Land In California Research Articles

Fire Regime Alteration in Natural Areas Underscores the Need to Restore a Key Ecological Process

Research Natural Areas (RNAs) are federal lands designated to protect exemplary, relatively undisturbed ecosystems where ecological processes may proceed unencumbered with minimal human intervention. Ideally, RNAs serve as properly functioning reference sites for more heavily managed landscapes. However, many RNAs have been modified to some degree by past and ongoing human actions. In the western United States, these actions commonly result in altered disturbance regimes, most notably fire. Ecological disturbance regimes are important components of natural ecosystems, and major changes to such regimes challenge the usefulness of the RNA system as a reference network. To assess the extent of modern departure from their pre-Euroamerican settlement (i.e., pre-1850) fire regimes, we examined 64 RNAs on Forest Service lands in California. We found that 76% exhibited moderate to high fire regime departure. Of these, 87% are burning much less frequently than they would have under the presettlement fire regime and 13% are burning more frequently. Within RNAs, ecosystems historically characterized by frequent, mostly low-severity fire have missed multiple fire cycles and tend to burn at higher fire severities than expected under the presettlement fire regime. We present four case studies that demonstrate how recent wildfires have affected California RNAs. We also indicate where and how future fire management strategies could address altered fire regimes and more effectively sustain target ecosystems within RNAs. Our findings suggest that a re-examination of the hands-off approach to management in some protected natural areas like RNAs is needed.

Feasibility and sustainability of agroforestry in temperate industrialized agriculture: preliminary insights from California

AbstractIntensive use of external inputs in specialized industrial farming systems has created significant socio-ecological externalities, including water and air pollution from nutrients and pesticides, soil erosion and depletion of carbon stocks, biodiversity loss and rising production costs. Ecological intensification is a strategy for reducing reliance on inputs by intentionally designing agroecosystems to harness biological processes and ecological relationships for the sustainable functioning of the system. Incorporating perennials and diversifying systems are two avenues for achieving ecological intensification, and both are characteristics of agroforestry. This preliminary report uses examples of agroforestry in the US state of California as a proof of concept to explore the agronomic and economic feasibility and sustainability benefits of agroforestry in intensive irrigated and temperate farming systems. An exploratory study of farmers experimenting with agroforestry systems and other agricultural professionals identified eight different variants of agroforestry systems being practiced on prime agricultural land in California, ranging from simple use of winter cover crops in orchards to multi-storied cropping systems with integrated grazing. Respondents noted benefits of reduced inputs and production costs, and better nutrient cycling, soil health and pest control. Trade-offs and challenges included increases in labor requirements and management complexity. Knowledge gaps included lack of guidance in biophysical systems design, lack of clarity about economic tradeoffs, and lack of information about ecosystem services benefits. In light of interviewees’ responses, we discuss the constraints and factors needed to foster the successful expansion of agroforestry systems in California and other regions characterized by industrialized farming.

Clarifying Effects of Environmental Protections on Freshwater Flows to—and Water Exports from—the San Francisco Bay Estuary

Understanding and resolving conflicts over management of scarce natural resources requires access to information that helps characterize the problem. Where information is lacking, perceived differently by stakeholders, or provided without relevant context, these conflicts can become intractable. We studied water management practices and constraints that affect the flow of water into and through the San Francisco Bay estuary — home to six endangered fish species and two water export facilities owned by the state and federal governments that serve millions of people and large expanses of agricultural land in California. Media reports reflect widely held beliefs that environmental regulations, and particularly protections for endangered fish species, frequently limit water diversions and substantially increase freshwater flow to San Francisco Bay. We analyzed long-term trends in freshwater flow to San Francisco Bay relative to annual runoff from its Central Valley watershed, and the frequency and magnitude of specific regulatory and physical constraints that govern operations of the water export facilities. We found that the percentage of Central Valley runoff that reached San Francisco Bay during the ecologically sensitive winter-spring period declined over the past several decades, such that the estuary experienced drought conditions in most years. During a 9-year period that included a severe natural drought, exports were constrained to maintain salinity control as often as to protect endangered fish populations. Salinity-control and system-capacity constraints were responsible for Delta outflow volumes that dwarfed those related to protection of fish and wildlife populations, endangered or otherwise. These results run counter to common media narratives. We recommend rapid synthesis and easily accessible presentation of data on Central Valley water diversions and constraints on them; such data should be contextualized via comparison to regional hydrology and water management system capacity.

The impact of climate change uncertainty on California's vegetation and adaptation management

AbstractThe impacts of different emission levels and climate change conditions to landscape‐scale natural vegetation could have large repercussions for ecosystem services and environmental health. We forecast the risk‐reduction benefits to natural landscapes of lowering business‐as‐usual greenhouse gas emissions by comparing the extent and spatial patterns of climate exposure to dominant vegetation under current emissions trajectories (Representative Concentration Pathway, RCP8.5) and envisioned Paris Accord target emissions (RCP4.5). This comparison allows us to assess the ecosystem value of reaching targets to keep global temperature warming under 2°C. Using 350,719 km2 of natural lands in California, USA, and the mapped extents of 30 vegetation types, we identify each type's current bioclimatic envelope by the frequency with which it occupies current climate conditions. We then map the trajectory of each pixel's climate under the four climate futures to quantify areas expected to fall within, become marginal to (outside a 95% probability contour), or move beyond their current climate conditions by the end of the 21st century. In California, these four future climates represent temperature increases of 1.9–4.5°C and a −24.8 to +22.9% change in annual precipitation by 2100. From 158,481 to 196,493 km2 (45–56%) of California's natural vegetation is predicted to become highly climatically stressed under current emission levels (RCP8.5) under the drier and wetter global climate models, respectively. Vegetation in three California ecoregions critical to human welfare, southwestern CA, the Great Valley, and the Sierra Nevada Mountains, becomes >50% impacted, including 68% of the lands around Los Angeles and San Diego. However, reducing emissions to RCP4.5 levels reduces statewide climate exposure risk by 86,382–99,726 km2. These projections are conservative baseline estimates because they do not account for amplified drought‐related mortality, fires, and beetle outbreaks that have been observed during the current five‐year drought. However, these results point to the landscape benefits of emission reductions.

Summer Habitat Selection of the Lower Colorado River Valley Population of Greater Sandhill Cranes

Abstract Identifying habitat selection and use is important to understand in wildlife management because it informs habitat manipulations, conservation efforts, and species distribution. Habitat selection by sandhill cranes (Antigone canadensis) has been studied primarily on overwintering areas and a few summering locations. Summer habitat selection by the Lower Colorado River Valley Population of greater sandhill cranes (A. c. tabida) in the Intermountain West is not widely known, but has been identified as an information need by many wildlife management agencies. We captured and attached satellite platform transmitter terminals to 21 adult sandhill cranes on Cibola and Sonny Bono Salton Sea National Wildlife Refuges in Arizona and California, and private lands in California and Idaho. Home ranges of all marked cranes (50% core area: x̄ = 525.4 ha, SE = 155.6; 99% isopleth: x̄ = 6,476.5 ha, SE = 1,637.5) were similar to other studies on summering grounds. Resource analysis indicated that marked sandhill cranes used wetland habitats in greater proportion than their availability for both nocturnal and diurnal locations at the population level, by individuals within the entire landscape, and by individuals within their core area. Wetland habitats consist of ∼7% of the available habitat. Within the Wetland category, the Temperate Flooded and Swamp Forest level (a Formation level in the National Vegetation Classification system) was the most important to summering Lower Colorado River Population sandhill cranes. Wetland managers can concentrate their efforts for conservation, enhancement, and restoration on these type of wetlands to ensure the sustainability of this small population of sandhill cranes.

Someone Always in the Corner of My Eye by YoungShil Ji & Daniel T. Parker

people can’t touch me. Words are my Praetorian Guard. At a sign from me they leap into the line of fire. Whoever comes at me will feel their spears.” Peter Constantine University of Connecticut BoSeon Shim. Someone Always in the Corner of My Eye. Trans. YoungShil Ji & Daniel T. Parker. Buffalo, New York. White Pine Press. 2016. 94 pages. American readers owe their gratitude to White Pine Press and to translators YoungShil Ji and Daniel T. Parker for making BoSeon Shim’s fascinating Korean poetry available to the anglophone audience. As translated into English, Shim is a master of the contemporary style, writing coyly evasive yet personal poems (see WLT, Jan. 2010, 47–49). Shim’s best poems find their energy in the space between what is hidden and what is revealed. The someone always in the corner of BoSeon Shim’s eye is each person he meets in the world, but it is also his lover. It is also himself. The collection opens with a suggestion of depth when Shim writes, “There is countless evidence that we have souls.” The evidence, of course, is in the poems, in their depth-reflecting surfaces. Shim can be overtly political at times, but he is at his best when he is elusively personal, gesturing toward the evidence of his own hidden soul. Shim’s poetic strategy of indirectness results in startling and resonant imagery. “I enjoy / questions that are heavy and subtle as coffee at a funeral home,” he tells us in “Questions.” In one of the collection’s best poems, “Foreigners,” he informs us that “This road reminds me of my father’s journal.” Shim insists on his privacy—as he says in another poem, “Breaking up with you is none of the world’s business”—yet he is surprisingly vulnerable in his privacy. The best example of this emotive indirectness is the wonderful poem “Spending the John Joseph Mathews (1894–1979) is one of Oklahoma’s most revered twentieth century authors. An Osage Indian, he was also one of the first Indigenous authors to gain national renown. Yet fame did not come easily to Mathews, and his personality was full of contradictions. In this captivating biography , Michael Snyder provides the first book-length account of this fascinating figure. Known as “Jo” to all his friends, Mathews had a multifaceted identity. A novelist, naturalist, biographer, historian, and tribal preservationist, he was a true “man of letters.” Snyder draws on a wealth of sources, many of them previously untapped, to narrate Mathews’s story. Much of the writer’s family life—especially his two marriages and his relationships with his two children and two stepchildren—is explored here for the first time. Born in the town of Pawhuska in Indian Territory, Mathews attended the University of Oklahoma before venturing abroad and earning a second degree from Oxford. He served as a flight instructor during World War I, traveled across Europe and northern Africa, and bought and sold land in California. A proud Osage who devoted himself to preserving Osage culture , Mathews also served as tribal councilman and cultural historian for the Osage Nation. By Michael Snyder Foreword by Russ Tall Chief JOHN JOSEPH M AT HE WS LIFE OF AN OSAGE WRITER THE UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA IS AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY INSTITUTION. WWW.OU.EDU/EOO $34.95 HARDCOVER · 280 PAGES · 12 B&W ILLUS. WORLDLIT.ORG 109 Night Alone in a Motel,” which begins: “I gaze into an evening ocean branded with clouds. / Waves from my unsalvageable wreck swell toward another wreck.” Such imagery reveals more than mere confession ever could. Shim may remind American readers of John Ashbery’s emotive impressionism. Lines like “A flower falls. / Wandering in time, whirling around / the earlobe of a brief moment,” from the poem “A Flower Falls,” could have been written by Ashbery in his more tender mode. It would be easy to mistake Shim, as it is easy to mistake Ashbery, for a purveyor of cheap surrealism, an easy enough poetic trick. A closer look, however, reveals that Shim’s relationship with the irrational is closer to symbolist than surrealist , or it is surrealist only in the purest sense of the original French movement, in...

Nature Meets Culture in California's Central Valley

Nature Meets Culture in California's Central Valley Jan Goggans (bio) In the spring of 2011 the University of California Humanities Research Institute (UCHRI) put out a call for proposals on "changing conceptions of work." Several colleagues and I crafted a proposal to display examples of expressive culture by the Central Valley's working class. We created exhibits on music and poetry, two of the most recognizable forms of aesthetic production, both of which have a fascinating history in the Central Valley and which encouraged us to see working class culture as a whole. Photographs of highways and trucks led our exhibit up and down the Central Valley and helped us explore the ways those who live and work in that location make sense of their lives. Workers in California's Central Valley create and sustain an identity that is simultaneously individual and, in its ability to reach across boundaries of race and gender, communal. The Central Valley's working class is, by its very definition, rooted in place. The McDonald's worker in San Diego experiences her or his social position in very different ways than the worker in Modesto and Fresno, and even in different ways in Denair and Madera, smaller towns goaded by the impetus of Highway 99. Each experiences and makes sense of a place in regional ways. In the Central Valley, the experience of place usually does more than affect labor and the cultural production of laborers: it determines it. While there are certainly McDonald's, Starbucks, and Burger Kings across California, in the Central Valley the chances are still high, after generations, that their employees are the children or grandchildren of farm workers. Immigration, emigration, forced exodus and repatriation, all mark the working class of the Central Valley. Migrant workers in [End Page 297] the "fruit basket" of California are a prominent political, social—and thanks to the work of writers since the 1930s—literary, and musical subject. In short, the Central Valley is dependent on its culture around nature, particularly water, and the fertile soil brought into existence by the collision of tectonic plates that produced the rich alluvial sediment that can grow nearly anything, as long as it has water. So important is water to the culture built here in the Central Valley that explorations into its existence and establishment have always dominated writing about the terrain. There is, for example, Joan Didion's "Holy Water," (The White Album, 1979) in which she explores the power dynamics water possesses, a dynamic that affects the lives of all Californians but does so in a particular and unified way in the Central Valley. In the Central Valley water is indeed holy. Like all areas of California, the Central Valley does not replenish its water supply easily. Nearly one hundred years ago the lack of water was already creating tensions. Eric Stene explains the source of that tension: The Sacramento River watershed receives two-thirds to three-quarters of northern California's precipitation though it only has one-third to one-quarter of the land. The San Joaquin River watershed occupies two-thirds to three-quarters of northern California's land, but only collects one-third to one-quarter of the precipitation. (4) The need and desire for development and the reality of water scarcity coincided with the Great Depression to produce the gargantuan employment and development opportunity named the Central Valley Project (CVP). In 1937 the Rivers and Harbors Act authorized $12 million for the project, listing improvement of navigation, regulation, and flood control of the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers as the first priorities. Supplying water for irrigation and domestic use followed these priorities. Despite the listed priorities, the reality of California's agricultural economy and its need for water led to a long standing dispute between regulation by the Army Corps of Engineers and the Bureau of Reclamation. Enmeshed in that dispute was the Central Valley's desire for free, federally subsidized water. Employment depended on crops that depended on water. [End Page 298] Nature could not be disentangled from cultural realities. Other water projects followed, including dams and weirs and the State Water Project—a cement corridor that takes water from...

The Field by Robert Andrew Perez

Reviewed by: The Field by Robert Andrew Perez Kamden Hilliard (bio) Robert Andrew Perez. The Field. Omnidawn. Robert Andrew Perez’s The Field is Californian: the “quivered spotty orange” (“poppies. poppies.”), “the cashew and kidney pools / like turquoise healing stones” (“desert sonnet”), and too, of course, the clouds, like “semen ribboning in chlorine” [End Page 184] (“hailing clouds”). Though Californian in intent and delivery, like Didion, Perez moves through language with a laidback vigor. In the opening poem, “erasure,” Perez’s “state, figuratively, / is pre-fire. [he] carr[ies] the threat of combustion; all [he] need[s] is sapphire.” A state, which, at once, is the governmental state and the state of being. The poems are associative and exacting in their execution, but it’s not all fire and political theory—it’s actually both. Readers are encouraged to “think back to seeing nicole richie in a papasan in the westwood / urban outfitters,” and even though “no one / knows [him] or nicole anymore,” Perez demands to know “with everything falling apart, why can’t the monolith of patriarchy?” But Perez has his answer, he already knows to vote, like prayeris to believe in something that will fail you . . . (“this world”) Failure is a tricky project in this collection, for failure is a wide thing, washing up on the shores of queer and performance theories, but more plainly, the poems examine a failure of futurism, which declares itself with friends “writing poems for/about their kids” (“erasure”), while the poet is still writing about fucking guys and fuckingloser guys and fucking loser guys and fucking loose guys, fucking losing loose, loserguys. (“erasure”) There is something tragic (and hilarious) at the heart of this self-criticism, which stakes its claim in California—land of the eternal west, land of the escaped queer, land of writing and rewriting where the poet hasn’t “forgotten to grieve” (“never been kissed”) but accepts “the momentum of / newness” as a motor. Similarly, the collection gathers energy from the “hypnagogia logia” poems, which seem to operate somewhere between prophecy, delirium, and revisionism. The poems feature the only omissions (bracketed blank space) and revisions (stuck-out text) in the collection, while eclipsing conceits of craft and science. In this series, the speaker trades their willful, sundrenched melding of theory and pop culture for an opaque truth-telling: . . . this is a memoryrecurring, continually distorted.the dreamspeak speak: don’tremember so hard. the next timethe sky may shatter & all the brokenglass that doesn’t fall in falls out. youmay very well land on it. (“hypnagoia logia”) [End Page 185] These poems are less invested in explicit communication than in the oddities of the hypnagogic state, in between the sleeping and waking lives. Instead of a living, breathing California—full of living, breathing people—these poems want the “he of the / phantasmagorical real” (“hypnagogia logia”). Similarly, Perez confronts the question of a borderless, boundless, undifferentiated nature. This collection fills itself on fires, water (in pools, oceans, and bays), sunshine, and clouds. The mind, after all, “is a cloud: write it before it disappears” (“a desert sonnet”). The natural world is its own master, and in a collection that does seem obsessed—in those petty and honest ways—with making queer love meaningful in a world where futurism challenges the need of queers, the natural world provides an exciting, associative model. In this collection, fire leads to “a plan. / an escape” (“hypnagogia logia”). In this collection, “all that mattered, / was the dust mattering the windless air,” (“hypnagogia logia”) and the “night sky, in its mostly darkness, / is the most banal of mysteries (“enantiodromia”). Children, too, seem alien. Untamed: “those / cascading hills, my inner-child. / mum’s the world.” But it’s not silence that Perez leaves the reader. No. In fact, the poet leaves us with a poem damn near perfect: “poppies. poppies.” Perez knows “california is full of it: gold,” and finds more in the “the burning sun / cools itself by dipping into the blue, / that’s golden, too.” California isn’t the sole heir to the golden, nor is nature, for Perez has already confessed that “we / used to, like others, say...

The Perceived Food Environment Surrounding Tribal Lands in California: Tribal Member Perspectives

ObjectiveTo describe and understand the food environment surrounding tribal lands in California and its impact on food choices among Native American tribal members.MethodsWe conducted in‐depth interviews with a sample of Native American parents living in California (N=24). Tribal members were purposively sampled from California's federally recognized tribes by study staff at health clinics and conferences, as well as through word‐of‐mouth referrals. We analyzed data using a modified Grounded Theory approach with Dedoose. Initial descriptive categories were developed based on the study objectives using a deductive approach and additional themes were added as they emerged, using the constant comparative method. We assessed discrepancies between coders using IRR and proceeded with coding once high reliability (IRR= 0.83) was achieved.ResultsSalient themes that were identified included limited food purchasing options; challenges in acquiring food due to distance to a food source and financial constraints; and a negative perception of the food environment. It was common for participants to describe tribal lands as more distantly located from food stores and state that the distance to the closest grocery store was an influential factor in choosing foods to purchase. Interview participants tended to have negative perceptions of the quality of food available in their immediate environment and expressed that the lack of convenient healthy food options limited their ability to acquire and consume healthy food. Many expressed frustration at their experience of wanting to provide healthy food for their families, but being unable to do so because of limitations in affordability and availability. Perceptions about restaurants and fast food outlets were mixed.ConclusionsNative American parents living on tribal lands in California perceived food availability and purchasing options to place considerable constraints on diet quality that conflicted with the intention to purchase and prepare healthy food. The limitations of the food environment may contribute to the health disparities of this population and should be addressed in interventions.Support or Funding InformationSupported by the National Institutes of Health, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (4R00HD073327).

New Summer Areas and Mixing of Two Greater Sandhill Crane Populations in the Intermountain West

Abstract Population delineation throughout the annual life cycle for migratory birds is needed to formulate regional and national management and conservation strategies. Despite being well studied continentally, connectivity of sandhill crane Grus canadensis populations throughout the western portion of their North American range remains poorly described. Our objectives were to 1) use global positioning system satellite transmitter terminals to identify summer distributions for the Lower Colorado River Valley Population of greater sandhill cranes Grus canadensis tabida and 2) determine whether intermingling occurs among any of the western greater sandhill crane populations: Rocky Mountain Population, Lower Colorado River Valley Population, and Central Valley Population. Capture and marking occurred during winter and summer on private lands in California and Idaho as well as on two National Wildlife Refuges: Cibola and Sonny Bono Salton Sea National Wildlife Refuges. A majority of marked greater sandhill cranes summered in what is established Lower Colorado River Valley Population breeding areas in northeastern Nevada and southwestern Idaho. A handful of greater sandhill cranes summered outside of traditional breeding areas in west-central Idaho around Cascade Reservoir near Donnelly and Cascade, Idaho. For example, a greater sandhill crane colt captured near Donnelly in July 2014 survived to winter migration and moved south to areas associated with the Rocky Mountain Population. The integration of the greater sandhill crane colt captured near Donnelly provides the first evidence of potential intermingling between the Lower Colorado River Population and Rocky Mountain Population. We suggest continued marking and banding efforts of all three western populations of greater sandhill cranes will accurately delineate population boundaries and connectivity and inform management decisions for the three populations.

Detection of Phytophthora ramorum in Nurseries and Forest Lands in California in 2004 to 2009.

From December 2004 through May 2009, samples were collected from California nurseries and wild lands to survey for Phytophthora ramorum and comply with federal regulations of nursery stock. Samples were prescreened by an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) that detects Phytophthora spp. and tested by culture, P. ramorum-specific real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR), and nested PCR. Yearly percentages of infected samples ranged from 0.6 to 2.3%. Camellia spp., Rhododendron spp., Magnolia spp., Pieris spp., and Laurus nobilis tested positive the most frequently in the nurseries and Lithocarpus densiflorus, Umbellularia californica, and Quercus agrifolia tested positive most often from wild lands. Of the 118,410 samples isolated onto PARP media, 0.8% was identified as P. ramorum. Of 115,056 samples tested by ELISA, 5.9% tested positive for Phytophthora spp. Of the 6,520 samples tested by PCR, 12.4% tested positive for P. ramorum. The false-negative, positive, and internal control failure rates of the assays are discussed. After removing the seasonal effect of sampling strategy, isolation of the pathogen into culture was found to be seasonally dependent whereas detectability by PCR and ELISA was not. To our knowledge, this is the first evaluation of a regulatory testing program for a plant pathogen on this scale using standardized assays.

Milking It

Images of Califia, a fictional queen and the namesake of California, serve as the focus for this inquiry into the influence of pastoral imaginaries on the production of dairy and nondairy milk, especially almond milk. With effectively all US almond production occurring in California, almond milk is a uniquely Californian product. Milk, in both its traditional dairy and newer nondairy varieties, offers a rich aesthetic as well as agricultural history. These pastoral trends emphasize the vision of a tamed, benevolent nature and the faith in technological innovation to resolve agricultural struggles. From the establishment and expansion of dairy farms and almond groves, to recent dairying and drought crises, consumers have associated milk with the bounty of California's land and the skill and dedication of its farmers, a sentiment also apparent in depictions of Califia in California murals and in the packaging of Califia Farms almond milk.

Aligning Natural Resource Conservation and Flood Hazard Mitigation in California.

Flooding is the most common and damaging of all natural disasters in the United States, and was a factor in almost all declared disasters in U.S. history. Direct flood losses in the U.S. in 2011 totaled $8.41 billion and flood damage has also been on the rise globally over the past century. The National Flood Insurance Program paid out more than $38 billion in claims since its inception in 1968, more than a third of which has gone to the one percent of policies that experienced multiple losses and are classified as “repetitive loss.” During the same period, the loss of coastal wetlands and other natural habitat has continued, and funds for conservation and restoration of these habitats are very limited. This study demonstrates that flood losses could be mitigated through action that meets both flood risk reduction and conservation objectives. We found that there are at least 11,243km2 of land in coastal California, which is both flood-prone and has natural resource conservation value, and where a property/structure buyout and habitat restoration project could meet multiple objectives. For example, our results show that in Sonoma County, the extent of land that meets these criteria is 564km2. Further, we explore flood mitigation grant programs that can be a significant source of funds to such projects. We demonstrate that government funded buyouts followed by restoration of targeted lands can support social, environmental, and economic objectives: reduction of flood exposure, restoration of natural resources, and efficient use of limited governmental funds.

Evidence of modern fine-grained sediment accumulation in the Monterey Fan from measurements of the pesticide DDT and its metabolites

The documented presence of the pesticide DDT (1,1,1-trichloro-2,2-bis(p-chlorophenyl)ethane) and its metabolites DDE (1,1-dichloro-2,2-bis(p-chlorophenyl)ethylene), and DDD (1,1-dichloro-2,2-bis(p-chlorophenyl)ethane), collectively referred to as ΣDDT, in sediments from the Monterey Submarine Canyon, Monterey Fan Channel and Monterey Fan indicates that during the present sea-level highstand the Monterey Fan has been an active depositional system. The presence of ΣDDT in marine sediment is an indication of the recent arrival of terrigenous fine-grained sediment because DDT was only applied on land in California between 1944 and 1972, and is being transported to the ocean in the fine-grained sediment fraction of rivers. ΣDDT was found in 81 out of 82 cores collected in water depths deeper than 3000 m in the Monterey Fan Channel and in the Monterey Fan, within a geographical extent of 250 km to the south and 210 km to the west of the Monterey Canyon head, with surface concentrations averaging 6 and 3 ng g− 1, in the upper and lower Monterey Fan, respectively. This is the first documentation of ΣDDT presence in ocean sediments below 3000 m water depth worldwide. The estimated total amount of ΣDDT in the fan is consistent with the amount of ΣDDT discharged by the Salinas and Pajaro Rivers since DDT started being used in California, suggesting that current fine-grained sediment discharge from these rivers has been accumulating in the fan. The ratio DDE/ΣDDT, an indication of the extent of DDT degradation, provides a first-order proxy for the relative age of the sediments. DDT is found along the thalweg of the Monterey Fan channel as far as 215 km from the canyon head, indicating recent fine-grained sediment transport along the channel. In contrast, only DDE was detected in sediments on the fan, which suggests that the fan does not accumulate fine-grained sediments at a constant rate.

Efficacy of Exotic Control Strategies for Restoring Coastal Prairie Grasses

AbstractRestoration in Mediterranean-climate grasslands is strongly impeded by lack of native propagules and competition with exotic grasses and forbs. We report on a study testing several methods for exotic plant control combined with planting native grasses to restore prairies in former agricultural land in coastal California. Specifically we compared tarping (shading out recently germinated seedlings with black plastic) once, tarping twice, topsoil removal, herbicide (glyphosate), and a control treatment in factorial combinations with or without wood mulch. Into each treatment we planted three native grass species (Elymus glaucus, Hordeum brachyantherum, andStipa pulchra) and monitored plant survival and cover for three growing seasons. Survival of native grass species was high in all treatments, but was slightly lower in unmulched soil removal and control treatments in the first 2 yr. Mulching, tarping, and herbicide were all effective in reducing exotic grass cover and enhancing native grass cover for the first 2 yr, but by the third growing season cover of the plant guilds and bare ground had mostly converged, primarily because of the declining effects of the initial treatments. Mulching and tarping were both considerably more expensive than herbicide treatment. Topsoil removal was less effective in increasing native grass cover likely because soil removal altered the surface hydrology in this system. Our results show that several treatments were effective in enhancing native grass establishment, but that longer term monitoring is needed to evaluate the efficacy of restoration efforts. The most appropriate approach to controlling exotics to restore specific grassland sites will depend not only on the effectiveness, but also on relative costs and site constraints.

Fish Friendly Farming: Water, Wine, and Fish—Sustainable Agriculture for a Thirsty World

This case study focuses on Fish Friendly Farming, part of a nonprofit organization, the California Land Stewardship Institute. The FFF program is an example of an innovative model for cooperative public-private environmental collaboration and stewardship. The case provides a history of FFF and its ability to create networks and collaborations between parties that typically find it difficult to work together. This case focuses both on sustainability issues related to land and farming, and on challenges related to scaling up a successful nonprofit organization.

Sustaining Ecosystem Services From Private Lands in California: The Role of the Landowner

• California landownerships are changing—becoming smaller and more amenity-driven, with important implications for ecosystem service production. • Residence on the property, larger property size, source of income from the land, having a long-term outlook, and using an advisory service are associated with landowner management for ecosystem services for the owner and for society. • Advisory services like Cooperative Extension and the Natural Resources Conservation Service, as well as private consultants and professional organizations, have an important role in the future of ecosystem service production.

Herbicide-resistant weeds challenge some signature cropping systems

Invasive and endemic weeds pose recurring challenges for California land managers. The evolution of herbicide resistance in several species has imposed new challenges in some cropping systems, and these issues are being addressed by UC Cooperative Extension farm advisors, specialists and faculty. There are currently 24 unique herbicide-resistant weed biotypes in the state, dominated by grasses and sedges in flooded rice systems and, more recently, glyphosate-resistant broadleaf and grass weeds in tree and vine systems, roadsides and glyphosate-tolerant field crops. Weed scientists address these complex issues using approaches ranging from basic physiology and genetics research to applied research and extension efforts in grower fields throughout the state. Although solutions to herbicide resistance are not simple and are affected by many biological, economic, regulatory and social factors, California stakeholders need information, training and solutions to address new weed management problems as they arise. Coordinated efforts conducted under the Endemic and Invasive Pests and Disease Strategic Initiative directly address weed management challenges in California's agricultural industries.

Diminishing Returns from Higher Density Restoration Seedings Suggest Trade‐offs in Pollinator Seed Mixes

AbstractNative forbs have become a more central component of restoration programs, especially because of their role in supporting crop pollinators. This study evaluates the success of different native forb mixes and seeding rates using shared goals of restoration practitioners and agroecologists, namely percent native species cover, floral resources, native diversity, and cost‐effectiveness. At 6 sites with hedgerows adjacent to agricultural lands in California's Central Valley, we planted 3 native forb seed mixes at 3 seeding rates and monitored germination, percent cover, and floral resources for 2 to 3 years. We also evaluated the cost of the mixes based on seeding rates and original seed prices. More than mix type, relative seeding rate strongly affected germination, cover, and floral resource success. The relative benefits of seeding with more species diminished at higher seeding rates, especially when cost was considered. Cover increased significantly over the years but diversity declined sharply after the first year. Increased cover of target species was mainly due to the effect of 1 dominant species Grindelia camporum, common gumplant. We summarize data from a similar forb restoration study showing that the species that dominated in our mix‐and‐rate experimental sites also attracted the greatest diversity and abundance of pollinators. These findings highlight trade‐offs and balance‐points within restoration and pollination services goals. We offer suggestions on how to weigh those trade‐offs, given particular priorities and how native forb plantings can support combined goals of pollination services and restoration.

The push and pull of land use policy: reconstructing 150 years of development and conservation land acquisition.

The growth of human populations and their resource needs have stressed the conservation of natural land resources. Many policies and programs have been implemented to address the pressures on land resources and notwithstanding this pressure, significant acquisition of land for conservation has occurred throughout history in the U.S., and internationally. Here we assess the on-the-ground result of the evolution of land use policies in California as a pioneer forerunner, in the form of acquisition of land for conservation (i.e. Open Space), and its impact on the rest of the U.S. and beyond. To this end we describe the timeline and spatial representation of the growth of California’s conservation network over the last 150 years, and link it to the history of land use policies. We then assess whether conservation land acquisition has consistently grown through time or occurred in specific decades. About ¼ of the state is now designated Open Space. Fewer and larger areas conserved and acquired at the beginning of the 20th century; the conservation network was complemented with a larger number of smaller sized properties. Despite acquisition of land in every decade, the process was uneven (E = 0.3 for California, E = 0.14±0.08 average for the state’s counties), mostly due to the large acquisitions and land set asides in the 1900s, followed by 1930s and 1940s. This process was a result of a comprehensive set of legislation that evolved through time, and resulted from the competing needs for development and conservation. Even with the impressive 174,000 km2 of public lands in California, the future of California’s natural infrastructure and natural heritage cannot rely solely on these public lands, nor public agencies and their resources. Critically a future course of land preservation relying on the purchase of new lands – in California and beyond – for conservation is tremendously expensive.