Expanding on Basis Risk Estimates for Pasture, Rangeland, and Forage Insurance

Basis risk or residual risk arising from disparity between an index’s estimate of losses and actual losses is inherent in index-based insurance products. We approximate basis risk as the false negative probability (FNP) within pasture, rangeland, and forage (PRF) rainfall index insurance for the south-central coastal region of California. We estimate the FNP on average that at least one of two selected coverage intervals will fail to provide an indemnity when a loss is realized at 48%. The average FNP is reduced to only 11% when considering whether both selected intervals fail to provide an indemnity when a loss is realized

Using InVEST to assess ecosystem services on conserved properties in Sonoma County, CA

Purchases of private land for conservation are common in California and represent an alternative to regulatory land-use policies for constraining land use. The retention or enhancement of ecosystem services may be a benefit of land conservation, but that has been difficult to document. The InVEST toolset provides a practical, low-cost approach to quantifying ecosystem services. Using the toolset, we investigated the provision of ecosystem services in Sonoma County, California, and addressed three related questions. First, do lands protected by the Sonoma County Agricultural Preservation and Open Space District (a publicly funded land conservation program) have higher values for four ecosystem services — carbon storage, sediment retention, nutrient retention and water yield — than other properties? Second, how do the correlations among these services differ across protected versus non-protected properties? Third, what are the strengths and weaknesses of using the InVEST toolset to quantify ecosystem services at the county scale? We found that District lands have higher service values for carbon storage, sediment retention and water yield than adjacent properties and properties that have been developed to more intensive uses in the last 10 years. Correlations among the ecosystem services differed greatly across land-use categories, and these differences were driven by a combination of soil, slope and land use. While InVEST provided a low-cost, clearly documented way to evaluate ecosystem services at the county scale, there is no ready way to validate the results

Preparing for Disaster: Establishing an Ag Pass Program in Your Community

Possession of an Ag Pass during a wildfire or similar disaster allows farmers and ranchers access to areas that may otherwise be restricted to the public so that they can protect or care for agricultural assets (such as by irrigating crops or feeding, watering, and transporting livestock) or provide auxiliary support to emergency personnel (such as identification of access roads and water points).   It is crucial that those who may seek access to an evacuation zone establish communication—before a crisis—with all relevant local agencies so that authorities understand and support the process.   This publication describes how communities across California might approach such a program, recognizing that the structure and organization of any such program will ultimately depend upon the specific resources, politics, and relationships within any one community

Using InVEST to assess ecosystem services on conserved properties in Sonoma County, CA

Purchases of private land for conservation are common in California and represent an alternative to regulatory land-use policies for constraining land use. The retention or enhancement of ecosystem services may be a benefit of land conservation, but that has been difficult to document. The InVEST toolset provides a practical, low-cost approach to quantifying ecosystem services. Using the toolset, we investigated the provision of ecosystem services in Sonoma County, California, and addressed three related questions. First, do lands protected by the Sonoma County Agricultural Preservation and Open Space District (a publicly funded land conservation program) have higher values for four ecosystem services — carbon storage, sediment retention, nutrient retention and water yield — than other properties? Second, how do the correlations among these services differ across protected versus non-protected properties? Third, what are the strengths and weaknesses of using the InVEST toolset to quantify ecosystem services at the county scale? We found that District lands have higher service values for carbon storage, sediment retention and water yield than adjacent properties and properties that have been developed to more intensive uses in the last 10 years. Correlations among the ecosystem services differed greatly across land-use categories, and these differences were driven by a combination of soil, slope and land use. While InVEST provided a low-cost, clearly documented way to evaluate ecosystem services at the county scale, there is no ready way to validate the results

Using InVEST to assess ecosystem services on conserved properties in Sonoma County, CA

Purchases of private land for conservation are common in California and represent an alternative to regulatory land-use policies for constraining land use. The retention or enhancement of ecosystem services may be a benefit of land conservation, but that has been difficult to document. The InVEST toolset provides a practical, low-cost approach to quantifying ecosystem services. Using the toolset, we investigated the provision of ecosystem services in Sonoma County, California, and addressed three related questions. First, do lands protected by the Sonoma County Agricultural Preservation and Open Space District (a publicly funded land conservation program) have higher values for four ecosystem services — carbon storage, sediment retention, nutrient retention and water yield — than other properties? Second, how do the correlations among these services differ across protected versus non-protected properties? Third, what are the strengths and weaknesses of using the InVEST toolset to quantify ecosystem services at the county scale? We found that District lands have higher service values for carbon storage, sediment retention and water yield than adjacent properties and properties that have been developed to more intensive uses in the last 10 years. Correlations among the ecosystem services differed greatly across land-use categories, and these differences were driven by a combination of soil, slope and land use. While InVEST provided a low-cost, clearly documented way to evaluate ecosystem services at the county scale, there is no ready way to validate the results

Pooch: A friend to fetch your data files

Scientific software is usually created to acquire, analyze, model, and visualize data. As such, many software libraries include sample datasets in their distributions for use in documentation, tests, benchmarks, and workshops. A common approach is to include smaller datasets in the GitHub repository directly and package them with the source and binary distributions (e.g., scikit-learn (Pedregosa et al., 2011) and scikit-image (Van der Walt et al., 2014) do this). As data files increase in size, it becomes unfeasible to store them in GitHub repositories. Thus, larger datasets require writing code to download the files from a remote server to the user’s computer. The same problem is faced by scientists using version control to manage their research projects. While downloading a data file over HTTPS can be done easily with modern Python libraries, it is not trivial to manage a set of files, keep them updated, and check for corruption. For example, scikit-learn (Pedregosa et al., 2011), Cartopy (Met Office, n.d.), and PyVista (Sullivan & Kaszynski, 2019) all include code dedicated to this particular task. Instead of scientists and library authors recreating the same code, it would be best to have a minimalistic and easy to set up tool for fetching and maintaining data files.Fil: Uieda, Leonardo. University of Liverpool; Reino UnidoFil: Soler, Santiago Rubén. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - San Juan; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de San Juan. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas, Físicas y Naturales. Instituto Geofísico Sismológico Volponi; ArgentinaFil: Rampin, Rémi. University of New York; Estados UnidosFil: Kemenade, Hugo van. No especifíca;Fil: Turk, Matthew. University of Illinois. Urbana - Champaign; Estados UnidosFil: Shapero, Daniel. University of Washington; Estados UnidosFil: Banihirwe, Anderson. National Center for Atmospheric Research; Estados UnidosFil: Leeman, John. Leeman Geophysical; Estados Unido

Cattle grazing reduces fuel and leads to more manageable fire behavior

Cattle play an important role in wildfire management by grazing fuel on California rangelands. The benefits of cattle grazing have not been thoroughly explored, though. Using statewide cattle inventory, brand inspection and land use data, we have estimated that cattle removed 11.6 billion pounds (5.3 billion kilograms [kg]) of non-woody plant material from California's rangelands in 2017. Regionally, these reductions varied between 174 and 1,020 pounds per grazed acre (195 to 1,143 kg per hectare). Fire behavior is characterized in this paper by flame length. Fire behavior models suggest that these regional fuel reductions lower flame lengths, and lead to more manageable wildfires. In addition, fire-based models show that cattle grazing reduces fuel loads enough to lessen fire hazards in many grazed areas. Moving forward, there may be significant opportunities to expand strategic grazing on rangelands to add extra layers of protection against wildfires

Save water or save wildlife? Water use and conservation in the central Sierran foothill oak woodlands of California, USA

More frequent drought is projected for California. As water supplies constrict, and urban growth and out-migration spread to rural areas, trade-offs in water use for agriculture, biodiversity conservation, fire hazard reduction, residential development, and quality of life will be exacerbated. The California Black Rail (Laterallus jamaicensis coturniculus), state listed as “Threatened,” depends on leaks from antiquated irrigation district irrigation systems for much of its remnant small wetland habitat in the north central Sierra Nevada foothills. Residents of the 1295 km² foothill habitat distribution of the Black Rail were surveyed about water use. Results show that the most Black Rail habitat is owned by those purchasing water to irrigate pasture, a use that commonly creates wetlands from leaks and tailwater. Promoting wildlife, agricultural production, and preventing wildfire are common resident goals that call for abundant and inexpensive water; social and economic pressures encourage reduction in water use and the repair of leaks that benefit wildlife and greenery. Broad inflexible state interventions to curtail water use are likely to create a multitude of unintended consequences, including loss of biodiversity and environmental quality, and alienation of residents as valued ecosystem services literally dry up. Adaptive and proactive policies are needed that consider the linkages in the social-ecological system, are sensitive to local conditions, prevent landscape dewatering, and recognize the beneficial use of water to support ecosystem services such as wildlife habitat. Much Black Rail habitat is anthropogenic, created at the nexus of local governance, plentiful water, agricultural practices, historical events, and changing land uses. This history should be recognized and leveraged rather than ignored in a rush to “save” water by unraveling the social-ecological system that created the landscape. Policy and governance needs to identify and prioritize habitat areas to maintain during drought.This project was funded as part of the NSF Coupled Human Natural Systems Program, Project Award Number 1115069, Wetlands in a Working Landscape, with Professor Steve Beissinger as Principal Investigator. J.L. Oviedo’s involvement in this study was also funded by the Salvador de Madariaga program (grant number PRX16/00452) of the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports.Peer reviewe

Statistical considerations of using the 1-ft2 quadrat for monitoring peak standing crop and residual dry matter on California annual rangelands

• Peak standing crop (PSC) and residual dry matter (RDM) are the primary measures of production and grazing intensity on California's annual rangelands. • One of the most common methods of monitoring forage metrics is to clip 1-ft2 quadrats. The USDA Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, universities, and other land managers have been using this methodology since the 1930s. • We used best linear unbiased predictors (BLUEs) to determine 95% confidence intervals for PSC and RDM. For both PSC and RDM, as the number of samples taken increased from 1 to 10, the predictive ability also significantly increased. We found no evidence of increased predictive power past 10 samples

Mineral status of California beef cattle

Optimal mineral nutrition is required for cattle reproduction, immune function, and structural development. Formal evaluation of the current mineral status of California beef cattle is currently lacking. In 2017, a survey was initiated that evaluated a panel of 10 different minerals in 14 counties across California. Samples were collected from 555 cattle at 50 different ranches. Region of the state significantly affected herd mineral status. Herd use of supplements was also significant, and increased most blood levels of the mineral(s) targeted for supplementation. Forage source was idiosyncratic on its effect of mineral status. Previous blood survey data showed selenium to be widely deficient in California cattle in the 1970s and 1980s, but in this case, it was generally adequate in all areas of California. This indicates a good producer understanding of where supplementation is needed. Copper deficiency was more widespread in the southern region when compared with further north. Zinc deficiency was seen ubiquitously statewide, with 36% of animals being deficient. Manganese has been largely ignored in California. This study is the first known documentation of manganese levels in the state. Sampling found 92% of cattle fell below critical manganese levels. However, further research to better define manganese critical levels is probably warranted. The status of other minerals is presented