State
finds first evidence of citrus pest infestation in Ventura County [Ventura
County Star]
The
battle against an invasive insect threatening the state's citrus industry had a
setback in October with the discovery of the first breeding population in
Ventura County. The state Department of Food and Agriculture reported finding
34 adults and 67 nymphs of the Asian citrus psyllid at a residential site in
Fillmore. The area has since been chemically treated, the state said. The
insects, which had been found in traps only in single numbers throughout the
county since 2010, are now being detected in larger numbers, according to the
state. "This is what makes the discovery of a breeding population in Fillmore
so alarming," saidJohn Krist, CEO of the Ventura County Farm Bureau.
"It's not unexpected, but based on the size of that population, our
science experts estimate the tree had been infested — and that the infestation
had gone undetected — for more than a year."
Chicken
farmers still baffled by Proposition 2 [KPBS Radio/San Diego]
There
are about 25,000 chicken at Frank Hilliker's farm in Lakeside, where about
16,000 eggs are produced every day. The birds are kept in confined quarters
where the laid eggs roll down a runway for easy harvest. This is the kind of
operation that was targeted by Proposition 2. And Hilliker will have to make
some changes to comply with the law. The problem is, he doesn’t know what
changes to make.…As most people look forward to this year’s election, chicken
farmers in San Diego County and around California are wondering about a
proposition passed four years ago, which will fundamentally change the way they
do business.…Eric Larson is executive director of the San Diego County Farm
Bureau. “Farmers literally don’t know what to do," said Larson. "Prop
2, if people remember it, says this chicken needs to spread its wings, turn
around and do naturally occurring practices. Scratch. Sit on a roost. But it’s
not quantified at all.”
Tribe
bashes federal officials; claims they're endangering salmon [Redding Record
Searchlight]
Officials
with the Hoopa Valley Tribe are claiming federal officials are illegally
harming threatened coho salmon by reducing water flows in the Klamath River.
Beginning Thursday, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation was supposed to increase
water flowing from Irongate Dam to 1,300 cubic feet per second on the river
near Yreka. But bureau officials decided to keep Irongate releases at 1,000 cfs
to help fill Upper Klamath Lake, said Kevin Moore, a bureau spokesman….Regina
Chichizola, a spokeswoman for the Hoopa Tribe, said Upper Klamath Lake was low
because the bureau provided "full agricultural deliveries" to farmers
in the Klamath Basin. Moore disagreed, saying agricultural water users did not
get 100 percent of their contracted amounts. Many farms in the region also
pumped more groundwater for irrigation and many fields were left fallow to
reduce water taken from the Klamath River system, he said.
Tulare
County walnut ordinance reduces theft but hampers home growers [Visalia
Times-Delta]
Every
year, while commercial walnut growers in the Valley are shaking their trees to
harvest their crops, homeowners gather walnuts from trees around their homes or
small parcels to earn some extra money. Many of those nuts end up being sold to
roadside buyers. But that changed this year, after the Tulare County Board of
Supervisors passed an ordinance amendment that included prohibiting the sales
of walnuts to roadside buyers during the harvest season, which began in early
September….But the changes haven’t pleased everyone, and Kevin Dodson of Tulare
let the county supervisors know that when he spoke to them Oct. 16 during the
public comment portion of their weekly meeting….Kevin Dodson said his family
collected about 160 pounds of walnuts from the trees at their home, along with
139 more pounds gathered from the tree of a family friend who didn’t want his
walnuts. But when Kevin Dodson took the walnuts to a nut broker earlier this
month, the broker said he couldn’t buy them now because of the ordinance.
U.S.
wildlife worker's online photos of animal abuse stir outrage [Sacramento Bee]
Photos
of animal abuse and suffering posted on a federal wildlife specialist's
Facebook and other Web pages are stirring anger among wildlife advocates. The
pictures show two dogs savagely attacking a coyote in a leg-hold trap and the
employee posing with the tattered carcass of a coyote. They also show other
trapped animals – dead and alive.…The employee, Jamie Olson, works as a trapper
in Wyoming for an agency called Wildlife Services, which is already under fire
from scientists and environmentalists for its extensive killing of predators to
protect livestock and mule deer. Those practices were the subject of a Bee
investigative series earlier this year.
Editorial: Feinstein deserves
another term in the U.S. Senate [Fresno Bee]
Sen.
Dianne Feinstein was first elected to the Senate in a special election in 1992.
Over the past two decades, she has steadily increased her influence, and its
now a powerful voice for California and the San Joaquin Valley in the Senate.
Feinstein, 79, has earned re-election with hard work and a solid record.…She
has also championed San Joaquin Valley agriculture, especially in working to
secure needed water and pushing legislation to give farmers an adequate -- and
legal -- supply of labor. Feinstein has been endorsed by key agricultural
groups, including the Western Growers and the California Farm Bureau
Federation. "Dianne Feinstein has stood up for farmers and ranchers more
times than we can count," Farm Bureau President Paul Wenger said last
month in announcing its endorsement.
Ag
Today is distributed to county Farm Bureaus, CFBF directors and CFBF staff, for
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