Monday, September 16, 2013

Ag Today Thursday, September 12, 2013



Citrus pest alarm: 100 bugs found in confined area in Tulare County [The Fresno Bee]
California's fight against a citrus pest in the central San Joaquin Valley has intensified with an alarm that at least 100 of the potentially disease-carrying bugs have been found in Tulare County. County and state agriculture officials said Tuesday that just two Asian citrus psyllids were caught in insects traps in a Dinuba neighborhood, but further investigation uncovered dozens on several residential citrus trees…. Agriculture officials and scientists say finding that many psyllids in the Valley -- the state's top citrus producer -- is rare and considered a serious threat to California's $2 billion citrus industry. Until recently, efforts to keep the bug from gaining a foothold in the area had been fairly successful….Beth Grafton-Cardwell, a University of California entomologist and director of the Lindcove Research & Extension Center near Exeter, said finding multiple bugs is an ominous sign. It means there is a reproducing population of adults that can easily infest other citrus trees."

Jerry Brown, lawmakers poised to hike California’s minimum wage to $10 [Sacramento Bee]
A bill to raise the minimum wage in California to $10 an hour raced forward at the Capitol on Wednesday, with Democratic lawmakers poised to approve the measure and Gov. Jerry Brown announcing he would sign it….The measure would raise the minimum hourly wage from $8 to $9 on July 1, 2014, and then to $10 on Jan. 1, 2016. Under an earlier version of the bill, the minimum hourly wage would not have reached $10 until 2018….The measure is opposed by business interests, including grocers, retailers and chambers of commerce….The groups said the proposed increase is “far worse than any predicted rate of inflation” and that “such a significant increase in the minimum wage may jeopardize any economic recovery California is enjoying.”

Wells are going dry in Nipomo [San Luis Obispo Tribune]
Like the Paso Robles groundwater basin, the Nipomo underground aquifer has seen precipitous declines in recent years, and some farms and residences are beginning to feel the pinch. At its past two meetings — one Wednesday and the other Aug. 14 — the Nipomo Community Services District denied requests for emergency water from a farmer and homeowner outside the district whose wells are going dry….The groundwater aquifer beneath Nipomo has been classified as being in decline since 2007….Drought conditions this year significantly worsened the Nipomo groundwater crisis, LeBrun said…. At Wednesday’s meeting, the board denied a request for emergency water from Ramco Enterprises, a company that grows strawberries on 80 acres adjacent to the district. The directors were sympathetic to the plight of the farm, but district policy only allows emergency sales of water outside the district to residences.

Sonoma County unveils proposed rules for creekside zoning [Santa Rosa Press Democrat]
Sonoma County planning officials are advancing new zoning rules they say will clarify county regulations that shield streams and creeks from development and agriculture….It spells out the size of protective setbacks, essentially buffer zones, required in cases of general development and agricultural cultivation next to streams. Starting at the top of the bank, the zones extend on each side of a waterway and range from 200 feet on the Russian River to 25 feet on streams in urban areas….In some cases, the revisions make the setback rules more lenient….Still, farming and property rights advocates are wary about the zoning update. Tito Sasaki, president of the Sonoma County Farm Bureau, said the group may disagree that the General Plan intended for the regulations to be applied uniformly in the zoning code. He also wasn't convinced that only minor revisions were proposed in the update. “That's definitely their stand,” he said of county planners, “but it's not the entire story as far as we can see it.”

Commentary: For Northern California rivers, luck is not a plan [San Francisco Chronicle]
….The water allocation conflicts in the Klamath River Basin are exacerbated by the constant legal battles waged by corporate farms in the Central Valley against the interests of those who rely on salmon on the North Coast of California…. The Interior Department's mismanagement of this year's crisis and failure to take a stand on Humboldt County's water rights should be a red flag to Northern Californians regarding another "do you feel lucky" policy in the making: the Bay Delta Conservation Plan and its proposal to build huge tunnels to increase diversions of water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Bay-Delta estuary without protections for North Coast water. This is a movie we've seen many times before: Westlands and other delta exporters will sue for every drop of Northern California water they can get, with no regard for salmon or North Coast rivers. The federal agencies, along with Gov. Jerry Brown, have told us to trust that the BDCP will avoid these problems. I hope they're right. But the state and federal agencies have been negotiating with Westlands and the other water exporters for seven years, and still haven't been able to agree that more water - not less - must flow through the bay-delta to preserve healthy salmon runs.
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Commentary: What happens in Gaviota, won’t stay in Gaviota
Santa Barbara County has been in a multi-year process to develop a Community Plan for the Gaviota Coast. The plan encompasses 158 square miles - 101,199 acres - entirely within the rural area. The plan affects 94,267 acres, or 93.2 percent, of lands zoned for agricultural use….Due to the significance of agriculture to the county’s overall economic vitality, and the extent to which the Gaviota Plan affects agricultural lands within the county, an economic impact study is necessary. That study could ascertain concerns with the plan impeding agricultural production by adding unnecessary costs and further liabilities to agricultural operations. An economic assessment could evaluate real incentives that are financial, operational or management based to assist landowners in best management practices in conservation and stewardship of their resources, whether natural or agriculturally based.

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