Rangelands

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Ranching in the Sierra Foothills: Article

Summer 2020: Ranching during a Pandemic

August 12, 2020
By Daniel K Macon
Can any of us remember a summer like this?! The work of ranching continues - irrigating pasture, checking livestock, preparing for calving or breeding season. And yet the COVID-19 pandemic casts a pall over everything we're doing.
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A monarch butterfly, looking like a stained glass window, rises from a tropical milkweed, Asclepias curassavica, on Aug. 7 in Vacaville, Calif. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)

A Monarch Is Like a Stained Glass Window

August 11, 2020
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
Ever seen a back-lit monarch butterfly? It's like a stained-glass window in a centuries-old steepled church where you cannot see the ugliness of the world, but its beauty. Monarchs are like that. Those iconic butterflies excite, inspire and transform you, just like stained glass windows.
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Summer 2020 Retail Newsletter
Pests in the Urban Landscape: Article

Summer 2020 Retail Newsletter

August 10, 2020
The Summer 2020 issue of the Retail Nursery and Garden Center IPM Newsletter is now available online.
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This is a close-up of a monarch egg, taken with a Canon MPE-65mm lens. It is about the size of a pinhead. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Bug Squad: Article

The Joy of Rearing Monarchs

August 10, 2020
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
The monarch butterfly egg is oh-so-very-tiny but what an incredible work of nature! The intricate egg is about the size of a pinhead, 0.9mm wide and 1.2mm high. It's creamy yellow with narrow longitudinal ridges.
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A monarch caterpillar molting. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Bug Squad: Article

A Monarch Paradise in July

August 5, 2020
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
Monarchs, bless their little hearts, souls and wings, deposited 16 eggs on our milkweed plants in July.
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Occupied! A praying mantis, a female Stagmomantis limbata occupies a Mexican sunflower, Tithonia rotundifolia. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Bug Squad: Article

Portraits of The Predator and the Prey

August 4, 2020
By Kathy Keatley Garvey
Heads will not roll. The Hunger Games will not begin. Preying does not always work. It's Aug. 2, 2020 and a praying mantis decides to occupy a specially stunning Mexican sunflower. Specifically, it's a female Stagmomantis limbata occupying a Tithonia rotundifolia.
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