The Drought Is Over.
“All drought metrics — stream flow and precipitation — look good except for a few monitoring wells that still show below-average conditions in the southern part of the state,” said Brandon Kernen, a geohydrologist at the Department of Environmental Services, who has headed up the state’s inter-agency drought team.
“However with the recent rain, I expect levels to be closer to average when they are measured again at the end of the month.
“Some water systems in the state are still implementing water-use restrictions and bans for this reason.” The all-too-fresh memory of last summer’s drought should be enough to keep people leary about water use this year, even if precipitation levels remain normal or above normal.
Last fall, 80 percent of the state experienced “moderate” to “extreme” drought while the remaining 20 percent was rated “abnormally dry.” For the first time in two years, the U.S. Drought Monitor map for the week ending May 9 had no areas of drought or abnormal dryness in the state.
Entomologist to Receive National Pest Detection Award Christopher Rallis, entomologist and Cooperative Agricultural Pest Survey, or CAPS, coordinator for the department’s Division of Plant Industry, has been selected for one of two awards from the USDA’s National Cooperative Agricultural Pest Survey Program.
The awards recognize outstanding activities and achievements by members of the CAPS community, including state survey coordinators, pest survey specialists, state plant regulatory officials, state plant health directors, and other individuals and groups.
Rallis is being recognized for exceeding the expectations for the Exotic Woodboring & Bark Beetle survey by also sorting and identifying the bycatch collected during the survey.
The project provided background information on how to use growing-degree days to improve pest management, easily accessible growing-degree day accumulations for accurately timing surveys and other pest management activities, and tables highlighting important degree-day thresholds and targets for the management of many common agricultural, landscape and forest insect pests.
Take a look at the growing-degree days tools available on the department website at www.agriculture.nh.gov.