  |
 |
 |
NRCS Home
About Us
News
Programs
Technical Resources
Partnerships
Features
Contact Us |
|
|
|
| Friday, January 4, 2002 Washington, DC. |
"How shall we conserve wild life without evicting ourselves?"
–- - from Game Management by Aldo Leopold, (1887-1948), American author and conservationist.
ACCOLADES
Stream Corridor Restoration Reference Receives Award -
The NRCS-led partnership's handbook, Stream Corridor Restoration: Principles, Processes, and Practices has received the Renewable Natural Resources Foundation's (RNRF) 2001 Outstanding Achievement Award. The handbook outlines basic principles and provides implementation and monitoring approaches for successful stream restoration. RNRF Chairman David W. Moody presented the award to Ron Marlow, acting director of the NRCS Conservation Engineering Division and Jerry Bernard, national geologist, who accepted the award on behalf of NRCS and the other project participants at the annual meeting of RNRF's Board of Directors in Potomac, Maryland. The RNRF's Outstanding Achievement Award is the only conservation award honoring interdisciplinary achievement in the renewable natural resources fields. RNRF honored the handbook because it is an excellent encapsulation of the rapidly expanding body of knowledge related to stream corridors and their restoration. Stream Corridor Restoration represents the cooperative efforts of 15 federal agencies and partners. The other partners included: USDA, Agriculture Research Service, Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service, Forest Service, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Tennessee Valley Authority, Federal Emergency Management Agency, U.S. Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Marine Fisheries Service, U.S. Department of Defense, Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, United States Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Reclamation, Fish and Wildlife Service, National Park Service, United States Geological Survey's Biological Resources and Water Resources Divisions A CD-ROM version of the reference is available by going to http://www.ntis.gov/product/stream-corridor.htm or it can be downloaded from http://www.usda.gov/stream_restoration.
Your contact is Ron Marlow, acting director, NRCS Conservation Engineering Division, at 202-720-8723.
New RC&D Offices Open in Nebraska -
New Resource Conservation and Development (RC&D) offices opened in southern and northeastern Nebraska. The Trailblazer RC&D, located in Red Cloud, serves Clay, Fillmore, Harlan, Franklin, Webster, Nuckolls, and Thayer counties. The Loess Hills RC&D, located in Oakland, serves Dakota, Thurston, Cuming, Burt, Dodge, and Washington counties. To see what's going on at these new offices, as well as others in Nebraska, go to http://www.ne.nrcs.usda.gov/nrd/2000NRDweb/RCD-Map.html.
Your contact is Pat McGrane, NRCS public affairs specialist, at 402-437-5328 or pat.mcgrane@ne.usda.gov.
NRCS Pennsylvania, Partners Undertake Flyash Soil Stabilization Study -
NRCS Pennsylvania, USDA Agricultural Research Service, and Pennsylvania State University are exploring how effective flyash, the residue of burned coal, can be in stabilizing soils in heavily used areas on farms. The partners are running stability tests in barnyards and on access lanes and beneath manure stacking pads at the university's Material Research Laboratory. Power plants often provide flyash free of charge to avoid paying fees for disposal at landfill sites.
Your contact is Alan Wood, NRCS project engineer, at alan.wood@pa.usda.gov.
Story of California Creek's Comeback Now on DVD -
California's Western Shasta Resource Conservation District (RCD) announced the release of a DVD featuring a stream restoration project at Clear Creek in Shasta County. KIXE-TV produced the 10-minute video with funding from the Bureau of Land Management and Bureau of Reclamation. The two bureaus and CALFED Bay-Delta Program are funding the restoration project, which is renewing the Lower Clear Creek Watershed and will help salmon to survive by restoring and protecting habitat for spawning and rearing. Clear Creek is the first large tributary downstream of Shasta Dam. The video provides an overview of the project and will be used to attract and inform potential sponsors for the final phases of the project.
Your contact is Bob Bailey, Redding Service Center, on 530-246-5252 or at robert.bailey@ca.usda.gov.
New Pub Takes Regional Approach to Simple, Economical Conservation -
NRCS has released regional versions of Small Scale/Small Field Conservation, a publication that helps landowners in the East, Midwest, and Southeast solve natural resource problems. The publications highlight simple conservation practices that require small investments of time and money to design and install. Topics include erosion prevention, grazing land and nutrient management, streambank stabilization, and the fundamentals of conservation planning. Copies are available from 1-888-LANDCARE.
Team Leaders Extend Thanks to Spanish-language Tech CD's Contributors -
NRCS Partnership Liaison Gayle Norman and California Public Affairs Specialist Rudy Perez offer a special thank-you to everyone involved in producing a pair of CD-ROMs that provide easy access to Spanish-language natural resource technical information. "As project team leaders, we would like to thank all of you for your contribution and support toward the project," said Gayle and Rudy. "We would also like to thank the members of the National Organization of Professional Hispanic NRCS Employees (NOPHNRCSE) for identifying this need and for their assistance in this project." Spanish Natural Resource Publications and Guía Técnica en Espanõl offer information on soils, conservation planning and practices, USDA conservation programs, technical resources, and other topics. Copies are available from 1-888-LANDCARE. For information about NOPHNRCSE, see http://www.nhq.nrcs.usda.gov/HISPANIC/index.html
NRCS State Soil Site Outstanding Teaching Tool -
Is it too early to start planning your educational outreach for Earth Day? No way! NRCS web site features an excellent, locally focused teaching tool that also has nationwide appeal. It's the Agency's State Soil web page. You'll find information about what makes a soil a State soil, and easy-to-understand explanations of soil series, horizons, and surface and subsurface layers. Plus, you get links to fact sheets with color photos and brief descriptions of representative and State soils in HTML and PDF versions. They make great handouts at exhibits and schools--from Bama all the way to Forkwood. See them at http://www.statlab.iastate.edu/soils/photogal/statesoils/list1.htm
Horace Smith Retires -
Horace Smith, Director of the NRCS Soil Survey Division, has announced his retirement effective this week. Horace has earned the respect of the scores of individuals and co-workers who knew and worked with him during his many years with NRCS. In 1996, he became Director of the Soil Survey Division of NRCS where he provides Federal leadership for the NCSS; plans, directs, and coordinates the agency's comprehensive soil survey program; and develop soil survey interpretations for urban, urban-fringe, and limited resource farmer areas. Horace was raised on a small tobacco farm near Clarkton, North Carolina. He received his B.S. in Soil Science from Virginia State University in 1964 and began his career as a soil scientist with NRCS in Champaign, Illinois, the same year. In 1972 he received his M.S. from the Ohio State University in soil genesis and classification. He rose through the ranks in NRCS, working in six States and the District of Columbia. Horace is married and has three grown children.
Ag Air Quality Task Force to Meet January 16-17 -
The Task Force on Agricultural Air Quality announced it will meet January 16-17 in Phoenix, Arizona. Topics proposed for discussion include air quality issues relating to animal feeding operations, residue burning, and carbon credits trading, and the status of the 2002 Farm Policy Legislation. The meeting will be open to the public. Congress directed the Chief of NRCS to establish the task force to address air quality issues. It is comprised of USDA employees, industry representatives, and other experts in the fields of agriculture and air quality. It advises the Secretary with respect to the role of the Secretary to provide oversight and coordination related to agricultural air quality. See the Federal Register notice at http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=2001_register&docid=01-31381-filed.
Your contact is Beth Sauerhaft, NRCS ecologist, at 202-720-8578 or beth.sauerhaft@usda.gov
Kansas Experiments with "Explosive" Wetland Development Technique -
When it comes to wetland development, NRCS in Clay County, Kansas, and its partners know how to get plenty of bang for a buck. When a wetland enrolled in the Wetlands Reserve Program needed enhancement, the agency and the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks (KDWP) found that its gypsum-rich soil made the use of heavyweight excavation equipment an unlikely option. Textbook studies showed that shallow water wetland development could be done with explosives. KDWP contacted an explosives retailer for advice and training. Three 12-inch diameter holes were dug in a triangular pattern approximately 20 feet apart and 4 feet deep. The charges placed in the holes were wired together and detonated from a distance of 400 feet. Soil rocketed 300 feet in the air creating a crater 33 feet across and 9 feet deep. The cost: $70.
Your contact is Lynn Thurlow, NRCS district conservationist, at 785-632-2215 or lynn.thurlow@ks.usda.gov
Please send correspondence and material for "NRCS This Week" to the editor by: e-mail to: fred.jacobs@usda.gov or by fax to: Editor, "NRCS This Week," 202-720-1564; or by mail to: Editor, "NRCS This Week," NRCS, P.O. Box 2890, Washington, D.C. 20013.
You can receive NRCSTW via e-mail by sending an e-mail to: listproc@nrcs.usda.gov (NHQ personnel should send their e-mail to: GW:"listproc@nrcs.usda.gov@i"). Do not use a subject line and put the following in the body of the message: subscribe NRCS-THIS-WEEK Firstname Lastname (example: subscribe NRCS-THIS-WEEK Oren Lyons). To get help with other commands that are available at the "listproc@nrcs.usda.gov" address, send a message with no subject and the word HELP on a line by itself in the body of the message. "NRCS This Week" is posted on the NRCS Homepage.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) prohibits discrimination in all its programs and activities on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, religion, age, disability, political beliefs, sexual orientation, or 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 and TDD). USDA is an equal opportunity provider and employer.
|
|
Back to Top