California Capitol Hill Bulletin – January 22, 2010 – The U.S. Interior Department’s Bureau of Reclamation signed the Record of Decision on December 29, 2009 for the Delta-Mendota Canal (DMC)/California Aqueduct (CA) Intertie (Intertie), completing the Federal environmental documentation process.

The ROD sets out Reclamation’s decision to proceed with implementation of the proposed action as identified in the Final Environmental Impact Statement. The project is named in the recent Interim Federal Action Plan for the California Bay-Delta as a high priority action to encourage the smarter supply and use of Bay-Delta water.

The Intertie is designed to connect the DMC and the CA via a new pipeline and pumping plant to improve DMC conveyance limitations, allow for maintenance and repair activities and provide the flexibility to respond to the Central Valley Project and the State Water Project emergency water operations. The project was identified as a proposed action in the August 2000 CALFED Bay-Delta Program Programmatic Record of Decision.

The ROD is available online at http://www.usbr.gov/mp/nepa/nepa_projdetails.cfm?Project_ID=1014

Additional project information is available at http://www.usbr.gov/mp/intertie/docs/index.html

SACRAMENTO, January 28, 2010 —California Department of Food and Agriculture Secretary A.G. Kawamura is announcing three listening sessions to discuss proposed regulations for the State Organic Program.

Listening sessions are open to the public from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. on the following days and locations:

• February 9, 2010, California Department of Food and Agriculture, Main Auditorium, 1220 N Street, Sacramento, CA 95814
• February 17, 2010, Monterey Agricultural Commissioner’s Office, 1428 Abbott Street, Ag Center Conference Room, Salinas, CA 93901
• March 3, 2010, Los Angeles Agricultural Commissioner’s Office, 11012 So Garfield Avenue, South Gate, CA 90280

The California Products Act was established in 1990. In 2003 the Act was abolished and the California Organic Products Act (COPA) of 2003 was established. This is found in the California Food and Agriculture Code, Title 3, Sections 46000-46029. Proposed additions to the California Code of Regulations will make specific procedures for registration, spot inspections and sampling as authorized in COPA 2003. The additions will also incorporate by reference the National Organic Program regulations.

The proposed organic regulations can be found on the CDFA Web site at: http://www.cdfa.ca.gov/is/Regulations.html.

The Total U.S. Avocado category retail dollars for the 13-weeks ending 12/27/2009 were $176.4 million* which represented 4.6 percent* of the Fruit category.

The Avocado category retail dollar increase of +9.5 percent versus prior year significantly outperformed the Fruit category, which grew 1.5 percent.

* Source: IRI / FreshLook Marketing

Note: Initial response to the survey in the previous Greensheet was positive – CAC is re-running the article upon request. If you have experience with armored scales in your orchard, UCR would appreciate your input.

You can be a part of the California armored scales survey being conducted by the Morse and Stouthamer laboratories at the Univeristy of California Riverside. This survey aims to identify the species of armored scale insects and their parasitoids found in avocado groves in California.

CAC would be grateful if growers, pest control advisors or others who notice the presence of armored scale insects on fruit, leaves or twigs in an avocado grove would contact Lindsay Robinson via e-mail at: Lindsay.robinson@ucr.edu or call (951) 827-5443. You might consider having your picking crews keep an eye out for armored scales when they pick and make a note of where they are seen in the grove.

To the degree possible, the researchers would like to visit groves where armored scales are seen to take samples for genetic identification and to determine what species of scales and parasitoid(s) are present.

Below are examples of armored scales you might find on avocado trees in California (click the images to view full size pictures). Photos by ML Arpaia:

Note: Initial response to the survey in the previous Greensheet was positive – CAC is re-running the article upon request. If you have experience with persea mite in your orchard, UCR would appreciate your input.

To better serve the needs of California Avocado growers, your input is needed regarding your personal experience with the persea mite in your orchard. The collective response of growers will help guide UC Riverside's research efforts on persea mite which is intended to sustain the competitiveness of California grown avocados.

If you are interested in helping guide research directed at managing the persea mite, please complete the online survey at: http://cisr.ucr.edu/persea_mite_survey.html. We ask that you check the boxes which best reflect the growing conditions of your orchard. Your response will remain confidential and will be used solely for research purposes that will be of benefit to the California grower community at large.

The persea mite is a pest that may cause leaf-drop on avocado trees because of its feeding. Some recent research suggests that high populations of persea mite may also cause reductions in fruit yield. Below are some close-up pictures of the persea mite and the feeding damage they cause on avocado leaves. You can learn more about the persea mite by clicking on the survey link above.

Your participation is very much appreciated.