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NRCS This Week

December 13, 2002

“As the human population grows and our demand for natural resources increases, more and more habitats are devastated.  Today, we may be losing 30,000 species a year – a rate much faster than at any time since the last great extinction 65 million years ago that wiped out most of the dinosaurs.  If we continue on this course, we will destroy even ourselves."

from the American Museum of Natural History’s Hall of Biodiversity exhibit, “The Sixth Extinction.”

In This Issue

Accolades
"Small Farmer of the Year" for 2002 Winner Announced

Focus on the Field
Arkansas: American Indian Village Site Unearthed
Indiana: Resource Conservation & Development (RC&D) – Community Garden
Montana: Producers to Restore 44,000 Acres in EQIP Wildfire Initiative
Ohio: NRCS Partners with Local College

Word From Washington
National Geographic Highlights RC&D Partner
NRCS Partners with Ecological Society of America

Tech Tip
Cold Soil Data Available on CD

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
Special NRCS Klamath Basin Reports
NRCS Legislative Summaries
AGRICOLA: USDA's AGRICultural OnLine Access
National Association of Conservation Districts e-Notes

 

 

Accolades

"Small Farmer of the Year" for 2002 Winner Announced
The National Organization of Professional Black NRCS Employees has selected Barbara James Norman, a blueberry farmer from Covert, Michigan, as the national "Small Farmer of the Year" for 2002.  The award recently was presented to Norman by the Michigan State Conservationist at the National Organization of Professional Black NRCS Employees annual meeting in Arlington, Texas.  The award is given to small scale farmers who have demonstrated that they are outstanding conservationists, as well as community leaders. 

With help from NRCS conservationists, Norman now produces optimum yields on the 53-acre blueberry farm which was suffering from lack of care and resources when she inherited it from her grandmother.  Norman, Former school bus driver for Covert schools, also serves as president of the Southern Michigan Farmer's Cooperative – an organization of small and minority farmers seeking to collectively enhance market opportunities for their produce.  She also works for the Michigan Integrated Food and Farming Systems, a nonprofit organization that seeks to create and support more sustainable food and agricultural systems for producers and consumers in Michigan.  Norman enjoys educating both young people and adults in her community about conservation practices and careers in science when she hosts meetings on her farm. 
Your contact is Chris Coulon, NRCS public affairs specialist, at 517-324-5244, or chris.coulon@mi.usda.gov.

Focus on the Field

American Indian Village Site Unearthed
An agricultural land-leveling project in Jackson County, Arkansas, recently unearthed an American Indian village and several burial sites.  NRCS archeologist John Riggs and researchers from Arkansas State University (ASU) in Jonesboro found several outlines of houses – indicated by wooden post stains.  Although the houses themselves deteriorated long ago, the researchers recovered charcoal and clay fragments from cooking hearths and deer bone, nut hulls, and broken pottery from adjacent trash pits.  ASU led the investigation and is processing and storing the collection for analysis and completing a report on the discovery.  Bones and artifacts removed from an Indian burial site were taken to ASU for examination, where researchers concluded that the village was inhabited by the Quapaw Indians 500 to 700 years ago.  The excavation team found what might have been as many as 15 historic graves in an area within the Quapaw site. 
Your contact is Creston Shrum, NRCS public affairs specialist, at 501-301-3168. 

Resource Conservation & Development (RC&D) – Community Garden
Northwest Territory RC&D Council members recently partnered with the NRCS, Farm Service Agency, and local Kiwanis and Rotary clubs in Valparaiso, Indiana, to plant a one-acre community garden on a vacant lot beside the USDA Service Center.  The partners purchased seeds and plants, a local business supplied fertilizer, and council members used their own equipment to prepare the seedbed and plant the garden.  Even a local Congressman’s staff helped hand-pick vegetables that were delivered to area food pantries, which helped feed over 2,000 families in the RC&D area.  The project committee members already have begun planning for next year.  They hope that with a few changes in the variety of vegetables grown and with a new irrigation system, the garden will feed even more families in the future.
Your contact is Pam DeVoss-Herzog, Northwest Territory RC&D, 219-462-7515, ext. 117. 

Producers to Restore 44,000 Acres in EQIP Wildfire Initiative
Twenty-one producers in seven Montana counties enrolled 44,000 acres of grazing land damaged by wildfire in 2002 into EQIP.  In total, producers received approximately $1 million for conservation practices that included deferred grazing, fencing, and erosion control measures.  Some producers in the area in southeastern Montana had nearly all of their grazing land burned by wildfire.  EQIP provided them a way to put conservation practices to work restoring their land, and the financial incentives provided options for buying feed or leasing pasture for their livestock.  Producers who enrolled in deferred grazing were compensated at a rate of $5 per acre per year for two years, while fencing and water facility work was funded at 75 percent cost share.
Your contact is Lori Valadez, NRCS public affairs specialist, at 406-587-6842, or lvaladez@mt.nrcs.usda.gov. 

NRCS Partners with Local College
As part of Hocking College’s Environmental Restoration associate degree program, NRCS engineering staff in Ohio will show students how rehabilitation alternatives were selected for the Pilot Rehabilitation Project at Margaret Creek’s structure (dam) number 2.  The whole project began when Ohio's new State dam law required the college to bring its dam into compliance by increasing the height and enlarging the spillway.  NRCS staff worked with college administrative staff and course instructors through the planning phase of the pilot project to set up the curriculum.  In addition to classroom work where NRCS engineering staff will examine the project's engineering plans and review quality control requirements, students will have a hands-on opportunity to work with NRCS inspectors during dam rehabilitation construction.  The college’s Environmental Restoration heavy equipment operation classes will work on the dam to meet the college’s 35 percent matching funds obligation for the project cost.  Hocking College developed the Environmental Restoration curriculum to help retrain miners who lost their jobs when the coal mining industry moved out of the Appalachian region of Ohio.
Your Contact is Deba Mohler, NRCS resource conservationist, at 614-255-2465, or deba.mohler@oh.nrcs.usda.gov.

Word from Washington

National Geographic Highlights RC&D Partner
An article examining the preservation of native Hawaiian culture in the December issue of National Geographic features Sabra Kauka who teaches Hawaiian studies through the Garden Isle RC&D on the island of Kauai.  As a member of the National Association of RC&D Councils board of directors, Kauka has been instrumental in helping sponsor an Hawaiian studies kupuna (elders) conference and kapa (bark cloth for burials) project through the Garden Isle RC&D.  The bark cloth project will be the basis for a commercial venture to produce and sell the kapa, not only to generate income but to expand awareness of Hawaiian culture as well.  See the article on-line at http://magma.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0212/sights_n_sounds/media2.html.
Your contact is Joan M. Comanor, Director, NRCS Resource Conservation and Community Development Division, at 202-720-5927, or joan.comanor@usda.gov. 

NRCS Partners with Ecological Society of America
The National Plant Data Center (NPDC) staff recently met with representatives of the Ecological Society of America (ESA) and NatureServe to coordinate the development of the plots database VegBank for the National Vegetation Classification.  PLANTS names and plant symbols are used as standards for the classification and vegetation data collection.  ESA recently received a National Science Foundation grant and is working with NPDC to support the development of foundation reference data for PLANTS.  This effort eventually will be used to provide users with access to information on why a plant’s name has changed.
Your contact is J. Scott Peterson, Director, NRCS National Plant Data Center, at 225-775-6280 or scott.peterson@usda.gov.

Tech Tip

Cold Soil Data Available on CD
The impact of fuel spills on the cold soils in Antarctica has been under study by the NRCS National Soil Survey Center (NSSC) and the NRCS National Water and Climate Center (NWCC) in collaboration with scientists in New Zealand.  The study, initiated in 1999, uses Antarctic soil climate stations on Ross Island, on the Antarctic coast, and in the dry valleys region (an area kept free from snow by high winds).  Each site has two stations, one in a spill area and one nearby in a non-spill area for comparison.  Hourly averages of soil water content, soil temperature, and atmospheric variables are recorded on data-loggers and retrieved annually. 

This study also provides baseline data for global climate change research.  Permafrost-affected areas are believed to be the most sensitive to global climate change.  The soil climate station data provide valuable information to calibrate and verify models used to predict climate change and its effects.  The immediate use of the project information will be for Antarctica managers to decide whether to ameliorate oil-contaminated soils or let nature repair itself.  NRCS will use the information collected to improve soil taxonomy, to classify soils for the proposed Southern Hemisphere Circumpolar Soils Map, and to better understand cold soil behavior.  Data are available on CD from the NSSC.  NRCS plans to put the data on the NWCC website and in the Soil Survey Investigations Report and other publications.
Your contact is Ron Paetzold, NRCS research soil scientist, at 402-437-4133, or ron.paetzold@usda.gov.

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