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FOCUS ON THE FIELD Representative's Tour Shows Support For Farm Bill Programs - On a tour of five Delta towns, people heard Mississippi Representative Bennie Thompson speak of his support for Farm Bill programs. More than 550 persons heard the Congressman talk about the benefits of the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, Wetlands Reserve Program, and Conservation Reserve Program (CRP). NRCS experts took the lead in educating the crowds about the technical aspects of the programs. The Human Resources Development Institute, Inc., of Tougaloo College hosted the tour, which was coordinated by the Northwest Mississippi Resource Conservation and Development (RC&D) Council. Your contact is Jeannine May, State Public Affairs Specialist, on (601) 965-4337. Tribes From Six States Cultivate Interest In NRCS Plant Materials - Tribal representatives from Minnesota, Indiana, Ohio, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Illinois learned the latest about plant species and NRCS assistance at a recent workshop hosted by the agency's Rose Lake Plant Materials Center. The center's staff described the agency's Plant Materials Program and NRCS assistance available for tribal lands. Participants worked with culturally significant plant species cultivated by the center. A professor from Michigan State University spoke on greenhouses and an NRCS outreach person explained opportunities for grants. A spokesperson for an Indiana tribe that the PMC has been working with discussed the establishment of a 200-acre prairie and development of museum and Native cultural exhibits. Rose Lake Plant Materials Center is located in East Lansing, Michigan. Your contact is Dave Burgdorf, Plant Materials Specialist, at dburgdorf@mi.nrcs.usda.gov Regions Form Drought Task Force, Publish Report - Experts predict that the frequency and magnitude of large-scale, weather events such as droughts, hurricanes, and extreme heat will increase in the United States. Charles R. Adams, Regional Conservationist for the NRCS Southeast Region and Acting Regional Conservationist for the South Central Region, formed a multi-region drought task force to study the 1999 drought. John Dondero, a Southeast Region management analyst, leads the task force. Vic Simpson, Javier Ruiz, Belinda Duke, Suzanne Pugh, and Jerry Daigle served on the team. Adams presented the task force's research report and marketing strategy to Chief Pearlie Reed. The report shows the effects of drought on the South Central and Southeast Regions. Copies of the report are available from John Dondero on (404) 347-6105. NRCS, Other Agencies Unite To Fight Hunger - NRCS South Carolina and other USDA agencies have teamed up to fight hunger with the Harvest Hope Food Bank and Arriba Corazones, a service-oriented student group at Spring Valley High School in Columbia. This effort demonstrates USDA's commitment to enhancing community-based human assistance programs. The goal is to collect at least 2,000 pounds of food that will be donated to the food bank and migrant families in several counties. The initiative is a statewide effort; food collected through USDA Service Centers throughout the State will be donated to local food banks. Your contact is Perdita Belk, State Public Affairs Specialist, on (803) 765-5402. Allergy Sufferer Praises Plants Web Site - The National Plant Data Center's PLANTS web site has earned plenty of recognition, including rave reviews from national news media, but last week the praise became more personal. The center received the following message from a grateful web visitor: "I want to thank you all for your site. My husband came in contact with poison sumac. We had never heard of it before. He was very allergic to it. We have had a difficult time finding good photos from which we could identify this plant. Your site was helpful. My husband was familiar with poison ivy and poison oak and knew how to identify it. This poison sumac was a new one for us. Thanks again." Check out the PLANTS web site at http://plants.usda.gov/plants AWARDS & GRANTS NRCS, Partners Call For Wetlands Award Nominees - Nominations are now being accepted for the 2000 National Wetlands Awards Program, which honors individuals who have demonstrated outstanding innovation or excellence in wetland conservation. Awardees will be honored next spring at a ceremony in Washington, D.C., on Capitol Hill and be profiled in the National Wetlands Newsletter, a journal of wetlands science, law, and policy published by the Environmental Law Institute (ELI). Past nominees who did not receive an award remain eligible for nomination; organizations and Federal employees are not eligible. Sponsors are NRCS, ELI, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and National Marine Fisheries Service. Nominations are due by December 15, 1999. For nomination information, contact Gary Wooten, Natural Resource Manager, NRCS National Headquarters, on (202) 690-1588. Western Share Announces Grant Competition -
USDA's Western Region Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program is calling for proposals for producer-directed research efforts. Producers and producer groups in the Western U.S. can compete for grants to identify, evaluate, and test sustainable agriculture practices and challenges. Proposals must be led by one or more producers, include a professional agricultural technical advisor and provide a plan for sharing information with their communities. Applications will be accepted until 5:00 p.m., Mountain Standard Time, on January 17, 2000. To apply, contact the host office at Utah State University on (435) 797-2257, or check the web on wsare@mendel.usu.edu The call for proposals will be available on-line after October 29 at wsare.usu.edu TECH TIP Be Fruitful and Multiply: Conservation Activities and Multipliers - Conservation activities impact local economies with changes in production, recreation, jobs, taxes, and spending. These impacts occur not just once, but have a multiplier effect. A dollar spent on seed for a contour grass strips at the local elevator helps pay salaries and other operating costs, provides profit for the dealer, and the wholesale cost of the seed. While wholesale costs are paid to the out-of-county seed producer, the rest of the dollar circulates within the community and multiplies. Every industry that produces goods and services generates demands for other goods and services, and so on. Each round produces a smaller impact as some benefits "leak out" for outside purchases. Yet the total local impacts per dollar is the economic multiplier. These impacts can be calculated in dollars of sales, local profits and wages, jobs created, or local taxes received--measures that our customers understand. One way to calculate these multiplier effects is through use of inter-industry input-output (I-O) tables developed by Nobel Prize-winner Dr. Wassily Leontief. Columns and rows of data show the relationships between industries and their production linkages. These gauge impacts of changes in one or more industries, on other industries, and total economic impact. Data come from the 5-year Economic Census (including the Census of Agriculture) and other Commerce Department information. The Forest Service developed the IMPLAN model to use a modified set of these I-O accounts for their resource planning efforts, and later privatized the model to MIG, Incorporated (www.implan.com). The IMPLAN model has application for watershed projects, RC&D areas, and State and regional planning. NRCS is required to estimate both national and regional economic impacts for each PL-566 watershed project. Similar impact analysis is needed for State conservation programs and projects. RC&D projects are primarily locally funded, so RC&D customers may want to know their local economic impact. NRCS also uses IMPLAN to examine impacts of proposed regulations and local benefits of conservation programs. IMPLAN estimates staffing and program impacts to State and local economies and allows systematic comparisons between alternative policy proposals--knowledge useful for preparing staffing plans, advertising local programs, assessing state cost-sharing programs and examining the impact of proposed regulations on local agricultural sectors. An IMPLAN study on the impact of agriculture in South Dakota was followed by an impact study of lost grazing and production due to natural resource problems. These studies resulted in a doubling of the South Dakota State Government Conservation Grant Program. Many State universities have published impact studies of the CRP based on IMPLAN. Some of the current NRCS economic impact work is available at http://waterhome.brc.tamus.edu/NRCSdata/implan Recent NRCS work includes:
NRCS economists can merge IMPLAN analysis data for a combination of counties and States into the specified 'local' area. For more information, or to use the IMPLAN model, contact your NRCS state economist or David Buland, Natural Resources Inventory and Analysis Institute, Temple, Texas, buland@brc.tamus.edu
SPECIAL EVENTS
"QUOTE OF THE WEEK"
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The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) prohibits discrimination in all its programs and activities on the basis of race, color, national origin, gender, religion, age, disability, political beliefs, sexual orientation, and marital or family status. (Not all prohibited bases apply to all programs.) Persons with disabilities who require alternative means for communication of program information (Braille, large print, audiotape, etc.) should contact USDA's TARGET Center at 202-720-2600 (voice and TDD). To file a complaint of discrimination, write USDA, Director, Office of Civil Rights, Room 326W, Whitten Building, 14th and Independence Avenue, SW, Washington, D.C. 20250-9410 or call 202-720-5964 (voice or TDD). USDA is an equal opportunity provider and employer. Addresses and telephone numbers for NRCS' Civil Rights Staff are: NRCS Civil Rights Program Compliance Division, 5601 Sunnyside Avenue, Mail Stop 5471, Beltsville, MD 20705-5471; phone: (301) 504-2287. NRCS Civil Rights Employment Division, 5601 Sunnyside Avenue, Mail Stop 5472, Beltsville, MD 20705-5472; phone: (301) 504-2181. |
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