NRCS This Week - 02/09/01

News

Friday, February 9, 2001 Washington, DC.

"The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress."

-- Frederick Douglass (1818-1895) Journalist, orator, and one of the foremost African-American civil rights leaders of the 19th Century.

Focus on the Field

Alaska: Nine Million Alaskan Acres Slated For Soil Survey

Arizona: Arizona Ag Center to Host Winter Program

California: East Africans Visit California

Nebraska: Emergency Watershed Protection Program (EWP) Cleans Up Flood Damage

Tennessee: Mushroom Cultivation Workshop Held in Tennessee

Wisconsin: A WHIP Success Story on Tribal Lands

What's Up in Washington

NRCS Releases On-line Wildlife Report

"Building Better Rural Places" Now Available

Celebrate National Black History Month!

"To Err Is Human"

Tech Tips

Missouri Pilots Soil Map Digitizing

USDA/NRCS 'NetNewsLinks:

NRCS National Water and Climate Center Snow-Precipitation Update for the West

NRCS Legislative Summaries

Also on the 'Net:

AGRICOLA: USDA's AGRICultural Online Access

e-Notes from NACD: Weekly news briefs from the National Association of Conservation Districts: http://www.nacdnet.org/eNotes/.

Conference & Training Connection!

See the alphabetical-by-subject list of upcoming events. . See NEW listing under Water Quality.

FOCUS ON THE FIELD

Nine Million Alaskan Acres Slated For Soil Survey - An NRCS Alaska soil survey crew is launching a nine million-acre survey of the vast roadless area of the western interior rivers area, which encompasses 19 Alaska Native villages and adjoining lands along the Kuskokwim and Yukon rivers, accessible only by riverboat and small aircraft. This is a National Cooperative Soil Survey effort that includes local village governments, traditional councils, the Mid-Yukon Soil and Water Conservation District, the Interior River RC&D Council, and the University of Alaska. Landowners in the area are looking forward to having the baseline data from the survey to assist with planning and management of natural resources, particularly in the management of water quality, waste treatment, and erosion issues. Multiple map scales and levels of mapping intensity will be used to adequately cover the varying land use within the survey area. Your contact is Joe Moore, NRCS MLRA Region 17 Office Team Leader, at 907-761-7760.

Arizona Ag Center to Host Winter Program - The NRCS Eloy, Florence-Coolidge, West Pinal natural resource conservation districts and the University of Arizona's Maricopa Agriculture Center are sponsoring a series of winter programs designed to inform visitors about agriculture and water in central Arizona. The annual event has attracted numerous visitors each year. The program features a tour of the Maricopa Agriculture Center that includes a look at the center's projects, crops, and farm machinery. Volunteers assist in program planning, conducting the tour, and lunchtime presentations. Your contact is Patty Caywood, District Clerk, at 520-836-1960, ext. 3.

East Africans Visit California - The NRCS Modesto Service Center and Lockeford Plant Materials Center recently served as "international conservation ambassadors" to four officials from East Africa. The visitors learned about NRCS conservation partnerships, soil erosion, water infiltration techniques, plant screening, agroforestry, and crop rotation. They hope to alleviate persistent natural resource concerns in their countries by seeking academic collaborations through partnerships with the California State University, Stanislaus Bio-Ag program. Your contact is Jolene Lau, NRCS Public Affairs Specialist, at 831-754-1595.

Emergency Watershed Protection (EWP) Program Cleans-Up Flood Damage - Nearly $100,000 in EWP funds aided Thurston County and Winnebago Tribe flood control projects in Nebraska after heavy rains in the area last June caused creeks to overflow their banks. EWP provides technical and cost-sharing assistance to establish vegetative cover; install streambank protection devices; remove debris and sediment; and stabilize levees, channels, and gullies. In subsequent storms, EWP projects protect homes, businesses, highways, and public facilities from damage. The Winnebago Tribe did all of its own construction work on two sites. Your contact is Joanna Pope, NRCS Public Affairs Specialist, at 402-437-5328.

Mushroom Cultivation Workshop Held in Tennessee - The Smoky Mountain Resource Conservation and Development Council and the Forest Service recently conducted a shiitake mushroom cultivation workshop in response to requests by small farmers and rural landowners for information on alternative farm enterprises. The workshop provided more than 30 farmers and landowners with information on how to set up a shiitake mushroom production lot, where to find and how to innoculate the logs used to produce the mushrooms, marketing possibilities, and income expectations. Follow-up workshops will be held during the shiitake growing season. Your contact is Eston Williams, NRCS RC&D Coordinator, at 865-674-8890.

A Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program (WHIP) Success Story on Tribal Lands - With funding help from WHIP, the NRCS Ladysmith Service Center has achieved a successful wild rice seeding project on the Lac Courte Oreilles Reservation in northern Wisconsin. Through WHIP, NRCS cost shared with the tribe to seed eight acres in the Billy Boy Flowage of the Couderay River. Seed was sown by hand from boats to re-establish wild rice beds destroyed years ago when a dam was installed. This is the only significant stand of wild rice in the area and will now serve as a seed bank for wild rice restoration efforts elsewhere on the Lac Courte Oreilles Reservation. Your contact is Renae Anderson, NRCS Public Affairs Specialist, at 608-276-8732, ext. 227.

WHAT'S UP IN WASHINGTON

NRCS Releases On-line Wildlife Report - Several years ago, a prominent wildlife biologist from Ohio observed, "the most important Federal legislation ever passed for the enhancement of wildlife habitat was the 1985 (amended in 1990 and 1996) Farm Bill!" This week, NRCS' Wildlife Habitat Management Institute (WHMI) echoed this sentiment with the release of "A Comprehensive Review of Farm Bill Contributions to Wildlife Conservation." The report, which includes annotated bibliographies for all published literature pertaining to CRP and WRP, resulted from over a year of collaborative efforts to synthesize scientific literature to determine what Farm Bill programs have contributed to wildlife conservation. The project evolved into a collection of summaries, contributed by experts, documenting the effect of Farm Bill programs on wildlife. Wildlife as an indicator of the health of the environment is a good measure of the success of NRCS conservation programs. The resulting report, a synthesis of data, and summaries from leading experts and scientific literature, can be viewed and downloaded at http://www.ms.nrcs.usda.gov/whmi. Your contact is Pete Heard, Director, NRCS Wildlife Habitat Management Institute, at 601-607-3131.

"Building Better Rural Places" Now Available - USDA's Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) program has released "Building Better Rural Places." The 160-page resource guide to Federal programs offers descriptions and contact information for 80 Federal programs. The guide should help farmers, businesses, and a wide array of land use/conservation organizations, as well as USDA and other Federal employees, learn about and take advantage of the enormous array of Federal programs and resources available to support agriculture and forestry. To obtain a free printed copy of the guide, write to: Appropriate Technology Transfer for Rural Areas, P.O. Box 3657, Fayetteville, Arkansas 72702; or call 800-346-9140; fax 501-442-9842; or email webmaster@attra.org.

The report also is available on-line at http://www.attra.org/guide/index.htm. Your contact is Valerie Berton, SARE National Communications Specialist, at 301-504-5230.

Celebrate National Black History Month! - National Black History Month is celebrated during February to salute and honor the contributions that African-Americans have made in this country. This year's theme is "Creating and Defining the African-American Community: Family, Church, Politics, and Culture." In 1926, Harvard educated Dr. Carter G. Woodson began the observance to instill a sense of pride, heritage, and honor in African-Americans and to encourage other racial groups to learn more about the African-American culture. In 1976, the week-long event was expanded to the month of February to allow more time for observances. Woodson's choice of February honors two well-known civil rights leaders born during the month: Frederick Douglas (February 14) and Abraham Lincoln (February 12). Your contact is John Glover, NRCS Acting National Black Emphasis Program Manager, at 301-504-2181, or john.glover@il.usda.gov.

"To Err Is Human" - "To really mess things up requires a computer." This may fall under the category of an "all those who are not present, please raise your hand" type of message, but due to the list server computer crash in Colorado, we have lost many of our valued NRCS This Week subscribers. For those of you reading this message, please pass this bit of news on to your non-NRCS colleagues and associates who may have been subscribers, so that they can re-subscribe. They can do this by sending an e-mail to listproc@nrcs.usda.gov. Do not use a subject line and put the following in the body of the message: subscribe NRCS-THIS-WEEK Firstname Lastname (for example: subscribe NRCS-THIS-WEEK Carol Smith). Your contact is Tom Rudnick, NRCS Telecommunications Specialist, at 970-295-5427, or trudnick@itc.nrcs.usda.gov.

TECH TIPS

Missouri Pilots Soil Map Digitizing - The National Cooperative Soil Survey in Missouri is piloting procedures for digitizing soil mapping in soil survey offices. Field soil scientists digitize their mapping via Arcview GIS software using a stream-mode polygon digitizing extension and a screen pop-up attribute edit extension. Results to date are promising. Full quad sheets have been digitized and successfully converted to ArcInfo format with few or no errors, and excellent quality linework. Techniques are similar, but not identical, to those used in Vermont and elsewhere. Development of digitizing protocol continues - the authors would like to correspond with others involved in soil survey office digitizing of field mapping. Your contact is at kevin.godsey@mo.usda.gov or fred.young@mo.usda.gov

CONFERENCE & TRAINING CONNECTION

February 9, 2001

As a service to NRCS personnel and the agency's partners, "NRCS This Week" offers the following by-subject list of conferences and training sessions. To add an event, please send an e-mail message to fred.jacobs@usda.gov

AFO/CAFO

Agricultural Economics

Agricultural Engineering

Agricultural Outlook/Policy

Agroforestry/Forestry

Air Quality

Coastal Zone Management

Forestry
Geographic Information Systems

Global Climate Change
Grazing Land & Grassland

Invasive Plant Species

Irrigation Management

Locally Led Conservation

Nutrient Management
Partnerships

Range Management

Riparian and Floodplain Restoration

Rural History

Soil Science/Erosion Control

Water Quality

NEW! Watersheds

Wetlands

AFO/CAFO

Dairy Manure Systems: Equipment and Technology Selection

March 20-22

Rochester, New York

an educational

Dairy Manure Systems: Equipment and Technology Selection is a conference intended for farm managers and their advisors, soil and water conservation district staff, nutrient management consultants, cooperative extension educators, equipment distributors, university specialists, farm system designers and builders, and environmental professionals. It will examine technology and equipment selection for manure handling, treatment, land application, and odor control.. The conference will focus on a systems approach to planning. For more infomration call 607-255-7654 or visit the conference website at http://www.nraes.org/conferences/manure.html.

Agricultural Economics

American Agricultural Economics Associtaion Annual (AAEA) Meeting

August 5-8

Chicago, Illinois

AAEA seeks submission for posters, papers, organized symposia and free sessions for the 2001 annual meeting in Chicago. For more information, contact Nancy Herselius at 515-233-3202, or nancy@aaea.org or visit the meeting website at http://www.aaea.org/meetings/.