The Vantage Point

Glenda Humiston 
Vice President
UC Agriculture and Natural Resources 

With Labor Day just a few days away and the summer holiday season drawing to a close, we might traditionally have been thinking about one last long-weekend getaway. Unfortunately, given the severe wildfire danger and poor air quality, coupled with the surge of the COVID Delta variant, I’m guessing most of us may be sticking closer to home this year.  
 
As thousands in the southeastern United States are currently reeling from the devastating impact of Hurricane Ida, wildfires continue to explode across California and the West. According to Cal Fire, over 1.66 million acres have already been scorched across our state this year with the Dixie Fire now the largest in the state’s history. My heart goes out to the thousands of people, including members of our UC ANR team, who have been evacuated or have lost their homes. 

With these threatening conditions across the state, I am especially grateful for the many ANR Advisors and Specialists who continue their research and outreach to help residents and legislators better understand and implement best practices for healthy forest management, home hardening, community planning, and remote fire sensing, even when they themselves are directly impacted by evacuation orders and dangerous air quality conditions. 
 
This month’s newsletter highlights two important new mapping projects, both developed with the help of UC ANR’s Informatics and Geographic Information System team. The first map, created by UC ANR's Nutrition Policy Institute for the National Drinking Water Alliance, flags locations of tap water contamination across the country. The second, created by the Southern California Association of Governments, is a strategic conservation mapping tool that highlights the benefits of natural lands, waters, and agricultural lands, including access to parks and trails, habitat protection and connectivity, clean water, clean air, food production, and increased resilience to climate change. We hope you’ll find these maps to be both interesting and informative. 

I also invite you to join us for any or all of this month’s featured events on water management, insect pest identification, and climate resiliency, or feel free to explore other UC ANR events on our website. 

Please share our Connected newsletter with others! I wish you all a very safe and healthy Labor Day holiday.