California’s expensive COVID-19 predictions were useless for rural areas. Here’s why [Sacramento Bee]
… California’s pandemic models this summer envisioned a catastrophic scenario in some of the state’s less-populated counties. But those forecasts proved to be wildly inaccurate, prompting several local health officers to dismiss the state’s forecasting website altogether — if they’d even heard of the effort at all, a Sacramento Bee review has found. … Modeling experts say overzealous predictions from the spring were lost in translation. They proved to be inaccurate because people took unprecedented action by sheltering in place.
https://www.sacbee.com/news/coronavirus/article245439570.html
San Joaquin County selected for pilot program to help house ag workers with COVID-19 [Stockton Record]
San Joaquin County has been selected to take part in a program to help house agricultural employees with COVID-19. The Housing for the Harvest program provides temporary hotel housing options for farm and food processing employees to self-isolate if they are COVID-19 positive and do not require hospitalization or have been exposed and cannot properly isolate at home. San Joaquin and Fresno counties were selected to offer the pilot program with plans to establish more Housing for the Harvest programs in communities statewide.
Opinion: Essential and vulnerable: COVID-19 takes hard toll on California’s migrant farm workers [USA Today]
The 31-mile road that connects Modesto and Merced, cut between almond, apricot and plum orchards, leads to California’s agricultural heartland. … Farms and processing plants across the region have reported alarming COVID-19 outbreaks, leading to a disproportionate rate of cases among the Latino and migrant community. … In addition to the state’s $75 million in disaster relief for workers, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced a $50 million philanthropic effort to support the state’s roughly 2 million undocumented people. But those dollars are running out, and experts say there’s enough to provide aid for only 150,000 people. Latino leaders in the Valley are calling for more state action.
Feds seek to remove wolves from endangered species protection [USA Today]
Federal wildlife officials aim to remove endangered species protections for gray wolves across the U.S. this year. “We’re working hard to have this done by the end of the year, and I’d say it’s very imminent,” Aurelia Skipwith, the director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said this week. The USFWS wants to return management authority of the wolves to the states. Skipwith said the wolf has “biologically recovered” and that its removal from the list would demonstrate the effectiveness of the Endangered Species Act.
Trump will roll back more regulations if re-elected, EPA chief says [Wall Street Journal]
President Trump would press forward with efforts to ease regulatory burdens on business if re-elected for a second term, while working to ease bottlenecks that have delayed Superfund cleanup projects, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency administrator Andrew Wheeler said. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Mr. Wheeler said a second term for the Trump administration would allow his agency to implement additional measures such as including a cost-benefit analysis of any new regulations. … Environmentalists have criticized Mr. Trump’s emphasis on easing regulatory burdens, and Democratic presidential rival Joe Biden has offered a starkly different agenda if elected.
Marin’s climate action plan to stress benefits of carbon farming [Point Reyes Light]
In its quest to meet California’s goal of bringing greenhouse gas emissions to 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030, Marin considers its farmers and ranchers a key part of the solution. … A strategy for expanding carbon farming practices in Marin will be included in a renewed climate action plan that will outline emission reduction strategies for unincorporated areas. … The county partners are now working to evaluate the carbon sequestration that has been documented in Marin to date, to determine how much farmland remains that could benefit from carbon farming, and to calculate how much carbon could be sequestered overall in Marin.
https://www.ptreyeslight.com/article/marins-climate-action-plan-stress-benefits-carbon-farming
