Up | Patrick Brown | Lizanne Wheeler

EXPERTISE
Project Management
Irrigation Management & Training, Agronomics
Research, Education, Technology Transfer
ArcView Global Information Systems
Licensed Pest Control Advisor & Certified Crop Advisor
Agricultural Production Management

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Senior Agronomist
Sonora Pacific Group, Inc., Lone Pine, California (2002 to Present)
President of the Sonora Pacific Group, Inc., which provides management and technical consulting to the Owens Lake Dust Mitigation Project in Keeler, California. In addition to the day to day coordination of Sonora Pacific Group activities, primary responsibilities on the Project are the agronomic aspects of crop production under the highly saline conditions of the Owens Lake Playa, monitoring soil moisture & soil salinity movement, environmental monitoring (evapotranspiration), irrigation scheduling and irrigation management training.

Irrigation Specialist
Vineyard Water Systems, Cayucos, California (1996 to Present)
Partner in the consulting company Vineyard Water, an independent irrigation consulting company specializing in micro irrigation design, developing operation and maintenance programs and bilingual irrigator training. Recent projects have included the development of an irrigation operations guide for Potlatch Corporation Hybrid Poplar Program and irrigation management training for Robert Mondavi Winery. For a more thorough list of projects, please refer to our web site, www.vineyardwater.com.

Irrigation Specialist
Irrigation Training & Research Center (ITRC)
California Polytechnic State University (June 1993 to January 1994)
Staff member of the Irrigation Training & Research Center. Duties involved technical writing of educational manuals, creating supporting computer software programs, and multi media training packages. Projects included an irrigation filter selection video, Irrigation Auditor Training manuals and software, and coordination of Spanish-English irrigation scheduling and maintenance seminars.

Sustainable Agriculture Consultant
GreenSource, Filmore, California (October 1993 to 1994)
Responsible for creating a monitoring system for integrating municipal green waste into current cultural practices in orchard crops.

Administrative/Agricultural Consultant
LA Concepts, South Central Los Angeles, California (June 1993 to 1994)
One of a five member team designing an alternative fresh fruit and vegetable marketing cooperative for South Central Los Angeles with entrepreneurial linkages between regulatory agencies (Federal, State and local), private industry and statewide agricultural interests.

Project and Field Research Assistant
University California Agricultural Cooperative Extension Service,
San Luis Obispo, California (January 1982 to June 1993)
Designed, conducted and analyzed field research on crops such as winegrapes, avocados, citrus, deciduous tree fruits, grains and vegetables. Experimental work included trials involving cultural practices, plant variety and rootstock selection, diseases, integrated pest management, and plant nutrition. Additional responsibilities included coordinating and conducting grower workshops, research dissemination and responding to urban horticulture inquiries.

Grower/Partner Commercial Avocado Grove
Righetti Ranch, San Luis Obispo, California (January 1982 to January 1994)
Management of 130-acre avocado grove. Responsibilities included irrigation system rehabilitation, scheduling, evaluation and maintenance. Additional duties included disease and pest identification and control, and harvest crew management and operations. Responsibilities also included marketing of avocado and other tree fruit crops via wholesale and direct marketing channels. Developed an additional 70-acre avocado block, including the design and installation of a permanent micro-sprinkler irrigation system, pumps and filter block, and land preparation including surveying; terracing and tree planting. Also responsible for the nursery production of trees for both the new acreage and replacement trees for the older blocks.

Agronomist/Irrigation Assistant
Agro-Engineering, Alamosa, Colorado (May to October 1981)
Responsibilities included irrigation management for center pivot, linear move and flood irrigation systems on grain, potato and vegetable crops. Additional duties included biweekly soil-moisture field checks, system evaluation, pump testing, infrared photography evaluation for soil moisture content of fields and grower consultations.

Agronomist/Irrigation Assistant
St. Kitts (May to October 1978)
Assisted U. S. Peace Corps volunteers in the rehabilitation of agricultural water conveyances, irrigation management in sugar cane, coffee, and banana, maize and vegetable crops, erosion control techniques and implementation.

Forest Manager/Engineer
Oregon State Forestry Department, Veneta, Oregon (May to September 1977)
Coordinated and assisted in state timber sales, (timber volume evaluation and road layout), nursery seed collection and state forest fire programs.

EDUCATION

M.Sc. Agricultural Engineering Technology: Irrigation Science, (Honors)
California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, California
Masters Thesis: Irrigation Management in Winegrapes, (January 1994)

B.Sc. Crop Science: Plant Protection, (Honors)
California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, California (May, 1982)

University of California Agricultural Extension courses. (1982 to present)
Courses in viticulture, disease and pest management, and cultural practices.

Galapagos Language School, Quito, Ecuador Intensive Spanish Courses, 1994

Universitat Freiberg, West Germany (1979 to 1980)
Courses in forestry, international relations, and history.

Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon (1976 to 1979)
Forestry Management and Engineering

LANGUAGES
English (native), Spanish (fluent), German (conversational), French (basic).

COMPUTER SKILLS
Access, ArcPad, ArcView GIS 9.0, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, QuickBooks, Word.

CERTIFICATIONS
Agricultural Pest Control Advisor License No. 04325
State of California, Department of Pesticide Regulations

Certified Crop Advisor License No. 19116
The American Society of Agronomy

Certified Irrigation System Evaluator
California Department of Water Resources &
California Polytechnic State University

Certified Landscape Irrigation Auditor
The Irrigation Association

Certified Irrigation Designer
Netafim Irrigation

Certified EnviroSCAN® Installer & Consulting Agronomist
Sentek Soil Moisture Monitors, Australia

FACTORY TRAINING
Netafim Irrigation, Israel
Dorot Valves, Israel
ARI Vents, Israel
Arkal Filters, Israel
ODIS Filters, Israel
Fresno Valves & Castings, California
Cornell Pump Company, Portland, Oregon

RECENT PUBLICATIONS
“Managing Salt to Stabilize the Owens Playa with Saltgrass”, a technical paper delivered at the International Salinity Forum in Riverside, California, April 2005. (Co-authored with John Dickey, et al.)
“Nitrogen Budgeting.” From the series of Columns, Irrigators Notes from the Field, appearing in the January 2001 issue of California Grower Magazine. (Co-authored with P. D. Brown.)
“Nitrogen Formulations for Micro-Irrigation.” From the series of Columns, Irrigators Notes from the Field, appearing in the March 2001 issue of California Grower Magazine. (Co-authored with P. D. Brown.)
“TMDL's & California Viticulture, Part 1.” The first part of a feature article on the Clean Water Act and its impact on California Agriculture, appearing in the March/April 2001 Issue of Practical Winery & Vineyard Magazine. (Co-authored with P. D. Brown.)
“TMDL's & California Viticulture, Part 2.” The second part of a feature article on the Clean Water Act and its impact on California Agriculture, appearing in the May/June 2001 Issue of Practical Winery & Vineyard Magazine. (Co-authored with P. D. Brown.)
“Energy Costs and Chronic Pressure Losses.” From the series of Columns, Irrigators Notes from the Field, appearing in the May 2001 issue of California Grower Magazine. (Co-authored with P. D. Brown.)
“Basic Questions Regarding Irrigation.” From the series of Columns, Irrigators Notes from the Field, appearing in the February 2000 issue of California Grower Magazine. (Co-authored with P. D. Brown.)
“Spring Start-Up.” From the series of Columns, Irrigators Notes from the Field, appearing in the April 2000 issue of California Grower Magazine. (Co-authored with P. D. Brown.)
“GPS & GIS.” From the series of Columns, Irrigators Notes from the Field, appearing in the June/July 2000 issue of California Grower Magazine. (Co-authored with P. D. Brown.))
“Chronic Pressure Losses.” From the series of Columns, Irrigators Notes from the Field, appearing in the October 2000 issue of California Grower Magazine. (Co-authored with P. D. Brown.)
“Formation of Lime Scale in Vineyard Drip Irrigation Systems”, Practical Winery & Vineyard, March/April 1998. (Co-authored with P. D. Brown.)
“Media Filtration: Are Two Tanks Enough?”, IRRIGATION Business & Technology, April 1998. (Co-authored with P. D. Brown.)
“Maintaining your Micro-Irrigation System”, Practical Winery & Vineyard, January/February, 1998. (Co-authored with P. D. Brown.)
“Irrigation Success”, Western Fruit Grower, January, 1999. (Co-authored with P. D. Brown.)
“Irrigation Advances: How to Successfully Adopt New Technologies”, California Grower, March 1999. (Co-authored with P. D. Brown.)
“Gypsum Injection into Vineyard Drip Systems”, Practical Winery & Vineyard, March/April 1999. (Co-authored with P. D. Brown.)
“Dealing with Silt in a Micro-Irrigation System”, Practical Winery & Vineyard, May/June, 1999. (Co-authored with P. D. Brown.)
“Design Pitfalls in New Micro-Irrigation Systems”, California Grower, October 1999. (Co-authored with P. D. Brown.)

PRESENTATIONS and CONFERENCES
Managing Salt to Stabilize the Owens Playa with Saltgrass, a presentation of a technical paper at the International Salinity Forum in Riverside, California, April 2005.
Agriculture and the Clean Water Act, a presentation on the TMDL process and its impact on Agriculture, given at FarmTech 2001 in Santa Barbara, California, February 2001.
Building Successful Growing Systems, a presentation given at FarmTech 2000 in Santa Barbara, California, January, 2000.
Irrigation Association International Symposium, 1999, Orlando, Florida.
IV World Avocado Congress and Pre-Congress Workshop, 1999, Uruapan, Michoacán.
High Density Plantings and Trellising Techniques in Burgundian Vineyards, a study tour in Cote d'Or, France, 1999.
AGRITECH Symposium, Haifa, Israel, 1999.
Ten Keys to Successful Irrigation Management, a presentation given at the 1999 WineTECH/GrapeTECH Symposium in Sacramento.Irrigation Technology Transfer, a presentation discussing the pitfalls of embracing new technologies and ways to avoid these pitfalls, given at FarmTech 99, in Santa Barbara.
Irrigation Association International Symposium, 1998, San Diego, California.
Irrigation Controllers, a presentation on automated control of irrigation systems, given at FarmTech '98, January 26, 1998, Santa Barbara, California.
Irrigation Management, a presentation on irrigation scheduling, management and maintenance, given at the Irrigated Viticulture In The San Joaquin Valley short course, California State University, Fresno, January 15-16, 1998.
Fertigation and Chemigation, a presentation on fertilizer injections and lime scale formation, given at the Irrigated Viticulture In The San Joaquin Valley short course, California State University, Fresno, January 15-16, 1998.
Irrigation Association International Symposium, 1997, Nashville, Tennessee.

RELATED PROFESSIONAL INTERNATIONAL EXPERIENCES
New Zealand, 2001, Irrigation Design and Consulting on winegrapes on the South Island.
Guatemala, 1999, Three-week investigation on potential of micro-irrigation for avocado & stonefruit, in conjunction with PROFRUTA, funded through USAID.
Mexico, 1999, Fourth World Avocado Congress Delegation.
Israel, 1999, AGRITECH Symposium and irrigation study tour.
France, 1999, Vineyard spacing & trellising study tour.
Ecuador, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Colombia, Chile, Argentina, Bolivia, 1994-95. Agricultural Sabbatical.
Chile, Paraguay, Peru, Ecuador, 1994, Agricultural Fellowship Exchange
Mexico and Guatemala, Second World Avocado Congress Delegation
China, People to People: United States Avocado and Citrus Delegation
New Zealand and Australia, Subtropical Tree and Vine Crop Variety and Management

References Available upon Request