruminant Nutritional Ecology	Specialist	SFREC Sierra Foothill Research & Extension Center
115	Sheep & Goat Heard Health & Production	Specialist	UCD Vet Med

 

It is very possible that not all of these positions will survive the screening process. That's why it's important to have stakeholder input and I urge you to take the time to review at least each of these and comment. Please also comment on any of the other positions shown on the full list as well.

It's also important to know that the comment process is not a voting one. Rather it is a supportive process from stakeholders who are visionary and statewide-thinking about the issues facing California's livestock and natural resources owners, managers and stewards. Some of these positions, especially the Advisors and a few of the Specialists, have had very successful people filling those slots. The public comments should not focus on replacing one of these great people but local, regional and statewide need for the position to work to solve current and future problems.

As the statewide leader for the Sustainable Natural Ecosystems Initiative, I would also like to hear from my blog readers how you might rank the positions in the above table outside of the comments you provide on the public page links I've provided in the table. To do so just either comment on this blog article, message me via LinkedIn or Facebook or drop me an email at jmharper@ucanr.edu. Please put SNESI positions in the subject so I can search and sort. I look forward to hearing from you!

 

 

UC, CSU team up on agricultural, environmental research projects

Researchers and educators from the University of California and California State University have received funding for joint projects on priority issues such as urban residential water demand, restoring pollinator communities, and estimating alfalfa’s impact on nitrogen and nitrate leaching in the Central Valley.

Leadership of California’s higher education systems made the funding available to jointly address issues in agriculture, natural resources and human sciences. Project criteria include collaborative research, teaching, or course development; development of student internship opportunities; and workshops, conferences, and symposia. Eight projects totaling more than $79,500 were selected from 30 proposals submitted.

“These research projects will help leverage limited resources to produce quick results on important issues in California,” said Neal Van Alfen, dean of the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences at UC Davis. “They are also building stronger connections among researchers throughout the state and providing hands-on learning opportunities for students.”

Researchers involved in this year’s projects are from UC Davis, UC Berkeley and California State University campuses at Chico, Fresno, Humboldt, Pomona, Sonoma, San Marcos and San Luis Obispo. The awarded projects, with principal investigators, are listed below:

• “Estimating residential water demand functions in urban California regions” — Economists from UC Berkeley and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo will estimate residential water demand of municipalities and water companies that serve 19 million people in the Bay Area and Southern California. (Maximilian Auffhammer, Stephen Hamilton)
   
• “Reintroduced mammals and plant invaders as key drivers of ecosystem processes in coastal and interior grasslands” — Researchers from Sonoma State University and UC Davis will study how reintroducing tule elk and reducing invasive Harding grass affects the availability of soil nutrients and the composition of plant communities. (Caroline Christian, J. Hall Cushman, Valerie Eviner)
   
• “Genetics of plant defense responses to pesticides and spider mites on grapes” — Scientists from UC Davis and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo will conduct laboratory, greenhouse and field studies to learn more about factors affecting grapevine response to spider mites, including cultivar resistance, drought impact and pesticide exposure. (Michael Costello, Richard Karban, Andrew Walker, Jeffrey Wong)
   
• “Defining the functions of polyphenol oxidase in walnut” — Through genetic analysis, researchers at CSU San Marcos and UC Davis seek to learn more about an enzyme involved in the postharvest browning of cut or bruised fruit. (Matthew Escobar, Monica Britton, Abhaya Dandekar)
   
• “Modeling the costs of hazardous fuel reduction thinning treatments and removal of woody biomass for energy” — Researchers from Humboldt State University, UC Davis, and the U.S. Forest Service will develop a model to estimate the costs of removing hazardous wildland fuels with different equipment and systems over a wide range of forest stand, site and road conditions. (Han-Sup Han, Bruce Hartsough)

• “Restoration of pollinator communities and pollination function in riparian habitats” — Researchers from California State University, Chico, and UC Davis will characterize native pollinator communities at restored riparian habitats within the Central Valley and test whether successful restoration of pollinator communities also leads to restoration of pollination. (Christopher Ivey, Neal Williams)

• “Estimating alfalfa’s impact on regional nitrogen budgets and nitrate leaching losses in the Central Valley of California” — Researchers from California State University, Fresno, and UC Davis will collect alfalfa and non-legume plants from irrigated fields and also identify San Joaquin Valley farm sites for a multi-year study of alfalfa’s impact on regional nitrogen budgets, groundwater nitrate leaching, and nitrogen requirements of rotation crops. (Bruce Roberts, Stuart Pettygrove, Daniel Putnam)
   
• “Community and ecosystem response to elevated nitrogen in managed grassland ecosystems” — Restoration ecologists from Cal Poly Pomona and UC Berkeley will investigate how elevated nitrogen levels affect competition among native and exotic plant species with regard to fuel characteristics at UC’s South Coast Research and Extension Center. (Erin Questad, Katharine Suding)

Reports on project outcomes are expected in December 2012.

New Hopland building integrates nature with function

Woodpecker-friendly siding harvested from a UC-managed forest and posts salvaged from a century-old mill are among the many “green” features at a new University of California facility currently under construction in Mendocino County.

The new Rod Shippey Educational Facility and Field Laboratory at the UC Hopland Research and Extension Center is currently under construction, scheduled for completion in June. The facility is being constructed to meet standards equivalent to Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification, per University of California requirements of new buildings.

“We want this building to be educational itself,” said Bob Keiffer, superintendent of the UC Hopland Research and Extension Center. “We are trying every which way possible to incorporate ‘green aspects’ into this building.”

As early as October the building will welcome visitors to learn about natural resources, agriculture and science. It is expected to comfortably seat 180 to 200 people.

“We envision this building as being used by the entire community of the North Coast. There’s no other large meeting facility of this kind in Mendocino County that we know of and that will have this connection to the outdoors,” Keiffer said.

Reclaimed wood with history

Community members are also contributing to the project. Six 27-foot tall reclaimed Douglas fir posts will greet visitors at the entry of the Rod Shippey Facility, a feature made possible in part to a donation by North Cal Wood Products, a Ukiah company that specializes in reclaimed and recycled wood. These posts, with 13 smaller timbers along the breezeway, have been reclaimed from the Pacific Lumber Company mill in Scotia, once the largest redwood mill ever constructed.

“We went out to the yard and saw them slice open the first timber,” said Shawn Tibor, director of facilities for UC Agriculture and Natural Resources. “With the timbers being 100 years old from another structure, we had to decide on-site where to position each post’s face. They have character, let’s put it that way. But all of them are standing now and have been stained.”

The Penofin wood stain was donated by another Ukiah company, Performance Coatings.

Woodpeckers welcome

“We have one of the densest populations of acorn woodpeckers anywhere in the state. The woodpeckers form granaries where they store acorns, sometimes in trees — and sometimes in buildings,” Keiffer said. “They can actually be quite destructive, with a series of half-inch holes all over the place.”

Impervious siding seemed like a requirement for the new building, until designers praised the weathered characteristics of historic barns on the property.

“We really tried to design this building so that it ties people to the natural world,” Keiffer said. “We want a very close relationship between the building and what’s outside—and the acorn woodpecker is a major part of that.”

So the building materials actually encourage woodpeckers to make use of the building. Cedar siding, soft enough to welcome woodpeckers, was sourced from UC Berkeley’s Blodgett Forest Research Station and fitted to a waterproof membrane that will help further protect the building.

First UC building with siding from a UC-managed forest

No other University of California building has sourced wood directly from the Blodgett Forest before, according to Robert York, research stations manager with the Center for Forestry at UC Berkeley.

The Blodgett Forest in the Sierra Nevada near Georgetown in El Dorado County, is harvested each year in the context of the station’s research, usually with contractors harvesting the trees and commercial sawmills purchasing the logs. Tracking wood from a single forest through a commercial mill would be difficult, so instead logs for the Hopland facility’s 7,500 board-feet of 1-inch siding went to the station’s own small sawmill, which is more commonly used for educational demonstrations.

“It was actually me out there doing most of the milling of the siding,” York said.

Though it was “unusual,” he said the idea of providing siding for another UC research facility fit into the station’s mission to facilitate research in other forests.

“I think it does represent the kind of collaboration that we can have between research sites in California,” York said. “We're all trying to improve ways of managing and understanding natural resources. Whether it's a forest or a grassland, we all have this objective that's shared between us.”

Efficiency within a narrow budget

Plans for the building have evolved when it comes to funding, efficiency and green design. The building was originally slated for $1.7 million capital funding in the state’s 2007 budget, which was later frozen until January 2010. Private donations, including an anonymous $750,000 pledge, have helped make the building a reality.

Budget restrictions have meant cutting back on some of the more innovative systems that could further lower heating costs, reduce water needs and improve the building’s overall eco-friendliness. Passive heating, cooling and indoor-comfort measures have been implemented in the meantime, and construction has moved forward keeping as many other options open as possible. For example, the building’s restrooms are plumbed with separate grey-water and black-water pipes, which would make plans for on-site black-water treatment more feasible in the future.

“We’re situated so that if next year we get funded for something more integrative or progressive, the possibilities remain,” Tibor said. “There’s no limit to great, innovative ideas; it’s the budget that drives things.”

Get construction update and more details about green features at the facility's website http://ucanr.org/sites/Rod_Shippey_Facility.

Read more