Hello SBCWMA Newsletter
Subscribers:
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News
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SBCWMA Wins Grant Award to Control
Artichoke Thistle
The Santa Barbara County Weed Management Area has been awarded $8,590 from the
CDFA/USFS Forest Rangeland Enhancement Project. An application was
submitted to the US Forest Service via the California Department of Food and
Agriculture for a 2 year project to control artichoke thistle (Cynara cardunculus) on the Gaviota Coast
on a property that is the western neighbor of the Arroyo Hondo Preserve.
Cal-HIP Issues Spring Newsletter
The California Partnership for the Prevention of
Invasive Plant Introductions through Horticulture, (Cal-PPIPIH), has a new name
– California Horticultural Invasives Prevention (Cal-HIP). Their steering
committee selected the shorter, more direct name and acronym to use in outreach
and education activities. This is a consortium, led by Sustainable
Conservation, of nursery, public agencies, and non-governmental organizations
who are working to voluntarily reduce the number of invasive ornamentals
available in the trade. Join them in celebrating their new name by
visiting their online newsletter: http://www.suscon.org/invasives/newsletter/Spring2006/Spring2006.asp
Border
War?
Additional controversy about invasive weeds was generated by a New York Times
Op-ed piece written by George Ball, president of W. Atlee Burpee & Company
and a former president of the American Horticultural Society. Click
here to reach the article.
If you are unable to reach the New York Times article try this link at
Burpee.com: http://www.burpee.com/jump.jsp?itemID=815&itemType=CONTENT_ARTICLE
Rebuttals were posted on various sites and blogs on the
internet – Mother
Jones; Windstar; RichardSilversteinBlog.
I do not know if the New York Times published any additional comments
generated by Mr. Ball’s editorial.
I learned about this editorial and the rebuttals from the Alien Plants Working
Group listserv: http://www.nps.gov/plants/alien/maillist.htm
Hazardous Waste Collection Day in
Santa Ynez Valley
The County of Santa Barbara Public Works Department, in partnership with the
City of Solvang, will be hosting the next bi-annual Santa Ynez Valley Household
Hazardous Waste and Electronics Collection Event on Sunday, April 9th from 9:00 A.M. to 3:00
P.M. (8:00 A.M. to 9:00 A.M. for small businesses by appointment) at
the Santa Ynez Valley Recycling and Transfer Station, 4004 Foxen Canyon Road in
Los Olivos. Disposal is free for Valley residents; businesses are charged
disposal fees. Quantities Accepted: 15 gallons or 125 pounds of waste per
resident per trip (up to three trips). Materials Accepted: Household
hazardous wastes (such as paint, batteries, automotive fluids, and pesticides)
and consumer electronics (such as televisions, computer equipment, radios,
telephones, and microwaves). Questions: Call (805) 882-3615 or visit http://www.lessismore.org
Sudden Oak Death Task Force Meeting
Summary
While sudden oak death is not an invasive weed, I
thought this would be an item of interest to those in the environmental
community. Heather Scheck, the Agricultural Commissioner's Plant
Pathologist, provided this summary of the spring 2006 meeting of the California
Oak Mortality Task Force in Carmel. The meeting provided Management and Research
Updates from California, Oregon, Washington and the European Union.
The Federal Emergency Regulations for SOD are due to
“sunset” in 2007 so USDA is analyzing procedures and protocols for permanent
rules. The American Nursery and Landscape Association is developing Best
Management Practices for its members. Plant destruction is still the only
option for confirmed nurseries, there is no fungicide treatment nor is there
likely to be one in the future. There are new trace-forward protocols for
retail nurseries that are far more extensive than in the
past.
Various regulatory labs report an overall decline in
positive nurseries for the 2005/2006 season, with the exception of 2 finds at
nurseries in Florida, where none were previously reported. This is mainly
attributed to the closing of a Los Angeles County nursery that had shipped
infected camellias to 26 states in past years. There is good trace back
evidence now that the nursery received infected camellias from a nursery in
Santa Cruz County, and Phytophthora
ramorum was able to spread at an exponential rate in their
blocks.
The California Department of Food and Agriculture has
processed 25,000 regulatory samples this season, and approximately 1% have been
positive, so a total of 55 nurseries were positive statewide, approximately the
same number as last year. Several nurseries are repeat positives – they went
through the Confirmed Nursery Protocol last year and were released, only to test
positive again this year. The only positive nursery in Southern California is in
Los Angeles County. We have not received any trace forwards to our branch of
this nursery.
It is extremely depressing to see the damage that SOD
has done in the Big Sur region. They estimate that over 100,000 oaks and tanoaks
have been killed to date and the projection is that 400-600,000 will die before
the epidemic burns out. SOD is also moving north in Humboldt County and
eradication efforts in Curry County, Oregon have not been successful despite
hundreds of acres having been cut and burned since
2003.
The United Kingdom also reports problems with P. ramorum in their nurseries, landscapes,
historical gardens and wildlands. A survey of the EU shows SOD to be widespread
and they have an additional new Phytophthora, P. kernoviae, which has a similar host
range to P. ramorum. In the
There are plans for more aerial and ground surveys in
Santa Barbara County from May – July. The good news is that SOD still
appears to be confined to the coastal mixed evergreen forests – those dominated
by redwoods, firs, oaks, tanoaks and bay laurels. It has not been found in the
oak savannah which is our dominant landscape. The host list continues to
expand; there are now 100 confirmed hosts with more native and non-native plants
added every year. See the complete list of hosts at http://www.aphis.usda.gov/ppq/ispm/pramorum/pdf_files/usdaprlist.pdf.
(Trace-back and trace-forward are methods to follow
plant purchases and sales.)
New Video/DVD on English Ivy as an
Invasive Weed
Ecovisions has completed their video/DVD presentation on
English ivy. The video, English Ivy; Managing an Invasive Alien Species,
was completed early this year. Copies are available for $28 -- delivered. Send
check or money order to: Ecovisions Inc; 410 Berry Circle; Talent OR, 97540.
For more information visit: www.xenob.com
California Noxious and Invasive Weed
Plan
The California Noxious and Invasive Weed Action Plan was released in September
2005. If you're interested in seeing which agencies and other
organizations are set to accomplish each part of the plan, they are listed after
each "Selected Action" throughout the plan. To view the PDF file, please
click
here to go to the CDFA website. If you would like paper copies to
distribute, please click
here to send your request with your mailing address to Katie Filippini at
CDFA.
The Weed Plan has identified selected actions that will immediately be addressed
by agencies, groups and individuals to begin doing more with the resources at
hand. Furthermore, the plan has identified comprehensive needs that if
addressed, will enable some of the most serious impacts from noxious and
invasive weeds to be minimized and prevented. Progress in implementing the
plan will be evaluated on a yearly basis to ensure its recommendations are
fulfilled. A continuation of the steering committee will monitor, and
facilitate, implementation of the plan.
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Educational
Events
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Cal-IPC Wildland Field
Courses
The California Invasive Plant Council is sponsoring three field courses in
Northern California on wildland invasive weed control. Click here for more
information and to register. Following are course times and
descriptions:
1. Management Strategies and Techniques. April 24, 2006; 8:30AM-5:00PM; Bouverie Preserve; Glen
Ellen (Sonoma County); $125
The
one-day course is back by popular demand! This course focuses on Integrated Pest
Management control methods taught by invasive weed experts with extensive
on-the-ground experience. The program includes a comprehensive overview of field
methods and hands-on demonstrations of the latest technologies. Participants can
expect to emerge with an understanding of all major management approaches -
mechanical, cultural, chemical, biological - and incorporating them into an
integrated control program. The one-day field course is designed for agency
staff, land managers, and stewardship volunteers.
2. Management Strategies and Techniques – Expanded. May 24-25,
2006; 9:00am-5:00pm; Cache Creek Conservancy; Winters (Yolo County)
$250/270
Cal-IPC
has expanded the popular one-day field course, packed with practical information
and intensive instruction by experts in the invasive plant control field. In
addition to discussion of the major management techniques (mechanical, cultural,
chemical, biological), this course will delve into herbicide formulations and
modes of action; invasive plant biology; monitoring and field sampling; and
planning a comprehensive, strategic management program. During the course,
participants and instructors will form workgroups as part of an exercise to plan
control strategies for real-world invasive plant management situations.
3. Tools for Early Detection. October 4, 2006; Time TBA; Bouverie
Preserve (Sonoma County); $125/145
Join
invasive plant experts to discuss invasive plant biology, identification, and
vouchering techniques - and stay for the always fabulous Cal-IPC Symposium in
Sonoma County. This "hands-on" course includes practical ideas for planning an
early detection program and utilizing GPS in data collection. Details will be
posted at www.cal-ipc.org when the agenda is
finalized.
Society for Conservation Biology
Meeting and Conference
The 20th annual meeting of the Society for Conservation
Biology, Conservation Without Borders, will be held 24-28 June 2006 in San Jose,
California. Please join as many as 2000 participants from more than 50
countries in advancing the science and practice of conserving the Earth's
biological diversity.
Among the themes highlighted throughout the meeting will
be freshwater and marine conservation, local-level and regional-level
conservation, 21st century conservation, and transboundary conservation.
The meeting will include plenary presentations, contributed paper and poster
sessions, and diverse social and networking events. Short courses and
field trips also will be offered.
The meeting will be held concurrently with the Ninth
Annual International Conference of the Society for Conservation GIS. Registered
participants in the SCB meeting also will be welcome at all events sponsored by
SCGIS.
For complete information on the meeting or to register,
please visit http://www.ConservationBiology.org/2006.
Regular registration rates are available until 14 May, after which late
registration rates will apply until 9 June. Questions may be directed to
2006@conbio.org
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Grant
Opportunity
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Government
Mobility: Coastal Communities Edition Grant
ESRI and
Trimble Announce Call for Demonstration Projects for Government Mobility:
Coastal Communities Edition. Applications will be accepted between March 24 and
June 2, 2006.
The ESRI and
Trimble software, hardware, and training grants totaling $96,000 will be awarded
to 10 state or local governments within the United States. The program is
designed to support all disciplines engaged in activities that serve to sustain
coastal communities. Examples of eligible projects could draw from, but are not
limited to, areas such as facility inspection, public facilities, agriculture,
community development, redevelopment, public works, engineering, law
enforcement, emergency management, cadastral and survey management, homeland
security, conservation, environmental management, watershed management, parks
and recreation, economic development, air quality, health and human services,
and transportation.
The goal of
this program is to foster innovative approaches to solving government problems
through the combined use of geographic information system technology and GPS
technology. Projects must demonstrate increased efficiencies in collecting data
for decision support or increased productivity in delivering government
services.
Eligibility:
The program is open to all forms of
state and local governments serving coastal communities residing in the United
States as well as all departments within a government organization. For the
purposes of this grant, a coastal community will be defined as a unit of
government residing within a county that meets the following criteria:
·
At least 15 percent of its total land area is located
within the nation's coastal watershed or
·
A portion of the entire county accounts for at least 15
percent of a coastal cataloging unit (an individual drainage basin)
To view a
list of the 656 counties meeting the designation of a coastal county/community,
please visit the National
Association of Counties Web site.
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Acknowledgement
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The news on this newsletter may be compiled from various sources including
emails I receive from various people I know, who are involved in the invasive
weed field, and from listservs. I modify the emails, but they are often
inserted here nearly verbatim. I thank those people for this information
and for their devotion to protecting and conserving habitat.
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Sincerely,
David
Chang
Agricultural Commissioner's Office
County
of Santa Barbara
(805)
681-5600
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