Plentiful harvest pulls down walnut prices
With the USDA predicting a record 575,000-ton walnut harvest in California, which grows nearly all of the crop, "a price slide heralds the first sign of vulnerability for the Golden State's enduring nut boom," reports Capital Press.
Gauging bats as protectors of walnut trees
Katherine Ingram, a doctoral student at UC-Davis, "is exploring the role bats can play as winged soldiers in the battle against a nonnative pest," the codling moth, which attacks California's $2 billion-a-year walnut crop, says Ensia.