Having trouble viewing this email? View it as a Web page.
USDA Summer Road Trip
ICYMI, here's what happened last week at USDA:
The second stop on our #USDARoadTrip is our recreation and conservation portfolio, including our vast and spectacular forest and grassland system managed by USDA’s Forest Service as well as some of the cooperative conservation efforts underway by the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and Farm Service Agency (FSA).
With Independence Day fireworks behind us for 2015, USDA gives you another reason to look up into the night sky. With a new satellite, NASA and USDA have partnered to map Earth’s soil moisture from orbit, letting us monitor droughts, predict floods and forecast the water supply in major cities.
Our forests and public lands are national treasures with limitless space for recreational opportunities and adventure. And by investing in science-based, partner-driven conservation solutions, not only do we help farmers, ranchers and landowners conserve resources for future generations on private and working lands, we also create jobs and grow a sustainable path for our nation’s rural economies.
In the coming weeks, we’ll make stops in some of our nation’s rural communities and take you inside USDA’s own R&D shop, which pumps out science and tech innovations, web portals, and applications for customers around the world. And over on our Twitter handle, @USDA, we will be highlighting Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack’s visits to all 50 states.
Continue tuning in to #USDARoadTrip to see how USDA is working in all corners of our nation to build a stronger, more sustainable American economy through partnership, progress and promise.
The Week in Pictures
Ponderosa pines standing tall in front of Yosemite Falls in California
All images available in Flickr.
On the USDA Blog
Survey: Lesser Prairie-Chicken Population Continues to Climb
The population of the lesser prairie-chicken is on the rise, according to survey results released last week by the Western Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies (WAFWA). Based on aerial surveys, biologists estimate the lesser prairie-chicken numbers about 29,000, a 25 percent increase from 2014. WAFWA commissioned the annual survey, which showed increases in three of the four ecoregions the bird inhabits.
Fun in the Sun – #USDARoadTrip through Conservation and Recreation
The second stop on our #USDARoadTrip is our recreation and conservation portfolio, including our vast and spectacular forest and grassland system managed by USDA’s Forest Service as well as some of the cooperative conservation efforts underway by the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and Farm Service Agency (FSA).
Drones can be Deadly for Wildland Firefighters
Imagine if a hostile country sent an Unmanned Aircraft System or UAS, otherwise known as a drone, to disturb the efforts of firefighters during a catastrophic wildfire. The confusion that might ensue could cause loss of life and property as flames jump fire lines simply because resources have been diverted or grounded to identify and remove the UAS. But these threats aren’t coming from an enemy state. They are being flown by our own citizens and impeding the job of our firefighters. This isn’t a script for a Hollywood film. It’s really happening.
Imagine a rice farmer in Arkansas altering his water management techniques to deliver water more efficiently and use fewer days of flooding, allowing for more precise water and nutrient management while maintaining consistent yields.
Restoring Fire to Oklahoma’s Priority Forest Landscapes
Forest Action Plans represent the first-ever comprehensive assessment of America’s forest resources across all lands—public, private, rural, and urban—and offer proactive strategies that state forestry agencies use to conserve, protect and enhance the trees and forests we depend on.
USDA Employee Named “Recovery Champion” for Oregon Chub Conservation Efforts
The Oregon Chub is making waves in history. This February, it became the first fish to be delisted from the Endangered Species List because of recovery (not extinction). This success is directly attributable to more than 20 years of hard work by USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW), private landowners and other conservation partners.
USDA TV
USDA Week in Review - July 10, 2015
Read about us in the News
USDA seeks partner proposals to protect, restore critical wetlands (Daily Herald)
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack recently announced the availability of $17.5 million in financial and technical assistance to help eligible conservation partners voluntarily protect, restore and enhance critical wetlands on private and tribal agricultural lands. "USDA has leveraged partnerships to accomplish a great deal on America's wetlands over the past two decades,” Vilsack said.
House passes bill to hasten timber projects, treat wildfires like other federal disasters (Associated Press)
The House has passed legislation designed to improve the health of national forests by scaling back the environmental reviews that go into some timbering projects and making it harder to file lawsuits that delay thinning projects. The goal is to speed up timber harvests and the removal of underbrush the U.S. Forest Service deems necessary to improve the health of national forests, which are taking a hit from drought, density and infestation.
Forest Service national fire suppression costs could reach $1.6 billion (Sierra Star)
Secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, has stated that the nationwide forecast regarding this year’s fire season shows there is a 90% chance this year’s fire suppression costs for the US Forest Service will be between $810 million and $1.62 billion. Vilsack opened a press conference last week with a plea to Congress about the continued need to re-vamp the funding structure for catastrophic-level wildfire disasters.
House GOP effort would tap disaster fund for some wildfires (The Sacramento Bee)
House Republicans are proposing that some forest fires be treated like federal disasters, an attempt to win broader support for legislation that targets overgrown national forest lands. The legislation focuses on speeding up timber harvests and the removal of underbrush the Forest Service deems necessary to improving the health of a forest.
California Drought Takes Some Sparkle Out of Fireworks Displays (The New York Times)
The annual Fourth of July fireworks extravaganza here has survived municipal economic crises and fire marshal warnings about exploding shells over this hot and dry landlocked community. But this year, patriotism might have finally met its match: the California drought. The much revered $75,000 show over Cupertino High School will not go on this Saturday night, as school district and City Hall officials, after some anguished debate, said they could not justify gushing a small river of water to protect the school’s artificial turf fields in a year when the state has imposed a mandatory 25 percent cut in urban water use
White House Solar Plan Aims at Low- and Middle-Income People (The New York Times)
The Obama administration on Tuesday announced an initiative to help low- and middle-income Americans gain access to solar energy, part of a series of steps President Obama is taking to tackle climate change, according to administration officials. The administration said it intends to triple the capacity of solar and other renewable energy systems it installs in federally subsidized housing by 2020, make it easier for homeowners to borrow money for solar improvements and start a nationwide program to help renters gain access to solar energy, the officials said.
$5.7 million invested in water-quality projects (The Des Moines Register)
Four projects focused on water quality improvement through increased conservation practices by farmers will receive nearly $3.1 million in state funding, the Iowa Department of Agriculture said Monday. Businesses and agriculture and conservation groups will provide $2.59 million in matching money or in-kind contributions, the state said. "Broad adoption of a variety of practices is necessary to reach the aggressive goals we all share for water quality," said Bill Northey, Iowa's secretary of agriculture
Bee-friendly prairie habitat: Environmental Quality Incentives Program (Agri-View)
From June to September, the Midwest is where more than 65 percent of commercially managed honey bees in the country overwinter. It is a critical time, when bees require abundant and diverse forage across broad landscapes to build up hive strength for the winter. “Their pollinator services impact about $15-billion-worth of crop production in the U.S. every year,” said Natural Resources Conservation Service Resource conservationist Matt Otto.
Bee positive: Number of beekeepers climbs in North Dakota (Grand Forks Herald)
The number of licensed beekeepers in North Dakota has steadily increased over the past five years, from 182 to in 2010 to 246 this year, a 35 percent jump, according to the state Department of Agriculture. Officials cited a number of reasons for those figures, including efforts to make sure beekeepers are licensed and more out-of-staters looking to North Dakota, the nation's No. 1 honey producer.
Acres can be added (The Herald-Tribune)
An additional 800,000 acres of highly environmentally sensitive land may be enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) under certain wetland and wildlife initiatives that provide multiple benefits on the same land, according to Tom Vilsack, U.S. Department of Agriculture secretary. The USDA will accept new offers to participate in CRP under a general signup to be held Dec. 1, 2015, through Feb. 26, 2016.
Tour shows results of prescribed burning (Kiowa County Signal)
The Barber County Conservation District, the Gyp Hills Prescribed Burn Association (PBA) and other entities, including the Natural Resources Conservation Service are cosponsoring a bus tour of some of the prescribed burns that were completed this past spring. The tour will allow ranchers the opportunity to view the results of burning on several ranches in Kansas to assess the effectiveness of prescribed burning in the control of Eastern Red Cedar and improvement of rangeland.
In massive expansion of lands legacy, Obama creates three new national monuments (Washington Post)
In a massive expansion of his lands legacy, Obama created three new national monuments Friday in Nevada, California and Texas. Using his authority under the Antiquities Act, the president created a protected area spanning roughly 704,000 acres in central Nevada’s Basin and Range, as well as smaller ones in California’s Berryessa Snow Mountain and Texas’ Waco Mammoth. With the new designations, Obama has established or expanded 19 national monuments for a total of more than 260 million acres of public lands and waters, more than any previous president. Before Friday Obama had protected 1,142,036 acres of public land; that figure has now nearly doubled, to 2,176,821 acres.
Inside the Three Newest U.S. National Monuments (National Geographic)
Oak woodlands, rugged mountains, and mammoth bones are among the newest protected natural treasures in the United States, as President Barack Obama is expected to designate three new national monuments Friday. The president has created more than a dozen new monuments on land and sea during his term, using his authority under the 1906 Antiquities Act. The three new monuments combined total over one million acres, nearly doubling the public lands protected thus far by Obama. They join 117 existing national monuments, which have steadily been created by presidents over the past century. (Learn about controversies surrounding new monuments).
NATIONAL MONUMENTS: Obama designations place Antiquities Act in GOP crosshairs (E&E Publishing)
President Obama's latest round of national monument designations today has sparked House Republicans to ramp up the rhetoric against a more-than-century-old law that allows presidents to bypass Congress and establish such protected areas. The Bureau of Land Management will oversee the Basin and Range National Monument, which sits in "a spectacular expanse of rugged public lands that tell the proud story of the West, from the ancient rock art of our first Americans to the early homesteaders looking for opportunity on the open range," Interior Secretary Sally Jewell said in a statement. BLM and the Forest Service will jointly manage the Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument.
Listen
LOCAL STUDENTS GIVE BACK IN THE GARDEN
Broadcast Date: Wed, July 8, 2015
Area students chip in at USDA. (Susan Carter and students Olivia Pickens, Josh Landweber, Amanda Lugl)
Broadcast Date: Wed, July 8, 2015
Those exercising for a long time can benefit from a sports drink, but are sports drinks needed at other times? (Rod Bain and Julie Garden-Robinson of North Dakota State University Extension)
CONVERTING PAPAYA WASTE INTO ENERGY IN HAWAII
Broadcast Date: Tuesday, July 7, 2015
USDA researchers are working on ways to convert home grown ag products in Hawaii into biofuel feedstock. (Rod Bain and Lisa Keith of the Agricultural Research Service)
Broadcast Date: Monday, July 6, 2015
Date: Tuesday, May 26, 2015 - 20
We may take for granted or not even know that the soils in our lawns and gardens are environments for important living organisms. (Rod Bain and Buz Kloot of the University of South Carolina)
"STERILE" LANDSCAPES ONE REASON FOR DECLINE IN POLLINATORS
Broadcast Date: Mon, July 6, 2015
Many experts say a decline in the natural food supply for bees and other pollinators is one factor leading to a decline in pollinator populations. (Gary Crawford and Mary Kay Malinoski)
Share
Fun in the Sun - #USDARoadTrip through conservation and recreation http://t.co/S6RrFOXCN9 pic.twitter.com/R4LuyfjLm2
— Dept. of Agriculture (@USDA) July 6, 2015
Next stop on Sec Vilsack's #USDAroadtrip is Nebraska, where he talked conservation with young @pheasants4ever leaders pic.twitter.com/qNsOjTyXJM
— Dept. of Agriculture (@USDA) July 9, 2015
Look in the night sky for a new satellite that's mapping Earth's soil moisture #USDARoadtrip http://t.co/c93b9m6zgq
— Dept. of Agriculture (@USDA) July 8, 2015
#USDAroadtrip Stop 6, Sec Vilsack saw damage from bark beetle & restoration work to improve forest health in Montana. pic.twitter.com/9CtICmPifT
— Dept. of Agriculture (@USDA) July 8, 2015
#USDAroadtrip Stop 4 Lake Champlain in Vermont. Sec Vilsack and @SenatorLeahy announced $45m to protect water quality pic.twitter.com/rwlLalGFob
— Dept. of Agriculture (@USDA) July 7, 2015
DYK? The @ForestService works year-round to make sure the trails are ready for you! Where will you #USDAroadtrip? pic.twitter.com/KNCH5tshaM
— Dept. of Agriculture (@USDA) July 7, 2015
Survey: Lesser prairie-chicken population continues to climb http://t.co/DCr3molonx #conservation pic.twitter.com/eSx1jIvXXj
— Dept. of Agriculture (@USDA) July 7, 2015
Minnesota is stop 2 on Sec Vilsack's #USDAroadtrip. He learned about conservation efforts underway in Stearns County. pic.twitter.com/4W1RXGRtk2
— Dept. of Agriculture (@USDA) July 7, 2015
