Long-time ag reporter for Western Farm Press, Harry Cline, wrote a lengthy article about UC ANR vice president Dan Dooley's recent speech to the California Association of Pest Control Advisers.
Cline wrote that blending Dooley, the Division's first non-academic leader, with academicians and scientists could be like mixing gasoline and fire or it could go together like peanut butter and jelly, opposites that combine well.
The article, published online today, said Dooley has set firm deadlines for the work he wants done in his department.
“The joke around the system is that people are drinking from the Dooley fire hose," the article quoted Dooley, because he sets unreasonable lines. However, to his surprise, his deadlines are being met.
Other telling tidbits from Dooley reported in the article:
- Regarding the fact that 80 percent of county directors will retire within 10 years . . . “Maintaining consistency within the division will be a real challenge moving forward.”
- “We have to look closely at how to optimize our resources. Hanging on to the historic structure is eating us alive. We cannot continue that."
- Dooley says the research community is too focused on finding out the causes for climate change. It should be focused on the consequences of the changes and its interaction with the ecological system of pests, weeds and other factors affecting agriculture.
- Maneuvering within the UC system is like trying to steer a battleship with a canoe, but years as a legal advocate have given him “sharp elbows” to muscle UC administrators into acknowledging the importance of his division and why it is relevant.
- “Some people say I am the best thing since sliced bread. Others say I am exactly what they thought I was when I showed up.”
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