Agricultural Daily News August 7

Parks and forests:

 

Tragic crash of firefighting chopper raises questions about Shasta-Trinity forest policy -- But unlike some national forests, the Shasta-Trinity National Forest has no plan in place to allow fires to burn unchecked in some conditions. This approach, dubbed "wildland fire use" by the Forest Service, has been embraced in many other forests and national parks. It can be a cheap and effective means to thin overgrown forests and restore more natural conditions. Such a policy risks exposing firefighters to more dangerous situations. Sacramento Bee 8/8/09

 

Immigration and labor:

 

Workers' compensation enforcers widen focus on employers -- For a decade, California employers and their advocates in Sacramento complained about the high cost of workers' compensation insurance and condemned abuses of the system by employees, who they said fake claims, exaggerate medical conditions and collect fat disability benefits. But some data suggest that employers -- not workers -- are the bigger workers' compensation cheaters. And the state is stepping up enforcement against businesses suspected of ignoring the law and endangering workers. LA Times 8/8/08

 

*The U Visa Arrives -- The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has issued the first handful of U visas for immigrant victims of crime and domestic violence, almost eight years after Congress enacted the legislation meant to help law enforcement. Women's and immigrant advocates around the country said the news of the first U visas signaled a hopeful, if belated, development in the national effort to implement the 2000 Crime Victims Act. SJ Mercury 8/8/08

 

Health:

 

250,000 Americans don't know they're HIV-positive, CDC says -- Some 250,000 Americans are HIV positive but unaware of it, according to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study released Thursday, and most of them are not in high-risk groups. Officials said that efforts to test people who are in high-risk groups for HIV had been successful. To reach the remaining 25 percent of Americans who are HIV positive but don't suspect it, however, efforts have to be broadened, and quickly. McClatchy 8/8/08

 

Water and fishing:

 

*Plan aims to rebuild delta islands -- Only a system of increasingly pressured levees keeps them from being flooded. A collapse of the levees would bring in salt water from San Francisco Bay, damaging delta ecosystems and jeopardizing the state and federal programs that pump fresh water out of the delta for farms and cities to the south. The Geological Survey project started 15 years ago as a small experiment on two, 30 foot-by- 30 foot plots to see if growing mostly tules and cattails would help rebuild the islands' soil.  The Reporter 8/8/08

 

Agriculture:

 

*Sign-up begins for $54 million in California EQIP funds -- Conservation cost share applications for the federal Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) are being accepted for funding consideration in fiscal year 2009 from now through Nov. 2 at USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) offices throughout California. The program, providing financial and technical assistance to farmers and ranchers for natural resource improvements, received a record $53,959,920 in funding in California for 2008. Western Farm Press 8/8/08

 

Agriculture production costs on the rise, according to new Rabobank report -- Much attention has focused lately on the run-up in the production of agricultural commodities and its effect on food prices. Additionally, key crop input prices are also rising and show no sign of slowing, according to a new Rabobank report, "U.S. Crop Inputs." Western Farm Press a8/8/08