Bio: Specialty Crops. Paul Vossen supports crop diversity in Sonoma County by conducting an educational and research program in olive oil, tree fruit, berry, and vegetable production. He has a proactive extension program whereby he visits numerous individual farmers to help with their production of blueberries, salad greens, garlic chives, cut flowers, and specialty apples. He conducted two fruit tree pruning demonstrations and developed five courses for olive oil growers at which he presented research based information. The Organic Olive Production course was attended by over 200 people. His current research focuses on olive oil production including the influences of irrigation, processing and geography on oil quality and style.

Olive fruit fly. Paul Vossen has ongoing field trials on olive fruit fly control. The trials emphasize organic control methods to combat this exotic pest. His research will also allow him to evaluate insect damage thresholds for olive oil production for California. In this manner, growers will be able to apply crop protection materials in amounts and at timings that optimize high quality fruit production and eliminate unnecessary applications.

Master Gardener Program. Paul Vossen coordinates over 200 volunteer educators in the Master Gardener Program, who donated 12,414 volunteer hours of service teaching sustainable gardening techniques to home gardeners. The Master Gardeners reached 14,457 home gardeners at two help desks (Santa Rosa and Sonoma), library workshops, community gardens, fairs, festivals and farmers’ market booths. Their home composting program, funded by Sonoma County Waste Management Agency, has helped reduce landfill inputs by 5,500 cubic yards by educating the community to compost and reuse of yard and kitchen waste. MG program was managed by Deborah Curle – Assistant.

Pesticide Use Reduction Education (PURE) Project. Paul Vossen coordinated this program that relied on 28 Master Gardener volunteers to disseminate information to over 10,200 people through workshops, information tables and a demo garden. The PURE Project is supported by a grant from City of Santa Rosa. The PURE demonstration garden at the Sonoma County Fair showcases sustainable gardening techniques such as integrated pest management, water conservation, appropriate plant selection and habitat gardening. PURE was managed by Alexandra Devarenne – SRA.