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CapitalPress.com
February 12, 2016
People & Places
UC researcher fosters dialogue
Kimberly Rodrigues
uses her mediation
skills to help
ranchers cope
with predators
Western
Innovator
Kimberly
Rodrigues
Capital Press
Mediation skills
Rodrigues is used to me-
diating environmental dis-
putes. A former researcher at
the Simpson Lumber Co. in
the 1980s, she was for many
years one of the UC Coopera-
tive Extension’s go-to experts
on forestry issues.
In the 1990s, she was in-
volved in the mediation pro-
cess over what is now the
Headwaters Forest Reserve
in Humboldt County, where
activists fought a company’s
efforts to harvest old-growth
redwood trees.
“That was an interesting
time,” Rodrigues said. “There
were tree sitters and deaths
in the woods — it was real-
ly crazy. People were talking
around the real issues instead
of talking to each other.
“I thought I could do a
better job discussing the sci-
ence and facts by working for
Cooperative Extension than
inside the industry,” she said.
Later, as a UCCE region-
Residence: Woodland,
Calif.
Position: Director of the
University of California’s
Hopland Research and
Extension Center
Age: 56
Family: Husband John
Rodrigues; children Lauren,
28, Julia, 25, Jeanette, 19,
Robert, 18
Website: http://hrec.ucanr.edu
Courtesy of UC Regents
Kim Rodrigues, director of the University of California’s Hopland Research and Extension Center, talks
with another researcher during a breakfast at the UC Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources
headquarters in Davis, Calif. A forestry expert, Rodrigues is now putting her mediation skills to use by
helping ranchers ind nonlethal ways to ward off predatory wildlife.
al director working in Davis,
Calif., Rodrigues handled
public outreach efforts for the
Sierra Nevada Adaptive Man-
agement Project, a 10-year
effort by scientists to identify
the pros and cons of fuels-re-
duction methods in various
forest settings.
The project’s “public par-
ticipation team,” which Ro-
drigues led until she took over
at Hopland, held workshops
and ield trips in the woods to
gather opinions from different
interest groups.
In August, Rodrigues was
named to the state Board of
Forestry and Fire Protection
by Gov. Jerry Brown.
“It was important to me
to do something that made a
difference,” she said of her ca-
reer. “There aren’t that many
women in the registered pro-
fessional forestry ranks..”
Switched majors
A native of Vallejo, Calif.,
Rodrigues didn’t envision her-
self in forestry or agriculture
when she started at the Uni-
versity of California-Berke-
ley in the late 1970s. She was
studying chemical engineer-
ing with the idea of blazing a
trail for women.
“I really loved chemis-
try and genetics, and I really
loved the fact that only 5 per-
cent of chemical engineers
were women,” she said.
But her interests changed
after she took a summer in-
ternship at the Dow Chemical
Co.’s plant in Pittsburg, Calif.
“I hated it,” she said. “I
started lailing around looking
for a major and a friend said,
‘Check out forestry.’ I went
to a summer camp in Quin-
cy (Calif.) and that was all it
took.”
Rodrigues earned a bach-
elor’s degree in forest man-
agement at Cal in 1981 and a
master’s degree in forest ge-
netics. In 2008, she completed
her doctorate in environmen-
tal science and management
at UC-Berkeley.
Forest adviser
She became a UCCE for-
est adviser in 1991, coming
aboard amid a 15-year con-
troversy over a Paciic Lum-
ber Co. project to log portions
of an old-growth forest near
Eureka, Calif. An agreement
between the company and the
federal government resulted
in the reserve being estab-
lished in 1999.
Being involved in medi-
ating the dispute gave Ro-
drigues experience in trying
to work with parties that had
become entrenched.
“It was so emotional and
polarized by the time I tried to
even enter the conversation,”
she said.
Rodrigues was regional
director for UCCE’s northern
coastal ofices from 1999 to
2009, when she focused much
of her energy on the Sierra
Nevada project. Dozens of
scientists worked on the proj-
ect, whose inal report in De-
cember concluded that clear-
ing shrubs and woody debris
from forest loors can improve
tree growth eficiency and re-
duce the severity of wildires
but could impact wildlife that
rely on dense forest areas for
habitat.
At Hopland, Rodrigues
leads a facility that maintains
a lock of about 500 sheep for
shearing workshops and re-
search projects, providing a
useful resource for the North
Coast’s sheep producers.
“I have to tell you this is the
best job I’ve had in my whole
career,” Rodrigues said. You
get to work with research of
your own and research from
others that you bring here to
address real challenges. … ”
Predator research
Rodrigues’ latest research
could have implications for
resolving livestock-predator
conlicts. The center is now
in its irst winter lambing
season under a new policy of
minimizing the killing of coy-
otes and other wildlife, opting
instead to use such tools as
guard dogs, fencing, pasture
rotation and motion-sensor
lights to deter carnivores.
The center — a one-time
sheep ranch that the UC pur-
chased in the early 1950s
— will serve as a laborato-
ry in the next few years for
UC-Berkeley wildlife ecology
professor Justin Brashares to
study how the wildlife popu-
lation interacts with livestock.
Gaining knowledge of how
to ward off predators could be
crucial as ranchers in Califor-
nia worry about the arrival of
gray wolves, which have state
and federal endangered-spe-
cies protections and cannot
legally be killed. The state is
taking comments on a wolf
management plan that in-
cludes a protocol for livestock
producers that recommends
many of the same measures
that Hopland is taking against
other predators.
Wolf dialogue
Already, Rodrigues is be-
ing recruited to help foster
dialogue between wolf ad-
vocates and ranchers, includ-
ing at the McArthur meeting
organized by the USDA’s
Animal and Plant Health In-
spection Service, Defenders
of Wildlife and other groups.
“One role that UC Cooper-
ative Extension can play be-
sides research and extension
is providing neutral facilita-
tion of conversations,” Ro-
drigues said. “That’s my key
role in wolf conversations.”
Rodrigues hopes to get a
team of researchers together
to help livestock producers
and resource agencies ind
new solutions to living with
wolves, she said.
“I didn’t have any expe-
rience with the isher or Cal-
ifornia spotted owls, but we
had team members who did
and we could bring that to the
community,” she said. “My
experience in the timber wars
… does help no matter what
the controversy might be.
“I don’t want to ever be
perceived as taking sides for
or against the livestock indus-
try,” she said. “It’s how do we
support a working landscape.
… I don’t think it’s either-or.
If it’s either-or, then the indus-
tries are at risk.”
Annual AgVocacy Conference set for Feb. 19-20 in Reno
By MITCH LIES
Online
For the Capital Press
The third annual Western
Regional AgVocacy Confer-
ence, scheduled Feb. 19-20 in
Reno, Nev., will feature a pre-
sentation by an Emmy-award
winning director and several
breakout sessions on how best
to advocate for agriculture
through social media.
Hosted by the AgChat
Foundation, the conference will
open with a presentation by
Matt Rush, former CEO of the
New Mexico Farm Bureau and
former board member of Amer-
ican Farm Bureau’s Foundation
for Agriculture. Rush advocates
for sharing agricultural stories
to keep farming viable, valu-
able and visible.
Breakout sessions held in-
Calendar
To submit an event go to the
Community Events calendar on the
home page of our website at www.
capitalpress.com and click on “Sub-
mit an Event.” Calendar items can
also be mailed to Capital Press,
1400 Broadway St. NE, Salem, CR
97301.
Monday, Feb. 15
Weed Identiication and Control
in Pasture and Hay Ground, Cr-
egon State University Extension,
SCREC, Central Point, Cre. 541-
776-7371 ext. 208. Weed biology,
identiication, matching control
methods to speciic weeds. Partic-
ipants bring dry or fresh samples in
individual bags. https://secure.or-
egonstate.edu/osuext/register/973
Established 1928
Board of directors
Mike Forrester ..........................President
Steve Forrester
Kathryn Brown
Sid Freeman .................. Cutside director
Mike Cmeg .................... Cutside director
Corporate oficer
John Perry
Chief operating oficer
By TIM HEARDEN
WOODLAND, Calif. —
Kimberly Rodrigues is well
equipped to help mediate dis-
putes between animal activ-
ists and livestock producers
over how to manage preda-
tors, including wolves.
Rodrigues, a forestry ex-
pert who now leads a Uni-
versity of California research
farm in Hopland, Calif., is
studying nonlethal means
for warding off the coyotes,
mountain lions and other
wildlife that seek to prey on
the facility’s lambs during the
winter.
With the lethal taking of
any predator becoming more
controversial in California,
Rodrigues used what she’s
learned so far to help lead a
discussion Feb. 3 in McAr-
thur, Calif., on how livestock
operations can coexist with
wolves.
“I think one of the main
goals … is to recognize that
we’re all in this together and
we should all work together
to seek solutions,” said Ro-
drigues, who took over as
director of the Hopland Re-
search and Extension Center
on California’s North Coast
in 2014.
Capital Press
For more information, visit
http://reno.agchat.rocks or call
AgChat Foundation Executive
Director Jenny Schweigert at
309-241-8803.
termittently over the two days
are designed to help begin-
ning and advanced agricultural
advocates share their stories
through social media, said Ma-
rie Bowers, vice president of
the AgChat Foundation and a
ifth-generation Oregon grass
seed farmer.
Also, Conrad Weaver, Em-
my-award winning director
of the documentary “Great
American Wheat Harvest,”
will speak to participants about
his soon-to-be-released docu-
mentary titled “Thirsty Land,”
which chronicles the effects of
drought on farming in the West-
ern United States.
The conference will close
with a presentation by Shelly
Boshart Davis, Monsanto’s
reigning Farm Mom of the
Year, who is a grass seed and
Thursday, Feb. 18
Sunday, Feb. 28
http://postharvest.ucdavis.edu/
Submitted photo
National Farm Mom of the Year Shelly Boshart Davis, of Albany,
Cre., is pictured with her daughters Kyndall, Ashlynn, Sam and her
husband, Geoff. She will be a featured speaker at the upcoming
AgVocacy conference in Reno, Nev.
WAFLA Annual Labor Confer-
ence, Central Washington Universi-
ty, Ellensburg. www.wala.org/
Wednesday, Feb. 24
Southern Idaho Direct Seed
Workshop, Shiloh Inn Conference
Center, Idaho Falls, (208) 334-
2353. www.idahowheat.org/
Saturday, Feb. 27
Mid-Valley Winter Ag Fest,
Polk County Fairgrounds, Rick-
reall, Cre., 503-428-8224. Events
will promote local ag commerce
and education and provide an en-
vironment that is fun and informa-
tive for the entire family. mvwag-
fest.com/
Mid-Valley Winter Ag Fest, Polk
County Fairgrounds, Rickreall,
Cre., 503-428-8224. Events will
promote local ag commerce and
education and provide an environ-
ment that is fun and informative for
the entire family. mvwagfest.com/
Tuesday, March 1
Fruit Ripening & Ethylene Manage-
ment Workshop, Postharvest Technolo-
gy Center, University of California-Davis.
http://postharvest.ucdavis.edu/
Wednesday, March 2
22nd Fruit Ripening & Eth-
ylene Management Workshop,
Postharvest Technology Center,
University of California-Davis.
Friday, March 4
Ag Chemical Collection Event,
Redwood Transfer Station, Grants
Pass, Cre., 541-690-9983. Pre-reg-
istration is required by Feb. 18.
www.rogueriverwc.org/
Saturday, March 5
Ag Chemical Collection Event,
Rogue Disposal Transfer Station,
White City, Cre., 541-690-9983.
Pre-registration is required by Feb.
18. www.rogueriverwc.org/
Saturday, March 12
Spring into Gardening, McMin-
nville Community Center, McMin-
nville, Cre., 503-434-7517. This
straw farmer from Oregon.
“AgChat has been a moti-
vation in my getting involved
in ‘agvocacy,’” Boshart Davis
said. “Seeing others share their
story inspired me to tell mine.
I’m honored to be able to share
my story and believe it is my re-
sponsibility and privilege to en-
courage others to do the same.”
Bowers said she hopes par-
ticipants leave Reno with a
little better knowledge of how
to share their story on social
media and with a motivation to
encourage other people to do
the same.
The conference will be held
at Silver Legacy Resort and
Casino, 407 N. Virginia St.
Rates vary from $119 for a
student to $149 for a farmer
and rancher to $199 for an
agribusiness.
year’s theme will be Home Land-
scaping: Small Changes, Big Impact.
Presented by Cregon State Universi-
ty Extension and the Yamhill County
Master Gardeners Association.
Friday, March 18
2016 Cregon FFA State Con-
vention, Cregon State University,
Corvallis. http://www.oregonffa.com
Northwest Horse Fair & Expo
2016, Linn County Fair and Expo
Center, Albany, Cre. The largest
equine expo in the Northwest will
feature fancy dancing horses, strut-
ting stallions, clinics by world-class
horse trainers and riders, breed
and stallion review demos, equine
entertainment and a trade show.
http://equinepromotions.net/
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Mike C’Brien .............................Publisher
Joe Beach ..................................... Editor
Elizabeth Yutzie Sell .... Advertising Director
Carl Sampson ................Managing Editor
Barbara Nipp ......... Production Manager
Samantha McLaren .... Circulation Manager
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Index
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