Speakers:
Brian Bassett
Daniel Bosch
Barbara Brown
Mike Delwich
Jeff Dlott
Pete Goodell
Beth Grafton-Cardwell
Russell Groves
Tom Hawkins
George Hinton
Jay Hutton
John Jarnagin
Maggi Kelly
Kris Lynn-Patterson
Tom Mastin
Stuart McFeeters
Cannon Michaels
Jim Meier
Doug Munier
Rosemary Neal
Robert Neilsen
Toby O'Geen
Reg Parks
Molly Penberth
Stuart Pettygrove
Scott Phillips
Richard Plant
Scott Reinert
William Reinert
Patty Reuger
Mark Sabin
Gary Schengel
Ted Sheely
David Smart
David Stoms
Rollin Strohman
Mike Whiting
Robin Wood
Lowell Zelenski

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CalGIS Conference 2005--
Geospatial Technologies in Agriculture Symposium

March 16, 17, & 18, 2005         Bakersfield,  California

Speaker Bios

Brian Bassett, bolthouse farms

Daniel Bosch, franciscan fine wine estates
Daniel Bosch is the Senior Vitculturalist for the Franciscan Fine Wine Estates.  His previous position was the Director of the Napa Valley Vineyards for Robert Mondavi Winery.    Prior to this position he was the Vineyard Technical Manager for Robert Mondavi Winery from 1989 to 2003.  He worked as a consultant for wineries and vineyards in Napa and Sonoma Counties from 1983- 1989 including Robert Mondavi. Daniel is a past president and a member of the Napa Valley Vineyard Technical Group.   This group meets monthly to discuss vineyard technical problems and to bring in speakers from the university and the wine industry. He also began the Wine Country GIS User group in the late 1990’s. Daniel is a leader in the wine industry on the use of  cover crops in vineyards and his ideas on how vine water use impacts wine quality.  He is a graduate of the University of California at Davis with a B.S. degree in agriculture and a M.S. degree in Pest Management.  While a research associate in the department of Entomology,  he worked on the biological control of the grape leafhopper and two moths, the omnivorous leafroller and the orange tortrix. 

Barbara Brown, geoline  
GeoLine is a GPS service and supply company for the GIS and Land Survey industries in the Western United States. Barbara runs the GeoLine California operations and has over 10 years experience using Trimble GPS equipment. She has worked in both private and public industries doing data collection, GIS programming, technical support, training and sales. Barbara has been a Trimble Certified Trainer for 8 years. She enjoys spending time in the field with customers showing them the benefits of using GPS technology in their organizations. Barbara is a frequent guest speaker at GPS/GIS User's Group Conferences and local colleges.  top

Mike Delwich

Jeff Dlott, sureharvest
As president and CEO, Dr. Dlott is responsible for overall company operations, sustainability services development, and the lead sales efforts to large farm operations, processors and grower associations.  Dr. Dlott has more than 15 years of experience in pest management research, bio-integrated partnership projects, and the development of sustainable agriculture programs. He was the lead consultant in writing the Code of Sustainable Winegrowing Practices (SWP),  a project for the Wine Institute and California Association of Winegrape Growers. Dr. Dlott has built a strong business reputation and client base for SureHarvest through a number of sustainable agriculture and Integrated Pest Management program feasibility and evaluation studies, including Sun-Maid Growers of California, Lodi-Woodbridge Winegrape Commission, Gerber Food Products, and the University of North Carolina. He received a PhD from University of California-Berkeley in the Department of Environmental Science, Policy and Management.  top

Pete Goodell, uc kearney agricultural center
IPM Entomologist/Nematologist for the University of California Statewide Integrated Pest Management Program, located at the Kearney Agricultural Center in Parlier.  His primary mission is to develop and deliver IPM tactics and strategies to the San Joaquin Valley.  He  deals with insects and nematodes on field crops including cotton, alfalfa seed, dry beans and forage, with his work takeing on a system approach to encompass crop and pest interactions, ecological landscapes and development of community-based IPM programs. His current projects include managing the landscape to mitigate lygus migration, improving long range projections of lygus population buildup, improving  understanding of cropping mosaics, and utilizing GIS technologies to map insect movements across large areas.  In addition, Dr. Goodell is the IPM Extension Coordinator for the Statewide IPM Program. He is responsible for coordinating and reviewing activities of the seven IPM Advisors throughout California. In addition, he meets annually with IPM Coordinators from the Western States and Territories to review and discuss IPM issues at the regional and national level.  top

Beth Grafton-Cardwell , university of california riverside
IPM Specialist and Research Entomologist for the Department of Entomology, University of California, Riverside, located at the Kearney Agricultural Center in Parlier.  Her major
research and extension goal is to help growers and pest control advisors understand and utilize Integrated Pest Management (IPM) methods to manage arthropod pests of citrus and other crops in the San Joaquin Valley of California. The basic principles of IPM include the following elements: sample for pests and natural enemies, maximize the use of biological and cultural control methods, use pesticides only when pests reach economically damaging levels, use the most selective insecticides first so that natural enemy populations can help control the pest, and save the most toxic broad spectrum insecticides as a last resort.  To accomplish the goal of improving IPM, she has initiated research and extension projects covering many subject areas including, 1) developing a rapid, presence-absence sampling plan for growers to detect citricola scale, 2) utilizing predatory mites to control citrus thrips and spider mites infesting nursery citrus, 3) studying pesticides to determine how effective they are in controlling the pest and whether they allow natural enemies to survive, 4) develop bioassay techniques to detect pesticide resistance in pests such as California red scale in citrus, and spider mites, aphids, and Lygus bugs in cotton, 5) use a pheromone trap to catch male citrus cutworm moths in conjunction with degree-day units to predict when larvae first appear in citrus so that microbial insecticides will be more effective, and 6) study the aphids infesting citrus and their ability to transmit citrus tristeza virus.  top

Russell Groves, usda
Research Entomologist, Agricultural Research Service, Crops, Diseases, Pests, and Genetics, Parlier, CA  top

Tom Hawkins,  california department of water resources
Tom is a Senior Land and Water Use Scientist with the California Department of Water Resources.  For the past 12 years, he has been the Supervisor of the Land Use Program, a part of the Statewide Planning efforts in the Division of Planning and Local Assistance.  Previously, with the Department's Office of Water Conservation, he was the project manager for the statewide system of automated weather stations, CIMIS (California Irrigation Management Information System).  A graduate of the University of California at Davis, he has also worked for the University of California (Kearney Horticultural Field Station) as a research associate in applied irrigation research, for an irrigation engineering firm, and for a drip irrigation product manufacturer.  top

George Hinton, glenn county department of agriculture
Greg Hinton has been an Agricultural Biologist for The Glenn County Department of Agriculture in excess of three years.  He attended CSU Chico where he received a Bachelor of Science degree in Microbiology.  He has helped in the development of the AgGIS application that is currently used in six County Agricultural Offices in the State of California.  His computer background comes from six years as a computer technician at CSU Chico and from working in a dual role as computer administrator for The Glenn County Department of Agriculture.  top

Jay Hutton, grayhawk & graywolf s.a.
Jay “Grayhawk” Hutton is the owner of GrayHawk and GrayWolf S.A., a fifteen-year-old Napa, California based intelligence and airborne remote sensing consulting company.  He has been active in image analysis and remote sensing since 1980 and has authored two books: “Examining NDVI, a How To Guide for Vineyard Managers and Wine Makers,” and “ Improve Vineyard Profits With Remote Sensing.”  He is the designer of the 10 band RAPTOR™ and the HIMAP™ multispectral airborne sensors.   top

John Jarnagin, vestra resources
Mr. Jarnagin is the Agricultural Coordinator for VESTRA, where he manages all agricultural-related clients and projects, as well as handling marketing and business development for the agriculture division.  His duties include representing VESTRA at various trade shows, giving presentations and demonstrations of new software and industry developments to local user groups.  He also supervises all proposals and technical documents created for ag projects.  Mr. Jarnagin is heavily involved in the project planning, coordination and deliverables and oversees the in-house American Viticultural Area (AVA) map projects.  He works closely with the staff cartographers on the yearly updates-- VESTRA’s award-winning AVA maps are used heavily in print, power points and web designs.  Mr. Jarnagin also organizes the production of custom viticulture maps and manages any web-GIS projects that focus on agriculture.  Mr. Jarnagin has over 8 years experience as a GIS Analyst; he is familiar with all aspects of field data collection and is proficient in the use and application of GPS/Mobile GIS technology.  Currently he is the lead for all of VESTRA's Mobile GIS projects as well as the primary instructor for Mobile GIS and ArcPad training.  He is a Trimble-certified Mobile GIS Instructor.  Mr. Jarnagin has managed several Mobile GIS projects; most recently a project with California Department of Boating and Waterways (CADBW).  The fosu of the project dealt with implementing Mobile GIS technology at the Enterprise GIS level.  ArcPad software was customized for added functionality, out in the field. Mr. Jarnagin worked closely with CADBW field crews in testing, training and implementation of the custom application at this organization.   top

Maggi Kelly, university of california  berkeley
Environmental Associate Cooperative Extension Specialist and Adjunct Associate Professor for the Department of Environmental Sciences, Policy and Management, UC Berkeley.  Maggi's research and outreach activities concentrate on the monitoring and assessment of natural resource conditions in California landscapes--particularly forests and wetlands.  Specifically, her research focuses on linking landscape patterns, obtained through remote sensing and ecological mapping, with ecological and social processes, particularly within environmental management regimes.  Maggi is interested in GIS mapping and modeling of the environment, and the use of all geospatial technologies for multi-scale monitoring of environment.  Her research also addresses questions about availability, utility, and accuracy of geospatial datasets, accuracy in environmental datasets, and scale in natural resource and environmental research.  Her outreach goal is to extend these methods and Results to clientele groups throughout California.  top

Kris Lynn-Patterson, UC Kearney Agricultural Center
GIS Academic Coordinator for University of California Kearney Agricultural Center has worked with geospatial technologies for the last 17 years as an educator and as a professional Geographic Information Systems (GIS) manager.  Kris taught formal classes in Geography and GIS at CSU Fresno and Fresno City College, and for five years was the GIS and Remote Sensing Specialist for a large insurance corporation, where she introduced geo-technologies for crops.  At Kearney Agricultural Center, Kris collaborates with Principal Investigators to produce maps from their research data.  Building a solid GIS foundation available to the research effort at KAC, and building linkages to the greater UC, and California State GIS resource base is the focus of Kris' work.  With those goals in mind, Kris developed the "Bi-Annual Geospatial Technologies in Agriculture Symposium", to acquaint the agricultural research community with GIS. Several times a year, she organizes Ag-Specialty User Group Meetings where those in agriculture can share their experiences using Geospatial Technologies on their farms as well as in the research lab.  In addition, Kris is an Authorized Instructor for ESRI ArcGIS software, ArcView 9.0 and conducts several training each year for Kearney Ag Center.   top

Tom Mastin

Stuart McFeeters, uc kearney agricultural center
GIS Assistant, University of California, Kearney Agricultural Center. Stuart received his Ph.D. in Geography from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln where he specialized in Remote Sensing and GIS.  His dissertation research focused on applying Remote Sensing and GIS analytical techniques to the study of wetlands and the characterization of vegetation-water interfaces and how they affected composite spectral signals. He is currently using ArcGIS 9.0 and Erdas Imagine softwares to prepare GIS layers for mosquito abatement applications and spatial analyses of patterns of pest and plant disease at Kearney Agricultural Center, Parlier, CA.  top

Cannon Michaels, bowles farming company

James Meier, U.s. bureau of reclamation
B.S. Geology--Southwest Missouri State University 2000; Major in Geology, Minor in Biology, extensive work with GIS and Cartography. M.S. in progress at California State University, Fresno.  Anticipated Graduation in May 2005.  Thesis work on the modeling of groundwater banking in southern Kern County. U.S. Bureau of Reclamation 2002 to Present, Physical Scientist, Student Career Employment Program.  top

Doug Munier, ucce glenn county
Douglas J. Munier serves Butte, Colusa, Glenn, and Tehama Counties as a Farm Advisor specializing in field crops production (corn, cotton, wheat, dry beans, safflower, sunflower, and clover seed), with an emphasis on weed control. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Biological Sciences and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Chemistry from the University of California at Irvine, graduating with honors in research. Subsequently, he attended the University of California at Davis and earned his Masters Degree in Soils and Plant Nutrition in 1977. Before coming to Glenn County, Doug worked for the UC Cooperative Extension in Kern County for 17 years, the last 7 years exclusively with cotton, cotton plant mapping for improved cotton production, and the use of growth regulators on cotton. Doug recently returned from a one year sabbatical leave where he studied the use of global positioning equipment and geographical information systems software for use in site-specific farming, which will improve weed control in field crops.  top

Rosemary Neal, department of pesticide regulations
Rosemary Neal is a Research Analyst in DPR's Pest Management and Licensing Branch. Rosemary has been with DPR since 1988, and her expertise includes a Ph.D. in soil chemistry and fourteen years experience in the GIS arena. Rosemary's primary responsibility is to coordinate DPR and the County Agricultural Commissioners efforts to develop a GIS component of the restricted material permit and pesticide use reporting programs. Rosemary has spent the last ten years working with the CACs, providing them with support, training, programming expertise, and leadership in the development of site identification recommendations and standards in GIS.  top

Robert Neilsen

Toby O'Geen

Reg Parks, parks vineyard & trellising systems
[Retired from roughly 20 years service in public health and university based clinical research.]  PVTS is an agricultural land development company serving the northern and central California growing regions. Since 1993, PVTS has specialized in vineyard and orchard installation on rocky hillsides. In the mid 90s, PVTS began using GPS mapping and GIS methodology as a design tool and in project management. As our consulting role became more intertwined with local surveyors and engineers, we adopted more rigorous measurement and modeling methods and strategic business alliances with local land surveyors and engineers. Our Vineyard GPS / GIS Division employs high precision GIS mapping methods to create base maps for vineyard management and agricultural remote sensing methods.  (http://www.pvts.net)   Since 1998, PVTS continues to host the Northern California Wine COuntry GIS Users Group; and independent, non-sponsored, academic discussion group.  The goal is to support and promote increased awareness in the areas of GIS, agricultural land development, Precision Agriculture and related land surveying and engineering topics.  (http://www.pvts.net/gisusersgroup.htm)  Currently, Reg is enrolled in a local survey and engineering program.

Molly Penberth, california farmland mapping & monitoring
Molly Penberth is the Manager of the California Farmland Mapping and Monitoring Program.  She has over  twenty years of experience in the mapping and documentation of land use change in California, with experience in almost every aspect of spatial data acquisition, assessment, organization and portrayal.  Her MS from the University of California at Davis was focused on water resource and sustainable agriculture issues.  top

Stuart Pettygrove

Scott Phillips, california state university stanislaus
Scott Phillips, is the GIS Analyst and Network Administrator for the Endangered Species Recovery Program at California State University, Stanislaus. Scott joined ESRP in November of 1995. Scott has done GIS and Remote Sensing work in the San Joaquin Valley since 1993. Scott received his M.A. in Geography from California State University, Fresno in 1997.  top

Richard Plant

Scott Reinert, precision farming enterprises

William Reinert, practitioner
A distinguished career developing and introducing agricultural innovations including Integrated Pest Management, biotechnology and novel seed varieties. Postdoc in Molecular Genetics (University of Georgia);  PhD in Biochemistry (Ohio State University).  top

Patty Reuger, paramount farming company
Patty has provided professional Geographic Information Services in Central California since 1988.  Her work in GIS implementation ranges from data design and development to writing custom software applications.  Patty has completed projects within the field of agriculture including thematic mapping, pest mapping, yield & reject analysis, agriculture marketing analysis, storm tracking, commodity/ownership analysis,  and budget analysis.  Her more recent work has included custom GIS applications for use by decision makers within Paramount Farming Company.  GIS applications within the field of agriculture have been the focus of her work, however, she has also completed projects in forestry, telecommunications, public safety and facilities management.  top

Mark Sabin, kern county agricultural commission
Mark Sabin holds a B.S. in Biology from the University of California at Los Angeles.  The bulk of his ten plus years with the Kern County Agriculture Commissioner's/Sealer's department has been devoted to Geographic Information Systems.  Through extensive programming Mr. Sabin has developed a model permitting and spatial analysis program for California production agriculture.  top

Gary Schengel, paramount farming company
 Gary is responsible for GIS system administration, map production and data integrity.  This requires integrating data from various sources, and a variety of formats, including; GPS, field data collection systems, digital elevation models, government agencies, imagery, cad files and Oracle databases.  Gary creates and disseminates standard crop and facility maps, and has also completed a wide variety of ancillary projects, including , pest trap data collection, wind damage assessment, 3D line-of-sight analysis, facility maps for inter-agency negotiation, harvest maps, appraisal and leasing maps.  Gary also provides GIS services for several water storage districts.  Prior to joining Paramount Farming Company, Gary worked in the petroleum industry providing GIS and mapping services for international oil and gas exploration.  top

Ted Sheely, san joaquin valley cotton grower
Ted Sheely raises cotton, tomatoes, wheat, pistachios, and garlic in the San Joaquin Valley and lives in Lemoore, California. He is a board member of Truth About Trade and Technology, a national grassroots advocacy group based in Des Moines, Iowa, formed by farmers in support of freer trade and advancements in biotechnology.  top

David Smart

David Stoms, university of california santa barbara
UC Santa Barbara, Bren School of Environmental Science and Management  top

Rollin Strohman

Shrini Upadhya

Mike Whiting

Robin Wood, scancontrol, inc.
Robin Wood is the Founder and President of ScanControl, Inc. His responsibilities include positioning a growing suite of field data management software products in local and international markets.  Mr. Wood has more than 10 years of consulting experience for Silicon Valley companies behind him and an additional 10 years in construction industry project management roles. His primary focus has been process engineering and the development of control systems that facilitate reliable and efficient resource utilization. This background led to the deployment of database driven decision support solutions that leverage handheld computing devices or PDA’s, with either GPS, barcode or RFID interfaces. With a customer base across a broad range of agricultural commodity production, ScanControl, Inc. is in a unique position to understand the challenges facing field workers as they come to terms with the adoption of precision farming practices. Mr. Wood received a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from the University of Cape Town and a MBA from San Jose State University.  top

Lowell Zelenski,  precision ag consulting
Precision Ag Consulting provides cotton and wine grape production consulting to farmers in the San Joaquin Valley and in the Paso Robles AVA. In addition to production advice Precision Ag Consulting provides multispectral image analysis and hosts the Central Coast Cotton Conference. Prior to starting his new company, Lowell was working for California Planting Cotton Seed Distributors (CPCSD) as Vice President of Production, Operation and Quality Assurance.  In this role, Lowell was responsible for all aspects of planting cottonseed production in the field, processing and treating of planting seed and the quality of the finished product.  Prior to working for CPCSD, he worked as director of Agronomic Services for Delta and Pine Land Company, based in Scott, MS.  Lowell has also owned his own cotton private consulting company and worked for the University of California Cooperative Extension as the cotton, soils, and water farm advisor for Fresno County. Lowell’s professional career has primarily centered on cotton production primarily in the San Joaquin Valley of California, but he has worked and traveled in various cotton growing areas around the world.  He has presented information on cotton at many Beltwide Cotton Conferences since 1981, as well as presentations in Australia and Greece at the 1^st and 2^nd World Cotton Conferences.   Currently, he is a member of the American Society of Agronomy, and the Crop Science Society of America. Lowell earned his bachelors of science in soil and water science at the University of California, Davis in 1977, his M.S. in general agricultural science at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo in 1981.  He received his Ph.D. from the University of California, Davis in 1995.  His research was focused in the interaction of water and nitrogen fertility on the growth and development of cotton in the San Joaquin Valley. He currently lives in Templeton, California with his wife Becky, who is his business partner at Precision Ag Consulting. He has four children, all of which are currently in college, or have recently graduated. Lowell and Becky enjoy tennis, fine dining, wine and traveling when time permits. top