Half Moon Bay Review

The man who found the moth Clay Lambert's Blog, posted by Clay, Editor of the Half Moon Bay Review, 14 hours ago Share It:             I had an interesting conversation Wednesday with the guy who inadvertently started California's war on the Light Brown Apple Moth. His name is Jerry Powell and he is a retired professor of entomology at the University of California, Berkeley, and the director emeritus of the Essig Museum of Entomology. Powell keeps a 15-watt black light in his Berkeley back yard and every night the 74-year-old scientist goes out to see what has come to the light. He discovered the Light Brown Apple Moth flapping around the dull light in July of 2006. It was the first time anyone who knew what he was looking at had seen such a moth in California. "I knew instantly that it was something that wasn't usually found around here," he said. Powell had worked in Australia 25 years earlier and suspected the moth might be native to that continent. He sent the specimen off to a colleague there and waited. Eventually it was positively identified. The U.S. Department of Agriculture acknowledged the find in January of 2007. Like other experts, Powell suspects the moth arrived in Monterey or Santa Cruz counties. Government scientists say they think the moth arrived within the last few years. Some people suspect it has been in California much longer. Powell falls somewhere in the middle. When pressed, he said it could have been here several years. He's skeptical about the California Department of Food and Agriculture's eradication efforts. He said it is "really unlikely" that pheromones alone will interrupt the mating cycles of every last specimen. Powell said he never imagined his find would touch off such a large effort to eradicate the moth or the attendant storm of controversy surrounding aerial spraying of the pheromones. And he is humble about his role in a find that could have multimillion-dollar ramifications for the state's agriculture industry. "No one else was looking," he said. Comments (1)

As someone who was sprayed and therefore forced to become somewhat of a amateur expert in the politics, economics, and biology of LBAM I would like to offer an additional perspective of eradication as an achievable end goal. For the State and for USDA, eradication programs are emergency programs. As emergency programs these Agencies have access to emergency funds that would otherwise not be available to them. In these times of budget cuts such additional funding is important, perhaps critical. However, we must consider this fact regarding the "eradication" process. SInce 1982, the CDFA has been involved in 274 programs to eradicate 12 pests not including LBAM. The same exact pests that were involved in eradication programs in 1982 are still being "eradicated" today. While some of these programs may in fact be needed to protect agricultural interests others, such as clearly reported for LBAM, are not. The real key is: where is the oversight when middle management agriculture officials can declare an emergency? I wonder if Representatives on either State or Federal budget committees really know that eradication & emergency = funding and that the more than 200 eradication & emergency programs since 1982 have failed to eradicate any pest. Thus, is it money well spent? Does the Office of Management Budget know that California is engaged in perpetual emergency eradication programs that never succeed, yet they continue to sign the checks. Senator Boxer, Senator Feinstein, Sam Farr, Senator Harkin, is anyone listening?

Roy Upton, a resident of a community outside of the area, 10 hours ago