Tehachapi's Online Community News & Entertainment Guide

Cool information from the Ag Expo

The Forde Files No. 187

Tina Fisher Cunningham, Fisher Forde Media | Mar 30, 2019
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Tina Fisher Cunningham count

Tina Fisher Cunningham count

Tina Fisher Cunningham count

Learned at the recent Ag (Agriculture) Expo at Tulare:

The Animal Legal Defense Fund is a national nonprofit organization of legal professionals and law students who work to protect animals through the legal system. It provides pro bono services in cases involving animal hoarding and puppy mills and organized animal fighting, maintains an animal cruelty data base, does legal research for attorneys and provides abuse/neglect/hoarding training programs. http://www.aldf.org

Ninety percent of endangered species in California live on privately owned land. (California Farm Bureau)

The website http://www.IdentityTheft.gov will tell you what to do if someone is using your personal information. The site provides a free personal recovery plan that walks you through each step; enables you to update your plan and track the progress; has pre-filled letters and forms.

The products certifiable for the Certified Farmer's Market Program are fresh fruit and vegetables, shell eggs, honey, flowers and nursery stock.

The top 10 new products at the Ag Expo were an a wide trellis pre-pruner, a vacuum machine that sucks the fruit from a bucket and sends it to a bin; a plastic floor to improve calf safety; a tire seal and pumping system; a self-loading wrapped silage bale mover; a system of hydraulic floor slats that unload a truck; a genetic test that reveals the capability of female cows to respond to disease; a low profile cab for harvesting in orchards with low-hanging, tough branches, and a wireless irrigation valve controller.

Scrap metal theft is a big rural crime.

 

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State project raises water allotment

The Forde Files No. 187

Tina Fisher Cunningham, Fisher Forde Media

Manager Tom Neisler of the Tehachapi-Cummings County Water District told the district board on March 20 that the State Water Resources Control Board has increased the State Water Project contractor water allotment to 70 percent. The allotment, he said, takes the district “from doom and gloom and more than meets our requirements.”

“We will have a surplus this year,” he said. “Brite Lake [Jacobsen Reservoir] is two feet higher than last year.” He said the district nevertheless will apply for “every drop we can get” from the interconnected state water supply.

He reported that he met with the Kiwanis Club of Tehachapi and the Tehachapi Valley Recreation and Park District regarding the club’s proposal to produce the Tehachapi Paddle Race Festival at Brite Lake in June of 2020. He said the district “will do everything in our power to support that project.” It would be the first event of its kind at Brite Lake.

According to the March 19, 2019 National Drought Summary of the United States National Drought Monitor (https://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/), California emerged from drought conditions the previous week for the first time since Dec. 11, 2011, ending a 376-week dry streak. “Reservoirs continue to slowly replenish in areas of the state still experiencing abnormal dryness,” the website reported.

Pump plant tour – The Tehachapi-Cummings County Water District invites the public to tour the pump plants that push water 3,425 vertical feet up the hill from the San Joaquin Valley to Tehachapi. This is a fascinating tour that meanders through Tejon Ranch on the way up to Tehachapi. One cannot but be impressed by the visionary planning of the local men who created the system and by the massive engines that enable the Tehachapi valleys to thrive. The Thurs., April 18 tour includes lunch. Call the water district office at (661) 822-5504 for reservations. Visitors caravan in vehicles driven by district employees, who can answer questions along the way.