Winter forecast suggests drought worries not over for California [Sacramento Bee]
If
ever there was a winter when California needed rain, this is it. One early
prediction, however, offers little hope. A winter outlook released Thursday by
the National Weather Service suggests drought is likely to continue in many
parts of California for a fourth straight year. Although that prediction is
early and marked by some uncertainty, it’s enough to keep water officials on
edge….According to the forecast, odds favor greater than average precipitation
only in Southern California, mainly south of Bakersfield….Jeanine Jones,
interstate resources manager for the state Department of Water Resources,
estimates California needs 150 percent of normal rainfall to fill up its
reservoirs.
Temperance Dam plan
is flawed, critics say at Fresno forum [Fresno Bee]
Auberry
resident Shannon Lodge told federal officials Thursday that a new Temperance
Flat Reservoir would swamp a gem of an outdoor recreation area upstream of
Millerton Lake — and the property where she lives.…About 100 people listened at
a public meeting in Fresno to sometimes passionate statements from speakers who
faulted everything from the feasibility analysis to the notification for the
hearing on the draft Environmental Impact Statement for Temperance Flat
Reservoir. About a decade after beginning the investigation of a larger
reservoir on the San Joaquin River, federal leaders have entered the final
stages of their work to complete a plan that would have to be approved by
Congress….But environmentalists, led by Sacramento-based Friends of the River,
told the bureau that the project does not pencil out….Farm water officials said
additional water is important, but Temperance Flat would be for multiple
purposes — such as helping salmon restoration, replenishing underground water
supplies and coping with a warming climate.
http://www.fresnobee.com/2014/10/16/4183217_critics-temperance-dam-plan-flawed.html?sp=/99/217/&rh=1
Groundwater laws flow
down to county level [Salinas Californian]
New
laws require counties to develop special agencies to regulate groundwater
pumping and develop plans to maintain sustainable water use, including the
power to limit extraction. But what is that going to look like in Monterey
County with its billions of dollars in irrigated crops? On Tuesday the Monterey
County Counsel’s office will present a comprehensive report to the Board of
Supervisors and seek direction on implementing the groundwater
legislation.…Collectively they require formation of local agencies, called
Groundwater Sustainability Agencies, or GSAs.…Examples could be a GSA for the
Salinas Valley basin, another for Monterey Peninsula groundwater sources or a
countywide GSA; it will be up to local policy makers to devise a structure….The
laws have already set off political fireworks. Growers in the Salinas Valley
are bristling at the idea of having GSAs curb their pumping, which would have a
direct impact on their bottom lines.
Pesticide caution
urged to protect bees by California Almond Board [Modesto Bee]
The
Almond Board of California announced a new push Thursday to keep pesticides
from harming the bees that pollinate the nut trees. The Modesto-based group
released a detailed set of farming practices, many of them already in use, and
said it would share them with growers in advance of the February start of
pollination. Chief among the practices is to avoid spraying when the bees are
flying amid the blooming trees. If growers still need to use chemicals, such as
those that protect the crop against fungi in winter, they should be applied in
the late afternoon or evening.…Experts have said more research is needed on
whether pesticides are a major threat, but in the meantime, farmers can help by
using them carefully. The Almond Board drafted the new guide with the help of
beekeepers, researchers, the pesticide industry, and state and federal
regulators.
Fighting walnut
theft, new program aims to safeguard sales [Chico Enterprise-Record]
Northern
California is seeing a crackdown on walnut theft. With new rules last year on
walnut sales and more improvements this year, the hope is that thieves will no
longer see walnuts as easy money….Walnuts fetch a good price. At $1.80 to $2 a
pound last year, thieves were tempted when they saw money on the ground.
Farmers losses added up quickly. The Butte County Farm Bureau, Agricultural
Commissioner's Office and Butte County Sheriffs Office all worked together to
help craft the program and enforce it. This year, more documentation is being
required to improve the program, said Richard Price, Butte County's
agricultural commissioner. Now, growers will obtain a proof of ownership form
from the Ag Commissioner's offices, either in Chico, Gridley or Oroville. This
will be needed when transporting the walnuts and until they are sold.
Fair pig melee: 'Buck
stops here' [Bakersfield Californian]
The
Kern County Fair's top executive took responsibility Wednesday night for
fighting that broke out during the fair among pigs penned together after
auction, saying "the buck stops here." The skirmishes, captured on
digital recorders, upset fair-goers, teachers, parents and the children who
raised the livestock. "It was poor communication on my part," Mike
Olcott told upwards of 100 attendees at a meeting of the fair's livestock
committee at the fairgrounds. "On my part, the staff's part, it's not a
good situation, not good for the fair. It shouldn't have been in the
paper." Olcott said the fair would return to its prior protocol of
returning pigs to their individual pens in the hours after they're sold and
before they're loaded on trucks bound for a meat-processing plant up
north.…During the meeting, Olcott made an allusion to an incident he said
occurred at the 2013 fair that prompted the decision to pen the pigs together.
"Ear tags didn't match up," he said, referring to the markers used to
identify each animal. The charge is a serious one because, if true, it means
pigs that were purchased at auction were not the same animals taken to the
meat-processing plant and eventually delivered to buyers.
Ag
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