Abstracts
 Grandchildren
raised by grandparents a troubling trend
Live
oak saplings survive prescribed fire and sprout
Brush
piles and mesh cages protect blue oak seedlings from animals
Internal parasites prevalent
in California's beef cattle
Potential economic impacts
of irrigation-water reductions estimated for Sacramento Valley
Cover story...Numbers
rising
Grandchildren raised by grandparents a troubling trend
Blackburn
This study was conducted in response
to requests for demographic and needs data on children living with
grandparents in California and elsewhere. The 1990 U.S. Census reported
that in California, at least 493,080 children under age 18 (6.4%)
lived in households headed by their grandparents. In Alameda County,
for example, 22,783 children lived with their grandparents and,
of these, about 9,330 (41%) were under 6 years old. Grandparents
raising their grandchildren is not a new phenomenon, but the conditions
under which some assume primary parenting responsibilities are a
growing concern. Custodial grandparents may have multiple health
problems and experience severe stress when confronted by the attendant
costs and responsibilities. The grandchildren often have emotional,
learning and physical disabilities, and many live in poverty. This
study describes the demographic distribution of grandchildren living
in grandparent households in California, standardizes prevalence
rates by county and sets priorities for health and human service
needs of grandparents and the grandchildren under their care. We
recommend program planning within UC Cooperative Extension to respond
to the educational and training needs of older caregivers.
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Live oak saplings survive
prescribed fire and sprout
Tietje, Vreeland, Weitkamp
Sapling surveys conducted before and
after a prescribed fire in an oak woodland revealed that approximately
half of marked blue oak and coast live oak saplings were top-killed
(aboveground tissue of sapling killed) by the fire. Most top-killed
saplings sprouted, and sprout growth was strong within one growing
season. Light-intensity prescribed fires probably have little effect
on overall sapling survival and recruitment, and may benefit individual
saplings by reducing competition and recycling nutrients.
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Brush piles and mesh
cages protect blue oak seedlings from animals
Weitkamp, Tietje, Vreeland
Oak tree branches piled over acorn-seeded
blue oaks were tested as protection against cattle and deer. The
piles remained in place and apparently free of cattle and deer for
8.5 years, until a wildfire destroyed the branches. Before the fire
in 1996, seedlings in the brush had similar survival rates but grew
significantly faster than seedlings with no brush. Seedling survival
and growth rates declined sharply after the fire, although the surviving
trees regained their prefire heights in 3 years. Cages made of aluminum
window screening, as protection from small animals, significantly
increased seedling survival and growth rates. Growth rates over
the 12 years of the trial averaged only about 0.5 to 1 inch per
year.
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Internal parasites
prevalent in California's beef cattle
Drake et al.
Sixty percent of cattle not dewormed
within 4 months of sampling were shedding parasite eggs or larva.
The prevalence of shedding varied greatly for different types of
internal parasites. Prevalence of shedding for major Strongylate
nematodes was 54%; thread-necked intestinal nematodes, 6%; lungworms,
0.8%; coccidia, 18.1%; and tapeworms, 2.1%. Anthelmintic (deworming)
treatments lowered prevalence compared to untreated cattle, but
the major Strongylate nematodes and coccidia were still sufficiently
prevalent that the resulting pasture contamination would restrict
the potential success of control programs.
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Potential economic
impacts of irrigation-water reductions estimated for Sacramento
Valley
Lee, Sumner, Howitt
In the Sacramento Valley, irrigation
water is vital to agriculture and agriculture is vital to local
economies. This study investigates these relationships by asking:
If surface irrigation water were cut by 25%, what would be the economic
impacts on farmers and on communities? The study results indicate
that the effects would not be uniform across crops and the eight
counties in the Sacramento Valley. In most regions and for most
crops, a cut in irrigation water would cause a modest acreage reduction
of up to 3%. Overall crop-revenue losses for core regions would
total $8 million while the loss for the entire Sacramento Valley
would be $11 million. About 80% of those losses would take place
in poorer counties that depend most heavily on agriculture, and
particularly on rice. However, in response to surface-water reductions,
farmers and others would mitigate their losses by making adjustments
such as conserving water, changing cropping patterns or implementing
new technologies.
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