NORTHRIDGE : Fruit Removed to Avert Medfly Infestations

It was hot dusty work for several dozen California Conservation Corps workers who spent Friday stripping oranges from trees at Cal State Northridge, home of one of the last historic orange groves in the San Fernando Valley.

Vince Arellano, regulatory section leader of the Cooperative Medfly Project in Los Angeles, said the agency got approval from CSUN officials to remove the fruit because they could provide a lush breeding area for Medflies, an insect that can harm crops.

“There is potential for infestation there,” Arellano said. “We are concerned about people moving fruit--it’s pretty accessible to the public.”

The hundreds of oranges that were put into plastic bags beneath the trees during Friday’s fruit removal will be buried in a landfill to prevent the flies’ larvae from spreading, said Charlie Hamilton, who oversaw the CSUN effort for the Cooperative Medfly Project.

CSUN’s 600-tree orange grove is a relic of the campus’ agricultural past. It was once part of the Valley’s vast commercial orange-growing regions. Since the campus has grown up around it, the orange grove has become a campus attraction, but the fruit is no longer harvested. Most of the fruit it produces rots on the ground, although some is picked by local residents.

The California Conservation Corps, an organization that hires young men and women ages 18-23 to do environmental work, was called upon by the state Department of Food and Agriculture and the U.S. Department of Agriculture for the project.