Posts Tagged: innovation
Green Hall of Famer Oki retires after 29-year UC career
UCCE specialist's research prevents water pollution, reduces water use
When interviewed to become a University of California Cooperative Extension specialist in environmental horticulture, Lorence “Loren” Oki was asked what kind of research he wanted to conduct.
In response, he showed the hiring committee a photo of a residential gutter. “Water is a big concern, and I found very little research on runoff from homes,” said Oki, explaining that studying residential runoff is what “started his career” with UC Agriculture and Natural Resources back in 2002.
Although he remains active supporting growers and advising industry leaders, Oki retired from UC ANR in July 2023. Before joining ANR, Oki worked as a researcher for UC Davis' Department of Environmental Horticulture studying greenhouse irrigation in 1994, bringing his total time with the University of California to 29 years.
Oki, professor emeritus of Cooperative Extension at UC Davis, led many research projects that advanced the green industry which includes landscapes, nurseries and floriculture.
“Loren is the epitome of a specialist,” said Darren Haver, UC ANR's Research and Extension Center system director, who has worked with Oki for more than 20 years on projects that have significantly improved urban water quality and water conservation efforts across California.
Research influences pesticide management statewide
With a $3 million grant funding a statewide study, Oki and Haver set out to characterize runoff from residential sources over a five-year period. They determined the volume of irrigation runoff from residential land use, as well as the pollutants in the runoff.
Oki and Haver, co-principal investigators, along with researchers from UC Davis and UC Riverside, discovered that the degradation products of the insecticide fipronil – commonly found in runoff water – were more toxic than its parent compound. The study led to an investigation of human pathogens and pathogen indicators in residential runoff, the first of its kind.
Another contribution was the early detection of a new pesticide used for ant control, enabling strategies to be put in place to prevent it from reaching local streams and creeks. Oki and Haver's work also persuaded the California Department of Pesticide Regulation to change pesticide labels to minimize the chances of pesticides moving off target during irrigation and rain events.
These changes included preventing pesticide application before predicted rain and preventing irrigation after applications, keeping pesticides from impervious surfaces, and restricting applications on lawns and landscape beds within two feet of impervious surfaces and others.
Plant trials expand beyond California
Oki was also the principal investigator of the Climate-Ready Landscape Plants project, which may be the largest irrigation trial in the western U.S., and the UC Plant Landscape Irrigation Trials, the California component of that project. The UCPLIT trials originated in 2004 at UC Davis as a research project by Karrie Reid, retired UCCE environmental horticulture advisor for San Joaquin County, while she was pursuing her master's degree. In 2017, the irrigation trials were duplicated at the South Coast Research and Extension Center.
These projects evaluate landscape plants under varying irrigation levels to determine their optimal performance in regions requiring supplemental summer water. Throughout the trial, Oki identified many landscape plants, including rose cultivars, that remain aesthetically pleasing with little water.
Today, the trials have expanded beyond California as the Climate-Ready Landscape Plants Project at Oregon State University, University of Washington, University of Arizona and Utah State University.
Growing up in the nursery industry
In 2017, Oki obtained tenure, allowing him to expand his professional responsibilities to include production horticulture, specifically greenhouses and nurseries, an industry he was extremely familiar with. “I come from a nursery family,” Oki explained. “My grandfather started Oki Nursery in the early 1900s.”
During World War II, Oki's family was incarcerated in the Poston Relocation Center in Arizona and lost their homes and property. When they were released, they returned to the nursery industry to rebuild their lives. “After World War II, my father and uncle got more involved with my grandfather's work,” he said.
The Oki family played an instrumental role in technological development for nurseries in general. Oki Nursery, which was located in Sacramento, worked closely with IBM and was the first to use a computerized system in the industry.
Oki's father developed computerized scheduling for the bedding plants, poinsettias, chrysanthemums, bulbs and other crops. He developed a method to calculate the cost of any crop grown by the nursery at any point in the crop cycle and computerized greenhouse environmental and irrigation controls. This may not sound impressive now, but that was in the 1980s.
“My father was known for being progressive and he also knew everyone at UC Davis,” said Oki. “He wanted to work with anyone who had an interest in doing something good for nurseries.”
Inducted into Green Industry Hall of Fame
In the 1950s, Oki Nursery partnered with researchers from UC Davis' agricultural engineering program and developed the overhead sprinklers commonly used in nurseries today. Until the 1980s, Oki Nursery was the largest nursery in Northern California. Before it shut down in 1993, Oki worked in the family business as a greenhouse manager when runoff became a growing concern.
“I remember getting served with a notice by the Regional Water Quality Control Board stating that we needed to prevent runoff because it was polluted with nitrate fertilizer, which was common in the nursery industry,” Oki said.
One of those efforts focused on using controlled-release fertilizer instead of applying fertilizer via irrigation as a liquid feed. “What we learned is that if we converted nurseries to controlled-release fertilizer, we could reduce the nitrate runoff,” he said.
In 2023, Oki was inducted into the Green Industry Hall of Fame, which recognizes individuals with a minimum of 20 years in the landscape, nursery or floriculture industry and who have made significant contributions to the field.
Having grown up in the industry, Oki said that his father taught him to never be afraid to try new things. “If you think you have an idea that might work, do the best you can to make it work. If it doesn't work out, then it doesn't work out. And that's OK,” he said.
Revitalizing space for greater impact
This mentality encouraged Oki whenever tackling new tasks, like rebranding the California Ornamental Research Federation, a space for education and collaboration, as UC Nursery and Floriculture Alliance.
In 2009, Oki and David Fujino, executive director of the California Center for Urban Horticulture, became co-directors of CORF, which catered to the cut flower industry. At that time, Oki and Fujino realized that nurseries generated much greater revenue in the state than cut flowers.
“It was a strategic decision to change CORF to UCNFA, which included floriculture and nurseries in the name,” Fujino said. Combined, nurseries and floriculture have consistently placed in the top five agricultural commodities in the state.
When reflecting on their partnership, Fujino said that working with Oki was a “natural fit.” “I couldn't have asked for a better partner, a better colleague and, ultimately, a better friend to have my back and work side by side,” he added.
Since UCNFA's launch, the two have worked to maintain the group's impact by hosting “Ask your Advisor” webinars to connect advisors to growers, as well as co-hosting large-scale events such as the annual conference for the International Plant Propagators' Society — an organization focused on greenhouse and nursery production education — for the Western Region, which Oki's father helped establish in the 1960s.
Encouraging a return to education
Gerry Spinelli, UC Cooperative Extension production horticulture advisor for San Diego County and member of UCNFA's administrative committee, described those who have learned from Oki as his sons and daughters. “When I meet someone that's learned from Loren or worked with him, that person instantly becomes my friend. That's the kind of effect Loren has on us,” Spinelli said.
Grant Johnson, UC Cooperative Extension urban agricultural technology advisor for Los Angeles and Orange counties, credits Oki for his master's degree in horticulture from UC Davis.
“Loren gave me a lot of direction as far as career choices and research interests. He instilled in me a dedication to life-long learning, just like he continues to do,” said Johnson. Before Oki became his professor, Johnson worked with Oki as a staff research associate at the South Coast Research and Extension Center in Irvine.
Another influential person in Oki's life is John Kabashima, emeritus environmental horticulture advisor for UCCE Orange and Los Angeles counties and fellow Green Hall of Fame inductee. Like Oki, Kabashima grew up in the nursery industry.
Oki, who earned a bachelor's degree in ornamental horticulture from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and a master's degree in plant science from UC Riverside, decided to pursue a Ph.D. in ecology at UC Davis with Kabashima's encouragement.
While Oki was still working in his family's business, Kabashima said that Oki relied on UC ANR researchers for scientific information and felt like Oki wanted to be one of them. “I told him that he's a good nursery guy, but he's a better scientist,” said Kabashima. “His heart is in science.”
The two began working together as soon as Oki became a graduate student and have been colleagues and friends for nearly 40 years. “My favorite response from Loren whenever people ask him a question is, ‘It depends,'” Kabashima said. “It always leads to people opening up and giving more context. That's what Loren does, he gets you to think.”
/span>/h3>Danielle Rutkowski: Symbiotic Fungi Associated with Social Bees
If you've been following the outstanding academic accomplishments of UC Davis doctoral candidate...
UC Davis doctoral candidate Danielle Rutkowski doing field work.
UC Davis doctoral candidate Danielle Rutkowski talks to visitors at the Rachel Vannette lab display in Briggs Hall during the 2024 UC Davis Picnic Day. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Bohart Museum Open House on May 19: Meet the Bee Reseachers
From honey bees to bumble bees to mason bees to orchid bees--you'll see those and more--and you'll...
UC Davis community ecologist Rachel Vannette (foreground), associate professor and vice chair of the UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, answers questions at the UC Davis Picnic Day. In back is doctoral candidate Gillian Bergmann, who is advised by Vannette and Johan Leveau. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Bees in the genus Osmia are among the bees that the Rachel Vannette lab studies. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
Learn how to use drones to collect field data June 24-28
DroneCamp in Monterey County offers lessons in person and online
Want to learn how to use drones to map and collect field data? DroneCamp 2024 will be held at California State University, Monterey Bay in Marina on June 24-28. For people who cannot attend in person, there is also an online option available.
No experience is necessary. Training will accommodate beginners as well as intermediate users who want to learn more advanced flight, data processing and analysis skills.
Now in its 8th year, DroneCamp is a five-day short course covering everything you need to know to get started using drones for mapping and research. The curriculum covers equipment, safety and regulations, flight planning, manual and autonomous flight, photogrammetry, data processing, data analysis, data management and research talks.
New for 2024 is a concurrent track for educators. Within these breakout sessions, instructors will present topics and methods for teachers developing drone programs, and will discuss drone technology, safety culture and remote-pilot code of conduct.
DroneCamp is led by a team of 21 instructors from UCMerced, UC Santa Cruz, CSU Monterey Bay, UC Davis, UC Berkeley, UC Santa Barbara, Lakeland College, American River College and UC Agriculture and Natural Resources.
Participants attending the presentations in person will get hands-on experience in flight workshops, where they will have the opportunity to:
- Fly a variety of drone platforms
- Directly engage with instructors and other participants
- Expand their networks
- Gain access to all the software used throughout the week
- Explore the iconic Monterey Bay Area
Light refreshments, daily lunches and a Monday evening dinner social are included with in-person registrations. Participants must make their own lodging arrangements as housing is not available through campus.
Registration for in-person classes will close on June 5 or when capacity is reached. The registration fee is $1,200 for in-person participants, $700 for academics and students, and $120 for virtual participants. To register, visit https://bit.ly/DroneCamp2024.
For more information, see the agenda at https://dronecampca.org/2024-agenda, watch video highlights from 2023 or contact info@dronecampca.org.
/h3>Congratulations, Microbiologist Shawn Christensen: Best Dissertation
Congratulations to UC Davis outstanding scientist Shawn Christensen, a doctoral candidate and...
Close-up of Anthophora bomboides stanfordiana building a nest on the sand cliffs of Bodega Head. This is the solitary bee that UC Davis doctoral candidate Shawn Christensen studies. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)
The sand cliffs of Bodega Head are home to digger bees--bumble bee mimics--Anthophora bomboides stanfordiana. (Photo by Kathy Keatley Garvey)