Page 11 - Sanger Herald 2-8-18 E-edition

Lifestyles
SANGER HERALD • 3B • THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2018
Water remains one of the top issues of agriculture, especially now
Sanger
By Mike Nemeth
Sanger Herald
Ryan Jacobsen once addressed nearly a couple dozen issues when he spoke before a group of people.
At Sanger Rotary on Feb. 2, he said he’d narrowed that list to two.
“Water and everything else,” he said.
Irrigation is a big deal in the central San Joaquin Valley, especially as the region enters yet another year of potential drought. This comes after just one year of decent rainfall that broke about a five-year dry spell. And that’s what got Jacobsen, chief executive and executive director of the Fresno County Farm Bureau, talking about water
Mike Nemeth / Sanger Herald
Ryan Jacobsen, executive director of the Fresno County Farm Bureau, speaks with members of Sanger Rotary last week. He said water storage is a big issue for farmers.
have been on the losing end, forced to fallow fields and remove acres from production.
Regulator U.S. Bureau of Reclamation is working on a draft for a long-term solution and there’s been some action in the past year and a half, Jacobsen said.
“It will be very tough to get water through the Delta,” he said, referring to water from the Sacramento and San Joaquin river watersheds via California’s Central Valley Project.
Drought increases pressure on all users. A September 2017 study by Michael Shires for the Westlands Water District says that cutting off the irrigation allocation to farmers in the district
would cut employment by about 20 percent and economic output by about 17 percent. The value of farm crops in Fresno County in 2016 was about $6.2 billion.
“In the presence of a long-term water crisis in the region, the economic impacts for Fresno and Kings counties would be major,” Shires wrote. “Agriculture directly contributes to (conservatively) one in six jobs in Fresno County and one in five jobs in Kings County. It accounts for at least one-sixth of the economic output of Fresno County and nearly one- fourth of the economy in Kings County.”
So a big deal.
Jacobsen said another recent report, one that rated a proposal to build a dam at Temperance Flat with a zero, was just a staff effort from the California Water Commission on the cost-benefit ratio. The application includes a request for $1 billion in state bond money for the project above the headwaters of Millerton Lake.
“They’re just reworking the template,” he said.
Jacobsen said the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, passed in September 2014 which requires that groundwater- dependent regions to stop pumping too much
See Water, Page 4B
in such detail.
Water matters.
“The five-year drought
we had was the worst of the worst,” he said.
Contributing to difficulty
of supply for farmers are environmental policies that seek to ease the burden on fish while still providing water for crops. And in recent years, farmers
Young scientists unveil projects
By Mike Nemeth
Sanger Herald
Anshpreet Phangureh is about a minute older than Vishalpreet Phangureh.
And Ansh, as he’s known to friends, says he’s the more outgoing. But both have decidedly high intellect and a competitive spirit that spurs them to greater achievement.
The twin brothers, eighth-graders who turn 14 next month, are examples of this year’s crop of Sanger Unified’s science fair participants. They displayed their projects — both involving the effects of additives on plant growth — side by side in Washington Academic Middle School’s East Gym with about two dozen other high achievers on the evening of Jan. 31.
Their principal, Leo Castillo, expressed his pride at their accomplishments just before awards were handed out. “It’s hard work,” he said. “It’s very hard to be good. You have to work at it. You have to manage your time. (And) what we have here is quality.”
The projects tackled a lot of earth sciences. Some appeared they could be shifted into dissertations for doctorates. And Castillo said as much, that some projects continue evolving as students continue their research into a topic.
For instance, seventh- grader Cameron Steagall,
The Definition of Unconditional Love
Next week is Valentine’s Day and according to legend, a priest named Valentinus defied Emperor Claudius II’s outrageous order to cease all marriages.
In the midst of war, the emperor reasoned that single men were better soldiers. Well, Valentine, as we know him now, thought this policy was insane, so he continued to perform marriages. And because of Valentine’s defiance of the emperor’s edict and his dedication to the sacred institution of marriage, he was imprisoned.
Legend has it that he fell in love with the jailer’s
Mike Nemeth / Sanger Herald
Cameron Steagall, left, won a first for her project on soil density and water evaporation rates. The group left will go on to the district competition at 6:30 p.m. Feb. 15 at WAMS.
who won first place in the physical science category with her project “Is There a Relationship Between Soil Density and Water Evaporation Rates,” would likely surprise nobody if she were to continue her studies, develop breakthroughs and usher in practices that assist agricultural practices across California. All on her way to gaining a doctorate
daughter and wrote notes to her from prison, signed “From your Valentine.” He was put to death on Feb. 14, 269, the day we celebrate.
In this article, I felt it would be appropriate that we turn our attention to the portrait of love penned in 1 Corinthians 13, known as the “Love Chapter.” No poet has ever dipped his pen in ink and written the equal of this prose from the very heart of God. Not Shakespeare, not Byron, not Shelly, not Keats, not even Browning with his: “How do I love thee, let me count the ways.”
The brush stroke of every word and phrase adds fullness and completeness to the portrayal of unconditional love. So without an commentary read 1 Corinthians 13 from
at Stanford.
Of course, she said she
plans to study veterinary medicine.
Susan Wright, who teaches seventh-grade honors science and served as one of the organizers for the WAMS Science Fair 2018, said there’s a reason for this connection to what many would consider practical applications of scientific theory.
“With our new NGSS (Next Generation Science Standards under the California Education Code and state Department of Education), it’s all geared to solving real-world problems,” she said. “So we’re focusing on that.”
Vishalpreet titled his project “Investigating the Effects of Different Homemade Mulch on Plant Growth” and said he chose the topic because it fit with his view to make the world a better place.
“I really like plants,” he said. “It’s fun to help the plants grow bigger and stronger and in a better way.”
His older brother Anshpreet dubbed his project “Promoting Drought Tolerant Lawns
Through Soil Conductivity” and basically analyzed different additives to irrigation water that would enable homeowners and business people to help lawns live through the region’s brutal summertime heat and potential water rationing due to drought. Real world stuff.
“You know how you water your lawn,” he said. “I was looking at what you could add to make it survive with less water.”
Anshpreet studied the effects of three additives: white vinegar, lemon juice and apple juice. “After my investigation, I will learn what substance can help lawns stay hydrated for a(n) extended period of time,” he wrote on his project.
him. All the special gifts and powers from God will someday come to an end, but love goes on forever. Someday prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge — these gifts will disappear.
Now we know so little, even with our special gifts, and the preaching of those most gifted is still so poor. But when we have been made perfect and complete, then the need for these inadequate special gifts will come to an end, and they will disappear.
It’s like this: when I was a child I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child does. But when I became a man my thoughts grew far beyond those of my childhood, and now I have put away the childish
The brothers said they often bounce ideas off each other and discuss their experiments, results and conclusions. They said such give and take helps them evolve their projects and proceed in an appropriate direction.
Anshpreet won a third place in the eighth-grade life science category and Vishalpreet an honorable mention. One of them said he plans to become a math professor, and the other said he’s looking at pursuing a career as a video game designer and engineer. And a substitute adjunct so he can teach his brother’s math classes when the other has to take a day off.
See Science, Page 4B
things. In the same way, we can see and understand only a little about God now, as if we were peering at his reflection in a poor mirror; but someday we are going to see him in his completeness, face-to-face.
Now all that I know is hazy and blurred, but then I will see everything clearly, just as clearly as God sees into my heart right now. There are three things that remain — faith, hope, and love — and the greatest of these is love.
Pastor Sam Estes is city advance director and facilitates the Sanger Community Task Force that meets the first and third Tuesdays every month. He can be reached at pastorsam51@gmail.com.
PASTOR’S CORNER
the Living Bible Paraphrase:
were burned alive for preaching the Gospel but didn’t love others, it would be of no value whatever.
Love is very patient and kind, never jealous or envious, never
If I had the gift
of being able to
speak in other languages without
learning them and
could speak in
every language
there is in all of
heaven and earth, but didn’t love others, I would only be making noise. If I had the gift of prophecy and knew all about what is going to happen in the future, knew everything about everything, but didn’t love others, what good would it do?
Even if I had the gift of faith so that I could speak to a mountain and make it move, I would still be worth nothing at all without love. If I gave everything I have to poor people, and if I
Pastor Sam Estes
boastful or proud, never haughty or selfish or rude. Love does not demand its own way. It is not irritable or touchy. It does not hold grudges and will hardly even notice when others do it wrong. It is never glad about injustice, but rejoices whenever truth wins out.
If you love someone, you will be loyal to him no matter what the cost. You will always believe in him, always expect the best of him, and always stand your ground in defending