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.
Ag
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