Water, Wildfire, and Citrus Disease Concerns

Tim Hammerich

News Reporter

Water, wildfire, and disease all present challenges to California growers. Here are a few updates courtesy of the California Farm Bureau Federation.

Thousands of water rights holders in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta watershed are contemplating impacts of emergency curtailment regulations that may cut off farm water supplies. Organic nectarine farmer Al Courchesne says, “A curtailment would be disastrous for…farmers in California, but particularly for small, family farmers like myself.” Water from the delta supplies two-thirds of Californians and millions of acres of farmland.

California’s biggest wildfire is leading to widespread evacuations of livestock and urgent efforts to care for animals left behind. The Dixie Fire is the second largest in California’s recorded history and has destroyed thousands of acres of rangeland, including for migratory cattle. Farm Bureaus in Butte, Sierra and Plumas counties are partnering to help feed and maintain livestock. Similar efforts are underway in Nevada County’s River Fire.

The California Department of Food and Agriculture has imposed a 60-square-mile quarantine in northern San Diego County after a citrus disease was found in two residential trees. The detection of huanglongbing disease – or citrus greening – was made on a single property in Oceanside and there is no indication it has spread to agricultural orchards. The disease isn’t harmful to humans but can have a devastating impact on agriculture, if allowed to spread.

[Source: California Farm Bureau Federation]