A SPECIAL GROWERS’ REPORT OF AG ALERT ® C A L I F O R N I A Trees & Vines ®
Orchard recycling pioneer inspires almond farmers By Edgar Sanchez Brent Holtz grinds tree cuttings at the Modesto farm where he began researching whole-orchard recycling. Some 500 almond growers have since adopted the practice of grinding trees into chips and spreading them onto soil before planting.
Since 2018, more than 500 growers using whole-orchard recycling in the valley have recycled26,000-plus acres anddivertednearly 750,000 tons of wood frombeing burned, according to the San Joaquin Air Pollution Control District. Agricultural burning permits are still allowed for designated days, depending on air quality forecasts. By Jan. 1, 2025, under a phaseout ordered by the California Air Resources Board, most burning will be banned in the San Joaquin Valley. To comply with air quality standards, “the ag industries needed an alternative to burning,” said Holtz, the lead investigator for whole-orchard recycling research funded by the Almond Board of California and the California Department of Food and Agriculture. He cited another reason many nut farmers embraced whole-orchard recycling: “Growers are environmentalists.” Many were quick to sign on, he said, “when my research showed that they could recycle their old orchards, improve soil quality and benefit their next-generation orchards.” Holtz, 59, who holds a Ph.D in plant pathology fromUCBerkeley, now resides at the north Modesto farm where whole-orchard recycling was conceived. He commutes to Stockton, where he is in his 28th year as a pomology farm advisor and 12th year as director of UCCE in San Joaquin County.
Every day, hundreds of vehicles zoom past a tiny farm that seems out of place in suburban north Modesto. Drivers who speed by the tree-shaded property are likely unaware of its significance. The 3-acres are recognized as the birthplace of a recycling initiative that is applaud- ed for protecting California’s air quality while also benefiting growers in the state’s $6 billion almond industry. Brent Holtz, aUniversity of CaliforniaCooperative Extension farmadvisor who spent much of his youth on that farm, is credited with introducing whole-orchard recycling there as a clean alternative to agricultural burning. Instead of incinerating after-harvest brush or torching entire orchards that have reached the end of their productive lives, many almond growers today use whole- orchard recycling to turn clippings, brush and even whole trees into wood chips and recycle them into the soil. It has become a widely adopted practice among growers in the almond-rich San Joaquin Valley. Holtz’s eventual studies with fellow UC Agriculture and Natural Resources re- searchers showed that whole-orchard recycling provides significant benefits for subsequent orchard plantings, including enhanced tree growth and better water and nutrient retention.
See RECYCLING, Page 8
March 23, 2022 Ag Alert 7
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