Central Coast Livestock/Range/Natural Resources Advisor
Position Description: This advisor will serve Monterey, San Benito and Santa Cruz
Counties focusing on livestock production and marketing, food safety, water quality, and
management of rangeland ecosystems.
This advisor will be a member of
interdisciplinary land grant teams of AES and CE researchers and educators, addressing
food safety; water quality, soil quality, wildlife habitat, forage production and other
ecosystem services. The successful applicant for this position will have a minimum of an
MS degree in animal science, range management or a closely related field. Ideally the
applicant will have one degree in animal science and one degree in range management or
have the minimum course work to be a Certified Rangeland Manager. The successful
applicant will demonstrate strong research, teaching and collaborative skills. This
position will be housed in San Benito County and is supported by the UCD Plant
Sciences Department, the ANR Range Forest Program Team, the Meat and Food Safety
Program Team that coordinates the range livestock production and natural resources
research and education activities of more than 40 CE advisors, CE specialists and AES
researchers.
Justification: In these three counties 86 percent of the land is classified as rangeland and
Monterey County is one of the largest beef cattle production counties in the state. For
these counties, maintaining sustainable rangeland and animal agriculture systems and
restoring degraded ecosystems is crucial to achieving the goods and services embodied in
the ANR Strategic vision. The health of the land base in these counties influences their
ability to provide clean water, safe food, fire safe landscapes, habitat, recreation and other
ecosystem services addressed in the ANR Strategic Vision. ANR has strong land grant
continuum support for this position to address these issues in the Rangeland Watershed
Workgroup and in other ANR workgroups
Managing livestock and working landscapes will result in diverse plant
communities/habitats and stable watersheds that support safe sustainable food systems,
sustain forage production, provide safe supplies of water, resist pest invasions, and aid
beneficial insects. Managing livestock to protect food safety and water quality and using
livestock to manage vegetation are an important component of ecosystem management.
Disseminating science based management and restoration knowledge will increase
natural resource and agricultural literacy. Managing ecosystems, while not a new
opportunity, is one where U.C. is well positioned to provide leadership and generate
success within 5 years.
Extension: This advisor will develop linkages with client groups, researchers, policy
makers, agencies and organizations relevant to livestock and natural resources
management. Collaboration with these groups will identify barriers to reaching livestock
and land management goals. Education programs and publications will provide science
based information to the clientele groups for this position.
Research: This advisor, collaborating in a land grant team, will develop and/or test
management practices that improve livestock production; reduce livestock impacts on
1
food safety, water quality, soil quality, and habitat; and restore terrestrial, aquatic and
marine ecosystem services. Publication outlets may include agriculture journals and
natural resource journals such Rangeland Ecology and Management, and California
Agriculture. Research will be synthesized and popularized in ANR publications,
Rangelands, the internet, and other outlets.
ANR Continuum: Local collaboration on food safety, livestock, and rangeland
management research and development and delivery of science based information is a
major gap in CE programming from the San Francisco Bay Area to San Diego. While
adjacent farm advisors and CE and AES researchers from UCD and UCB have
collaborated with USDA on research and extension projects in these counties, the
continuum has lacked the local leadership that a farm advisor can provide. This advisor
will collaborate with CE and AES researchers and educators to conduct research and
education programs that address the initiatives discussed above. Like similar positions in
other counties, this position will continue to be supported by CE and AES specialists and
researchers in UC Davis departments including Plant Science; Animal Science; LAWR;
and WFCB and in the ESPM Department at UC Berkeley. The clientele groups for this
position include landowners and managers, government agencies, policy makers, NGOs,
private businesses (e.g. seed companies, restoration practitioners, and consulting firms),
industry organizations, youth and the general public.
Support: San Benito County will provide support for office services, storage, phone,
computer, internet, email, website, fileserver, cyber security and support for local travel
needs through use of county vehicles.
Other Support: There are immediate opportunities to collaborate with campus based
colleagues on exiting projects focusing on food safety, water quality, restoration and
grazing management. For example, CE and AES researchers in the Plant Science
Department at UC Davis recently have acquired $1.7 M in competitive federal funding
integrated research, outreach, and teaching for rangeland research. Most farm advisors in
the ANR Rangeland Watershed Workgroup are participating in these projects.
Location: The position would be housed in the San Benito County office and has the
support of the County Director. The ANR Beef and Food Safety Program Team along
with the ANR Range and Forest Program Team are submitting this position so that we
can begin to fill the gaps in animal agriculture and rangeland management on the Central
Coast. This position would complement Royce Larsen, Watershed Advisor in San Luis
Obispo and Monterey Counties, in the county they would overlap. The addition of a
Livestock and Natural Resource Advisor to a Watershed Advisor would provide a very
strong programmatic coverage that would benefit a larger area on the Central Coast than
just the proposed counties.
2