Mómtim Péwinan, River People

Shingle Springs Band of Miwok

SACRAMENTO — The Sacramento History Museum located in Old Sacramento State Historic Park has debuted a newly created exhibit titled Mómtim Péwinan, River People curated by the Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians Exhibits and Collections Center.

The all-new exhibit officially opened to the public on Saturday, July 22, and will remain on display permanently in the museum’s third floor in the Community Gallery. The exhibit features items specifically made for this exhibit, including four fullsized mannequins dressed in seasonal attire plus regalia, tools, instruments and games — all created by today’s tribal artisans using the techniques and knowledge of their ancestors.

The Sacramento History Museum stands on Nisenan land, in Nísem Péwinan territory, where many of the materials in this exhibit were gathered. The artwork and elements in the new exhibit combine research and inspiration, showcasing the artful innovations of the makers, who hail from numerous tribal communities throughout the region. Though all these families uphold their own distinct traditions, languages and cultures, they utilize many of the same natural materials found in the Central California landscape.

The community is encouraged to explore and learn about contemporary Nisenan culture and how today’s artists and

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Recent advances in virtual fence technology are rapidly providing cost-effective opportunities to revolutionize grazing management practices and livestock production systems. Virtual fencing, an alternative technology to traditional physical fencing, enables ranchers and land managers to control livestock distribution across extensive landscapes without the intensive labor, expense and logistical efforts required by traditional fencing. Ranchers create virtual fence boundaries in a digital map software that communicates through radio towers to GPS collars worn by the livestock.

This technology trains animals through a combination of associative learning, a method where animals associate a certain response to a stimulus resulting in a positive or negative outcome, and operant conditioning, a method of learning that uses rewards and punishment to modify behavior. In the case of VF, an unpleasant stimulus, such as audible sounds or a mild electrical pulse, is utilized as positive reinforcement to discourage the behavior of crossing the virtual fence. Then, once the livestock respect the VF, the sound and the electrical pulse stop, which is the equivalent of negative reinforcement, and will have the impact to encourage them to stay away from the virtual boundaries. The result of this learning method is n See vIrtual Fence page B3

University

Virtual fence

Continued from B2 expressed as a modification to existing behaviors or the development of novel behaviors. This reflects the conscious or unconscious recognition of a contingency.

Animals learn about their foraging environment via two primary systems:

1. Gut defense system which detects internal nausea (hours to days). For example, when an animal eats a plant it will get a positive or negative digestive feedback.

2. Skin defense system which detects external pain (seconds to minutes). For example, when an animal touches a plant with thorns it may feel pain and avoid the area.

VF systems train livestock through the skin defense system by using stimuli such as sounds and mild electric shocks to cause location avoidance.

In November 2022 the technology was tested on a ranch in Sutter Creek. The site had been ungrazed for 20 years and, as a result, medusahead (Elymus caput-medusae), which is an undesirable invasive grass, had taken a foothold and become the dominant species. Research has shown that medusahead can reduce grazing capacity by 80%. As a winter annual, the plant is quick to germinate and can outcompete more desirable forages. As it ages, the plant becomes less palatable with high silica content and long awns that can cause injury to livestock. Over time, medusahead can accumulate thatch and it is not uncommon to see thatch 6-10 inches thick.

The objective of this trial was to determine if VF technology could be used for high intensity, short duration grazing to reduce medusahead thatch, thereby creating conditions for more desirable forage species to grow. At the beginning of the trial there was an average of 5,090 pounds of dry forage/thatch. After grazing for 10 consecutive days with 25 cows/calves on 3 acres, the pasture was grazed to an average of 524 pounds of thatch per acre. This resulted in a reduction of thatch by 87%. Two weeks after treatment the grazed plot was already showing more diversity of desirable grasses and forbs as visually compared with the untreated plots. The research continues and more findings will be reported.

This article was written by Flavie Audoin, a UC Cooperative Extension livestock and natural resources advisor; Brian Allen, UC Cooperative Extension assistant specialist; and Scott Oneto, UC Cooperative Extension farm advisor.