The Vantage Point

Glenda Humiston 
Vice President
UC Agriculture and Natural Resources 

While UC ANR employees and facilities thankfully saw only minor impacts from Tropical Storm Hilary earlier this month, our thoughts are with the communities affected by the torrential rains – as well as the people impacted by the wildfires in Northern California. Flash floods, mud flows and other impacts remind us that preparation for extreme weather events remains paramount, including shoring up the state’s water management systems.

Planning tools that advance more resilient, sustainable and equitable water stewardship are the core of a project led by UC Cooperative Extension specialists Ted Grantham and Kristin Dobbin at UC Berkeley and California Institute for Water Resources Director Erik Porse. Last week, UC awarded the project $8.2 million – the largest among the $83.1 million in state-funded climate action grants.

I look forward to seeing the results of this enormous – and enormously important – project, namely: a compilation of input from community members on water access and reliability; data visualization tools that summarize water allocations under various climate and management scenarios; and analyses of use cases focused on drinking water for disadvantaged communities, Chinook salmon recovery and Delta salinity.

Among the 38 projects funded by these historic California Climate Action Seed Grants and Matching Grants is a project led by Sonja Brodt, coordinator for agriculture and environment at our UC Sustainable Agriculture Research & Education Program. Sonja and a team of UC scientists and community partners were awarded $2 million to strengthen a network of demonstration farms. These sites and related outreach and research activities will help advance regionally specific agricultural practices to promote soil health, sequester carbon, increase water and nutrient use efficiency, and boost farmer resilience to climate impacts.

UC Cooperative Extension researchers involved with other climate action grant-supported projects are Ruth Dahlquist-Willard, UCCE small farms advisor and interim director of UC SAREP; Mallika Nocco, UCCE specialist in soil-plant-water relations; Tapan Pathak, UCCE specialist in climate adaptation in agriculture; Igor Lacan, UCCE environmental horticulture and urban forestry advisor; Barb Satink Wolfson, UCCE fire advisor; and Devii Rao, UCCE livestock and natural resources advisor.

Congratulations to all grant recipients, and my thanks to leadership at UCOP and the State of California for supporting these vital efforts to meet the complex challenges of climate change. I’m excited to follow the progress of these projects and see how they will make communities across the state safer, stronger and more sustainable and equitable.

Speaking of outstanding leadership: during a lively meeting this month of the President’s Advisory Commission on Agriculture and Natural Resources, we bid farewell to Kathryn Uhrich, the dean of UC Riverside’s College of Natural and Agricultural Sciences. She will be stepping down as dean on Sept. 1 and Peter Atkinson, a renowned entomologist at UC Riverside, will serve in an interim capacity. While Kathryn will continue serving as a Distinguished Professor of Chemistry at UCR, I will personally miss seeing her at PAC meetings and other events. And though she leaves an incredible legacy from her nearly eight years as CNAS dean, we will all miss the wisdom and perspective she always provided in her leadership role within the UC. Please join me in wishing Kathryn all the best in her next adventure!