Fire hits Los Angeles County pest detection program
Fire hits Los Angeles County pest detection program
The Sayre fire in Sylmar in Los Angeles County that began Friday, Nov. 14 destroyed a satellite office of the Los Angeles County Agricultural Commissioner's office.
The county's pest management offices (trailers) there that housed activity for pest detection, pest exclusion, produce quality and pesticide regulation were destroyed, and a pesticide storage shed was gutted, according to Ken Pellman, a spokesman for the Los Angeles County Agricultural Commissioner's office.
Numerous vehicles belonging to pest detection and pest management were damaged, in some cases severely, he said.
Mr. Pellman said that the fire would cause a "hiccup" in the county's pest detection efforts in the area. The county has an extensive pest detection program with thousands of traps placed throughout the county. Those traps are in addition to traps placed and serviced by the California Department of Food & Agriculture.
"All our trapping records for the area serviced by that field station at Olive View (medical center) were lost, so we will be relying on the excellent memories of the inspector aides to remember where they currently had their traps," Mr. Pellman said. "We will be re-establishing our trapping routes."
The county also will rely on the memories of its inspector aides to determine where to move the traps as the seasons and fruit wane and new fruits become available, Mr. Pellman said.
"We knew of, and had written down in our trapping books, thousands of sites we had discovered and where we had trapped before. That was lost," he said. "The traps are moved every six weeks, so there is a lot of reconstruction of records to be done."
Mr. Pellman said that "excellent pest detection" soon will be in place again and that the county already had started servicing some traps within a few days of the start of the Sayre fire.
"We just are starting with a clean slate as far as written records go," Mr. Pellman said.
Should CDFA or the Los Angeles County Agricultural Commissioner's Office detect exotic pests, the response will be swift to protect the environment and growers, Mr. Pellman said.
As of Monday, Nov. 17, the cause of the Sayre fire had yet to be determined.
The county's pest management offices (trailers) there that housed activity for pest detection, pest exclusion, produce quality and pesticide regulation were destroyed, and a pesticide storage shed was gutted, according to Ken Pellman, a spokesman for the Los Angeles County Agricultural Commissioner's office.
Numerous vehicles belonging to pest detection and pest management were damaged, in some cases severely, he said.
Mr. Pellman said that the fire would cause a "hiccup" in the county's pest detection efforts in the area. The county has an extensive pest detection program with thousands of traps placed throughout the county. Those traps are in addition to traps placed and serviced by the California Department of Food & Agriculture.
"All our trapping records for the area serviced by that field station at Olive View (medical center) were lost, so we will be relying on the excellent memories of the inspector aides to remember where they currently had their traps," Mr. Pellman said. "We will be re-establishing our trapping routes."
The county also will rely on the memories of its inspector aides to determine where to move the traps as the seasons and fruit wane and new fruits become available, Mr. Pellman said.
"We knew of, and had written down in our trapping books, thousands of sites we had discovered and where we had trapped before. That was lost," he said. "The traps are moved every six weeks, so there is a lot of reconstruction of records to be done."
Mr. Pellman said that "excellent pest detection" soon will be in place again and that the county already had started servicing some traps within a few days of the start of the Sayre fire.
"We just are starting with a clean slate as far as written records go," Mr. Pellman said.
Should CDFA or the Los Angeles County Agricultural Commissioner's Office detect exotic pests, the response will be swift to protect the environment and growers, Mr. Pellman said.
As of Monday, Nov. 17, the cause of the Sayre fire had yet to be determined.
