NRCS This Week - 01/10/03

News

January 17, 2003

"…He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over and seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we as a people will get to the promised land. And I'm happy tonight: I'm not worried about anything: I am not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord."

from his last speech, "I've Been to the Mountaintop" by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968), American civil rights leader.

In This Issue

Accolades; Training Receives Blue Ribbon; Focus on the Field
Alabama: Double Honors for Cherokee Tribe
South Dakota: Mentor Program Taking Shape
Texas: Making Things Happen for West Texas
Virginia: NRCS Participates in Lewis and Clark Bicentennial Signature Event; Word from Washington
USDA Supports Water Quality Trading
NRCS to Revise Strategic Plan
USDA Announces Agreements with Pheasants Forever; Tech Tip; Seedy Solutions; Sites to See
Find out what conservation events and activities are occurring this month and in the upcoming months with the Events and Activities page on our NRCS website; Visit the National Agricultural Library’s new super resource center, DIGITOP
USDA’s Farm Bill 2002 Website
NRCS Legislative Summaries
AGRICOLA: USDA's AGRICultural OnLine Access
National Association of Conservation Districts e-Notes

Accolades

Training Receives Blue Ribbon
A three-year cooperative effort between the University of Tennessee Agricultural Extension Service and NRCS has produced a training course that received an American Society of Agricultural Engineers’ Blue Ribbon Award, presented at its annual international meeting held recently in Chicago.

The focus of the course, Animal Waste Management Systems: Comprehensive Nutrient Management Plan (CNMP) Development, is on knowledge required to prepare a CNMP. It is taken by everyone in Tennessee seeking certification as a technical service provider and enrolled in a CNMP certification program. It also may be taken by those wanting to expand their knowledge of animal waste management. The course includes information on the design of animal waste storage structures, installation and maintenance of earthen storage structures, composting, strategic planning, nutrient budgeting and removal, emergency action plans, and a discussion of sample CNMPs. This course meets the CNMP certification requirements in Indiana, Michigan, and Florida as well as Tennessee. For additional information, visit the following website: http://bioengr.ag.utk.edu/Extension/ExtProg/WasteMgmt/2003cnmpcourse.htm.
Your contact is Larry Blick, NRCS public affairs specialist, at 615-277-2535, or lblick@tn.nrcs.usda.gov.

Focus on the Field

Double Honors for Cherokee Tribe
With trail mapping assistance from NRCS, the Echota Cherokee Tribe of Alabama is establishing interpretive trails, a museum and cultural center, an outdoor education center, an amphitheater, and a replica of a 17th century Cherokee village on a 50-acre site on Lacon Mountain in Cullman County. Native and herbal plants along the trail will illustrate Indian medicine lore and will teach students how to protect streambanks, reduce erosion, and provide wildlife habitat. Also helping out with the project is the Tennessee Valley RC&D Council, which submitted a funding proposal to help the tribe create the interpretive trail system.

In addition to developing its interpretive trail system, the Echota Cherokee Tribe will occupy a space on the Honor Wall listed as a State tribe of Alabama at the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, DC – scheduled to open in 2004. The museum will be the newest addition to the Smithsonian Institution museums and will feature an Honor Wall that will include the names of all the major tribes in the United States and all the Federal tribes in the State of Alabama. Your contacts are Judy Hill, NRCS district conservationist at 256-734-6471, or judy.hill@al.usda.gov and Mike Roden, NRCS RC&D coordinator, at 256-353-6146 mike.roden@al.usda.gov.

Mentor Program Taking Shape
When Kresta Faaborg began working for NRCS in South Dakota last August, the Federal Women’s Program (FWP) Advisory Committee asked a coworker to mentor her through the process of becoming a successful government employee. The FWP provides both mentors and employees with the opportunity to choose someone with whom they feel comfortable sharing their interests and career path. There is no time limit on the relationship, nor on the number of employees an individual may mentor. Workload and time limitations may make it feasible to mentor only one or perhaps two employees effectively, and supervisors must be aware of any agency member’s participation in the program.

When USDA launched its new mentoring program, Faaborg and her mentor, Mary Lou Lacey applied for training in order to learn more about their roles as employee and mentor, and were two of 100 participants accepted from throughout all of USDA.
Your contacts are Mary Lou Lacey, NRCS soil conservationist, at 605-330-4515, or mary.lacey@sd.usda.gov, and Kresta Faaborg, NRCS soil conservationist, at 605-854-9123, or kresta.faaborg@sd.usda.gov.

Making Things Happen for West Texas
NRCS, Texas Tech University, the Wes-Tex RC&D, and the Texas Corn Producers Board recently teamed up to produce a 15-minute educational video for school children emphasizing the importance of agriculture and conservation in Texas. Texas Agriculture: Tomorrow's Future Today highlights how agriculture affects all Texans’ lives and how important conserving natural resources is to the State’s food supply. To make the video more useful as a teaching aid, an educational guide containing games, fact sheets, questions, and classroom project ideas was produced for teachers. The Region 17 Educational Service Center of the Texas Education Agency made more than 230 copies of the video for schools in their area. The Service Center produced the video as CD, as well. This material has provided an opportunity for 70,000 K-12 students throughout west Texas to learn more about conservation and agriculture.
Your contact is Quenna Terry, NRCS public affairs specialist, at 806-791-0581, or quenna.terry@tx.usda.gov.

NRCS Participates in Lewis and Clark Bicentennial Signature Event
NRCS joined with nearly two dozen other Federal agencies this week to mark the Signature Event of the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial Celebration, Jefferson’s West: A Lewis and Clark Exposition, being held in Charlottesville, Virginia, January 14-19, 2003. At the bicentennial’s opening event, an NRCS display titled A Garden…or a Desert depicts President Jefferson’s concern about a possible lack of farmland. The exhibit features selections from a series of paintings by NRCS National Soil Survey Laboratory technician Jan Lang, who created pigments for her acrylic paint from soil samples at the lab and began painting scenes of episodes from the Lewis and Clark expedition (See the 6/14/02 issue of NRCS This Week article, The Dirt on Lewis and Clark). The paintings also will be featured in posters and soil painting demonstrations.

Events commemorating the bicentennial of the Lewis and Clark Corps of Discovery Expedition will continue through 2006. With a presence in nearly every county in the country NRCS will be involved in activities along the trail throughout the 3-year celebration. To view upcoming events see the Lewis and Clark website at: http://www.lewisandclark200.org/calendar/signature_events/sig_events2.html. Local NRCS staff and resource conservation and development councils will lead grassroots efforts in communities along the historic Lewis and Clark Trail and provide information about soil surveys, snow surveys, plant materials, and National Resources Inventory throughout the trail states. Backyard conservation and other conservation educational materials will be provided to tour and event participants to promote conservation activities by individuals, families, and youth groups.
Your contacts are Ted Kupelian, NRCS public affairs specialist, at 202-720-5776, or ted.kupelian@usda.gov, and Pat Paul, NRCS public affairs specialist, at 804-287-1681, or ppaul@va.nrcs.usda.gov.

Word from Washington

USDA Supports Water Quality Trading
NRCS joined the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) at the National Press Club in Washington D.C. to support a new water quality trading policy that will improve the quality of our Nation’s water. USDA welcomes the opportunity to work with EPA, States, Tribes, and other jurisdictions to establish water quality trading programs that will be effective, farmer friendly, and scientifically sound. “This policy will provide market-based incentives to encourage America’s farmers, ranchers, and woodlot owners and operators to do even more to maintain and improve the quality of our environment,” said Chief Bruce Knight. “NRCS will work to help farmers and ranchers use environmental trading to enhance our Nation’s water quality.”

For more information on the policy, visit EPA’s trading website at http://www.epa.gov/owow/watershed/trading.htm. States, Tribes, and other jurisdictions interested in establishing water quality trading programs are encouraged to contact USDA officials in NRCS, Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service, and the Agricultural Research Service in their locality.
Your contact is Fred Jacobs, NRCS public affairs specialist, at 202-720-6794, or fred.jacobs@usda.gov.

NRCS to Revise Strategic Plan
Over the next 4 to 12 months, NRCS will embark on a two-step process to update and revise our strategic plan to reflect changes in USDA’s strategic plan, the Secretary’s Agricultural Policy, the President’s Management Agenda, and the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002. Because the strategic plan provides the basis for budget requests, the first step is to update the current plan by April 30, 2003. This will enable the agency to make the link between budget and performance by program. The second step is a more comprehensive revision, with substantive input from our partners, stakeholders, and employees into the agency’s future, vision, desired outcomes, and mission. This is scheduled for completion by January 1, 2004.

If you have comments or suggestions for updating and revising the strategic plan, please contact Dan Lawson, Director, NRCS Strategic & Performance Planning Division, at 202-720-5322, or dan.lawson@usda.gov.

USDA Announces Agreements with Pheasants Forever
Deputy Secretary of Agriculture Jim Moseley announced a cooperative partnership with Pheasants Forever to help improve the Nation’s wildlife habitat. USDA entered into a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Pheasants Forever during the group’s annual meeting in Minnesota. “This Administration is committed to protecting natural resources and wildlife habitat,” said Moseley. “Partnerships such as this help promote common sense environmental stewardship practices so working lands are conserved for farmers, ranchers, and those who love wildlife.”

The agreement, the first between the two organizations, establishes a framework of cooperation that encourages conservation projects for wildlife habitat, technical assistance for landowners, information and education materials, collaboration on habitat and wildlife research, and development of habitat enhancement techniques. Moseley also announced that NRCS will create a liaison position with Pheasants Forever that will aid in using new technology and approaches to deliver conservation programs at the local level. “The agreement will help us work together to enhance the productivity of habitat for pheasants and other wildlife,” NRCS Chief Bruce Knight said. “Wildlife is an important resource concern in the agency’s ecosystem-based approach to conservation.”

Pheasants Forever, celebrating its 20th anniversary, is dedicated to protecting and enhancing pheasant and other wildlife populations in North America through habitat improvement, land management, public awareness and education. NRCS provides planning, technical, and financial assistance for the conservation of natural resources on private lands.
Your contact is Fred Jacobs, NRCS public affairs specialist, at 202-720-6794, or fred.jacobs@usda.gov.

Tech Tip

Seedy Solutions
Wildfires, combined with extended drought, have devastated millions of acres of forest and grazing lands in the West. Over the past 3 years, more than 272,000 fires occurred on 18.5 million acres across the United States. In the aftermath of the destruction, numerous questions arose. Should intensely burned sites be seeded, and if so, with what species and methods? Will seeding protect soil and water resources and suppress invasive species? Will seeded species impact timber regeneration? NRCS and plant materials personnel have been investigating these questions in Montana since 1974; initially, with disturbed timberland field evaluation plantings, and more recently with fire-impacted watershed monitoring studies. Study results and data from the earlier field evaluation plantings suggest that planting properly selected native or introduced forage grass species can provide the benefits of erosion control, weed suppression, and an enhanced forage resource on a variety of sites without significantly affecting the survival of tree seedlings.

In the studies and on the monitoring sites, burned or harvested and mechanically scarified forest sites were seeded with introduced and native grasses (60-80 pure live seeds per square foot, on average). Other sites were left unseeded as study controls. Permanent transects were installed to monitor changes in ground cover and canopy cover by species. Biomass production of seeded species and other vegetation was determined, and tree regeneration was evaluated. Sites were monitored for a minimum of 10 years. Data show that (1) successfully seeded treatments had little effect on tree seedling survival when compared to control sites, (2) invasive weeds were significantly suppressed by several of the seeded species on some sites, (3) average soil erosion for the 5-year period after successful seedings was about half that of the controls (computed using the Revised Universal Soils Loss Equation-RUSLE), and (4) successful seeding treatments established plant communities nearly as diverse as those on control sites.
Your contact is Larry Holzworth, NRCS plant materials specialist, at 406-587-6838, or Larry.Holzworth@mt.usda.gov.

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