heading to stockton to talk about birds and walnuts

I was invited by the California Walnut Board’s Production Research Advisory Council Entomology Working Group to present my research on walnut pest reduction by birds. This is exactly the kind of work I want to be doing: conducting research that informs conservation and environmental policy and interacting with the stakeholders that influence and are affected by policy changes. Walnuts are a huge agricultural commodity in the Central Valley of California; this area produces over 99% of U.S. walnuts. Birds utilize walnut orchards during all seasons and walnut orchards cover a lot of land. I want to know if birds reduce the pests that cause walnut growers so much grief, if there are practices we can use in orchards (e.g., habitat retention or restoration) to facilitate bird occupancy and pest reduction services, and whether bird consumption rates of walnut pests is high enough to reduce the number of pesticide applications needed in orchards.  Thus, the walnut board is a really important stakeholder with which to share my research. I think the talk went well. I don't think anyone is jumping on the habitat creation bandwagon because of my talk, but I'm pretty sure that some of the folks in the room had never considered birds as a possible beneficial predator of walnut pests. I also learned a lot about what the biggest concerns are of the Board, and about some interesting research from entomologists who presented. My colleague Kate Ingram also presented her work on walnut pest reduction by bats.