With so much attention paid to climate change, the 2022 Unified Wine and Grape Symposium this January has appropriately recruited the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) climate director to open the prestige three-day event. As Unified’s Tuesday luncheon keynote speaker, Dr. Steven Ostoja, director of the USDA California Climate Hub, will offer his  insights into how a changing climate …

The Departments of the Interior, Agriculture and Homeland Security Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) today announced the establishment of a new Wildland Fire Mitigation and Management Commission. Establishing this Commission fulfills a key provision of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and represents a critical step in combating the nation’s wildfire crisis and improving resilience in America’s landscapes. The Commission is tasked …

Drought events are often wide-spread, persistent, and long lasting. Drought losses are as substantial as those from hurricanes, tornadoes, and other immediate-impact disaster events. Drought causes losses to agriculture, and affects domestic water supply, energy production, public health, wildlife, and contributes to wildfire.   If drought has impacted your operation, USDA can help you recover from your losses, mitigate risk, and prepare for future natural disasters. USDA offers a suite of programs that help with recovery as well as those that can help …

Plan for the worst, hope for the best. That’s a tough, solid, strategy as the 2021 season winds down and almond growers and PCAs look to 2022. The following are some considerations when following this strategy. Every operation is different, and growers must decide what works best for their business. Final decisions may not need to be made until early …

CA Department of Public Health Occupational Health Branch — In 2020, California had five of the largest wildfires in state history during that one year alone. This year, the Dixie fire continues to burn and is now the largest single wildfire in state history. Poor air quality due to wildfire smoke may persist for months and spread to neighboring counties and states. …

Along with hurricanes and wildfires, there’s another important, but seldom-discussed effect of climate change — toxic water and sinking land made worse by groundwater drought. Water from snow and rain seeps deep into the ground between layers of soil and accumulates in sponge-like underground bathtubs, called aquifers. Farmers rely heavily on this groundwater to irrigate their crops when they can’t get …

The other day I was enjoying a nice breakfast, when I saw a man sitting next to me with his bicycle. Of course, my wife started talking with him! It turns out that he is a professor from Columbia, NY who, as far as I could understood, teaches something related to climate change. I couldn’t help asking him, do we …

As wildfires rage across the western U.S., incinerating hundreds of thousands of acres, destroying entire communities, and polluting the air, Bill Pekny has a message: We need to get more educated on what causes these disasters. It’s the only way we’ll be able to reduce the devastation. “There are a lot of misconceptions around wildfires,” says Pekny, author of A Tale …