Strong snowpack is good news for California’s water supply as storms hit the mark [Los Angeles Times]
After a slow start to California’s wet winter season, a series of storms that hammered the state at the tail end of 2019 dumped enough snow on the Sierra Nevada to kick off the new year with a solid snowpack….Surveyors with the California Department of Water Resources trudged through a snow-covered field Thursday at the department’s Phillips station — fresh powder crunching beneath their snowshoes —and plunged a hollow pole into the snowpack for the first monthly measurement that serves as an important marker for the state’s water supply. The result — 33.5 inches deep — amounted to a promising start, officials said.
Bill could give farmworkers in California a path to legal status. Will Senate pass it? [Palm Springs Desert Sun]
…In December, while the impeachment inquiry dominated headlines, the House of Representatives passed its first agricultural labor bill in more than 30 years….The bill now faces uncertainty as it moves to the Senate, where Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., will decide whether to bring it to the floor for a vote when Congress reconvenes in 2020. The stakes are perhaps highest for California among all states as the nation’s breadbasket, which grows two-thirds of the nation’s fruits and nuts and one-third of its vegetables….With more than 420,000 farmworkers, California farms employ about 30% of the nation’s agricultural labor force.
Citrus disease Huanglongbing remains a threat to Ventura County orchards [Ventura County Star]
Ventura County growers remain vigilant against a disease that’s led to an expanded Southern California quarantine zone aimed at protecting the state’s huge citrus industry. The recent addition of 107 square miles encompassing Corona and Norco and part of Chino followed the discovery of a dozen trees with citrus greening disease in Corona….The zone doesn’t extend here, but local growers are wary of the disease’s threat to lemons, which at nearly $244.2 million a year are the No. 2 local crop, as well as Valencia oranges, tangelos and Mandarins, which are among the top 25 crops….“This is the worst citrus disease on the planet, and it poses an existential threat to commercial citrus production here in California, just as it has to citrus production in Florida,” said John Krist, chief executive officer of the Farm Bureau of Ventura County.
U.S. farmers see another bleak year despite Phase 1 trade deal [Reuters]
…As the U.S. farm economy reels from the worst harvest in decades after nearly two years of the trade war, U.S. grain growers are struggling to decide what crops might keep them in business. U.S. President Donald Trump announced last month that China had agreed to double its pre-trade war purchases of U.S. agricultural products over the next two years as part of a Phase 1 trade deal. That brought little comfort to U.S. farmers because China still has not confirmed the commitment or signed any deal….Trump administration officials say the Phase 1 trade deal with China will be signed in January, though many tariffs will remain in place during further negotiation. Commodity market analysts and agricultural economists warn an agreement won’t be an immediate fix for the U.S. farm economy because the conflict has spurred China to develop new supply chains.
IID contempt case to move forward [Imperial Valley Press]
Despite protests by Imperial Irrigation District attorneys, Superior County Judge L. Brooks Anderholt Thursday morning scheduled a hearing for Feb. 4 to determine if the district was in contempt of court for providing water to a Heber geothermal plant. The issue stems from former IID Director Mike Abatti’s successful court challenge of IID’s 2013 Equitable Distribution Plan. Anderholt in 2017 found the plan to be unlawful because it disadvantaged farmers in favor of all other water users. The IID has appealed that ruling. On. Nov. 19, IID’s board of directors approved a new water agreement with Heber Geothermal that Abatti believes violated the court’s order.
Herbicide spraying proposed to curb broom plants in small parts of Mendocino National Forest [Santa Rosa Press Democrat]
Mendocino National Forest plans to use herbicides and hand tools to remove and control invasive broom plants now sprouting in the footprint of the Ranch fire, which in 2018 scorched about 288,000 acres in the sprawling forest that spans Lake, Glenn and Colusa counties. The U.S. Forest Service, which manages the rugged woodlands, says the broom treatment project needs to start in spring to prevent regrowth of Scotch, Spanish and French broom plants, which can form impenetrable thickets and constitute a wildfire hazard, said Punky Moore, a Mendocino National Forest spokeswoman. While the fire destroyed many of those mature broom plants, it also stimulated the germination of seeds in the ground that might otherwise have remained dormant for years or decades.
https://www.pressdemocrat.com/news/10538335-181/herbicide-spraying-proposed-to-curb
