Environmental Information for the
California Almond Industry

Almond Industry Headline Environmental News

   Air Quality

  • USDA Issues New Greenhouse Gas Reporting Guidelines for Farms and Forests - -  The U.S. Department of Agriculture provided the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) with new accounting rules and guidelines for reporting greenhouse gas emissions and carbon sequestration in the forest and agriculture sectors.   <more> March 23, 2005 USDA press release
     

  • Almond Board Hosts Environmental Stewardship Tour - - The Almond Board of California brought numerous media together in Livingstone, Calif. to show what the almond industry is doing about environmental stewardship. During the event several companies showcased innovative shredding machines, which can be used to shred prunings instead of burning the brush. <more> Pacific Nut Producer March 2005 Issue

Crop Protection

  • Mites a big threat to agriculture. Bee parasite poses major problems - -Buzzing bees and blooming trees are, to Dan Cummings, what life is all about. So the owner of 4,500 acres of almond orchards in and around Chico doesn't take kindly to a pint-sized mite that is threatening to suck the life out of his livelihood. <more> March 28, 2005 San Francisco Chronicle
     

  • Africanized beehive found in Clovis - - A hive of bees found in a northeast Clovis back yard was the first colony of Africanized honeybees in Fresno County, the county agricultural  commissioner said Thursday. <more> March 25, 2005 Fresno Bee

Water Quality

  • Water drain plan revives Kesterson pollution fears. Proposal would remove selenium blamed for 1980s wildlife disaster. - - Jim Ganulin remembers the collective gasp at the Los Banos fairground on that March night 20 years ago.Federal authorities announced that shocking bird deformities and wildlife carnage would force them to shut off the flow of toxic irrigation drainage to Kesterson National Wildlife Refuge. But there was a bigger surprise: They also intended to cut off irrigation supplies to 42,000 farming acres, the source of the bad drainage, in the Westlands Water District. Ganulin was Westlands' legal counsel at the time. <more> March 20, 2005 Fresno Bee
     
  • Dispute boils down to water deliveries. Group claims government has pledged more water to valley farmers than it has to give - - A national environmental research group and water districts in Kern County are at loggerheads about who is telling the truth on future water deliveries for the Central Valley Project. The Environmental Working Group alleged in a news statement issued Thursday that the federal government has promised Central Valley farmers more water than it has the capacity to supply. Water districts and the Friant Water Authority, which manages the Kern County share of the Central Valley Project, say no such promises exist. <more> March 18, 2005 Bakersfield Californian.
     

Endangered Species

  • Protected species list is challenged - - Seeking to force the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to review the status of endangered species every five years or remove them from the protected list, the Pacific Legal Foundation sued the agency Tuesday in Sacramento federal court. <more> March 23, 2005 Sacramento Bee
     

General Industry News
 

  • Farmers have role in shaping valley's future - - The Central Valley--stretching 450 miles from Redding to Bakersfield--is on the brink of changes that will not only transform the valley and the state, but also drastically alter the valley's vibrant agricultural base. How the landscape will look mid-century depends on public policy and land use decisions being made today. <more> March 28, 2005 Ag Alert California Farm Bureau Federation
     

  • Rain thins almond yields. After amazing three years, it might be rest time for Kern trees, growers say- - The almond crop in Kern County appears to be a bit light this year because of rainy weather during the pollination period and the normal cycle of tree rest, local growers said Thursday. "You're not going to have a bumper crop at all," grower Rick Jelmini in west Kern County said. <more> March 24, 2005 Bakersfield Californian
     

 

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