NRCS Salutes Earth Team Volunteers - April 13-19 is National Volunteer Week. To date, 103,527 Earth Team Volunteers have donated more than 4 million hours of service to assisting NRCS carry out its mission to help people conserve, improve and sustain our natural resources and environment. NRCS thanks its Earth Team Volunteers for giving so generously of their time and talent.

Developing Environmental Health Indicators - NRCS Institute leaders, scientists, and specialists from national headquarters met on April 7-9, in Charlotte, NC, to work on developing indicators for assessing and monitoring the health of natural resources and systems. The session focused on the need for an integrated approach built on a common framework that ties together indicators for different resources at different geographic scales. NRCS needs indicators that range from tools that field staff can use to work with landowners at a field or farm scale to evaluate a single resource to sets of indicators that are remotely sensed and statistically sampled for national level assessments of watersheds and ecosystems. A preliminary discussion draft is being circulated to help define the common framework for indicator development.

New Backyard Conservation Program in Planning Stage - Representatives from NRCS, the Wildlife Habitat Council, and the National Association of Conservation Districts met April 14-15 to plan the new Backyard Conservation Program. The goal of the program is to show non-farm audiences how conservation activities in the agricultural community improve the environment on millions of acres. The program will provide how-to information on adapting conservation practices used by farmers to urban, suburban, and rural backyards. The program will expand to include traditional conservation and agricultural partners as well as others in the business community.

Welfare to Work Program - USDA and NRCS are committed to hiring and retaining welfare recipients, including food stamp participants, into the workforce under the Federal Worker Trainee Program. Individuals recruited through this program will have the opportunity to learn marketable skills, develop good work habits, and receive formal and on-the-job training. The Department will hire approximately 100 welfare recipients this fiscal year and 275 over the next three fiscal years. Of the Department's 375 total, the NRCS has committed to hiring 7 welfare recipients this fiscal year and 30 over the next three fiscal years. The employment opportunities NRCS will provide under this federal Worker Trainee Program include soil conservation aides to be hired at GS-1 or WG-1/2 grade levels. NRCS will also encourage contractors and cooperators to work with local welfare or social services offices to give priority consideration to welfare recipients.

Chief Johnson Meets with Outside Groups - This week Chief Paul Johnson participated in the Soil and Water Conservation Society Conference: "Interactions: Investigating Ecosystem Dynamics at a Watershed Level" in Athens, GA; the National Agri-Marketing Association spring conference in Nashville, TN; and a symposium on "Preventing Extinction: Advances in Biodiversity Conservation" at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.

Work Continues on Designing American Heritage Rivers Program - A multi-agency team led by the Council on Environmental Quality is developing procedures for carrying out the American Heritage Rivers program announced by President Clinton in his State of the Union Address on February 4. The President will select 10 outstanding stretches of river as American Heritage Rivers in the first year to help communities alongside the rivers revitalize their waterfronts and clean up pollution. Regional stakeholder meetings are being held April 21-25. The nomination process is scheduled to begin in June. The program will not only provide specially focused assistance to rivers designated "American Heritage Rivers," but also provide enhanced service to all interested river communities.

FAS Requests Publications on Agriculture and Natural Resources - Through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in Albania, USDA's Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) is requesting donations of surplus or duplicate publications, books or journals written in English on agriculture and natural resources management. USAID/ Albania's Agriculture Office will distribute these to libraries of the (1) Albanian Ministry of Agriculture and Food and (2) the Agricultural University of Tirana. USDA and the U.S. government welcomes your support of this effort. Donated publications can be sent to a U.S. address for shipment via secured international delivery by the U.S. government mailing system. For shipping instructions through USAID/Albania, contact Mark Smith, USDA/FAS/ICD, Development Resources Division; phone: (202) 690-0910; fax: (202) 690-4846; E-mail: smithmark@fas.usda.gov.

IN THE FIELD

Emergency Watershed Protection - States continue to monitor developing floods in the West and Midwest as some of the largest late season snows melt. Secretary Glickman issued a memorandum on April 11 extending his sympathies to all USDA employees, farmers, and their families affected by this natural disaster.

NRCS in Louisiana is taking emergency preparedness steps, including alternate locations and physical protection measures, in response to very high projections of Mississippi River flows.

NRCS and NRDs Participate in Children's Groundwater Festival - Many of the 3,000 middle-schoolers attending the Children's Groundwater Festival in Grand Island, NE, last week visited the eight sessions put on by NRCS and Natural Resources Districts. "We've supported the Groundwater Festival since it began nine years ago," says Ann Youngberg, Information & Education Coordinator for the Lower Platte North NRD, who put on a session called, "Gooey Garbage in the Groundwater." Youngberg talked about what students typically throw away and how some of it can be recycled. The students then built a model landfill in milk jugs. Other activities included making aquifers with ice cream and soda. The annual Children's Groundwater Festival is organized by The Groundwater Foundation in Lincoln, NE. Visit www.groundwater.org on the World Wide Web for more information.

Drinking Water Week - Drinking Water Week is May 4-10. This year's theme is "Drinking Water Counts on You." State public affairs specialists should soon be receiving a supply of "Blue Thumb" materials for use during Drinking Water Week and throughout the year. For more information call Nancy Garlitz at 202-720-9160.

CONSTITUENCY AND PARTNERSHIP NEWS

Call for Abstracts for National Urban and Community Conservation Conference - The National Urban and Commmunity Conservation Conference will be held November 2-5, 1997, at the Adam's Mark Hotel in Columbus,OH. The conference focuses public attention on the social, economic and environmental issues inherent with urbanization. The conference is sponsored by the National Association of Conservation Districts with co-sponsorship from NRCS, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Forest Service, Fish and Wildlife Service, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and several other private and public entities. A call for papers (CFP) has been issued. Abstracts are due on May 15, 1997. The CFP can be accessed through the NACD home page at http://www.nacdnet.org/meetings/urbconf.htm. Contact Karl F. Otte at (703) 440-8611 or "washington@nacdnet.org.

Call for Abstracts for "Watershed '98" Conference - "Watershed Management: Moving from Theory to Implementation" will address watershed planning, protection, restoration, and education May 3-6, 1998, in Denver, CO. Specific subjects include watershed approaches, Federal and tribal land management, agricultural initiatives, mining, coastal issues, water reuse, and industrial and commercial development. Submit abstracts by June 16, 1997. Call the Water Environment Federation at (800) 666-0206 for more information, or e-mail confinfo@wef.org.

UPCOMING EVENTS

April - Keep America Beautiful Month

April 22 - Earth Day

April 25 - National Arbor Day

May 1 - Satellite broadcast on Riparian Restoration and Management; airs from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Eastern Time. Contact: Doug Blankenship, Bureau of Land Management, 202-452-5079, or Bill Boyer, NRCS, 202-720-0307.

May 4-10 - Drinking Water Week

May 7-9 - An American Wetlands Month Celebration -- "Communities Working for Wetlands," Radisson Plaza Hotel, Alexandria, VA. Call: 800/726-4853 or FAX: 703-548-6299 or e-mail: terrene@gnn.com.

May 8-10 - Public Service Recognition Week, National Mall Event, Washington, D.C.

May 10-17 - National River Cleanup Week. Call 423-558-3595 or 202-547-9240 for information on organizing a cleanup, or visit http://www.americaoutdoors.org on the World Wide Web.

May 18-21 - Fifth National Watershed Conference, "Living in Your Watershed." Sponsored by the National Watershed Coalition, Reno, NV. Contact: Jim Fisher, 303-988-1810.

May 18-20 - The Wildlife Habitat Council (in cooperation with the Wildlife Society and sponsored by NRCS and other Federal, State, and private organizations) 1997 Wildlands Conference, "Exceeding Expectations," Swissotel, Atlanta, GA. Call: 201-588-8994.

May 30-June 1 - The Ducks Unlimited GREAT OUTDOORS FESTIVAL 1997. Agricenter International, Memphis, TN. For more information call Ducks Unlimited at 901-758-3825 or visit their World Wide Web site at: <http://www.ducks.org/frames_hotnews.html>

June 3-5 - International Symposium commemorating the 50th Anniversary of USDA's Wind Erosion Research at Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS. Contact: The Wind Erosion Research Unit (WERU) by phone: 913-532-6495; FAX: 913-532-6526; e-mail: sym@weru.ksu.edu; or on the World Wide Web: http://www.weru.ksu.edu.

June 15-18 - National Association of RC&D Councils Conference, St. Paul, MN. Contact: Becky Lane, 202-546-8800 or write to: National Association of RC&D Councils, 509 Capital Court, NE, Suite 100, Washington, D.C. 20002.

June 24-26 - National Agricultural Resource Management Planning Conference, Omni Royal Orleans, New Orleans, LA. Call Lyn Kirschner at 765-494-1827 or send e-mail to: kirschner@ctic.purdue.edu.

July 17-19, 1997 - Land Improvement Contractors of America Summer Meeting, Providence, RI. Contact Wayne F. Maresch at 301-248-9313 or e-mail to: Wayne F86@aol.com.

July 22-25 - The 52nd Soil and Water Conservation Society Annual Conference; Interactions, Managing Ecosystems on a Watershed Basis; Toronto, Canada. Contact: Jennifer Pemble, 800-843-7645. Conference information can also be found at: http://www.swcs.org/AnnCon.htm.

QUOTE

"From a national perspective, then, our land will be healthy not because of broad public policies and programs but because each landowner will make his or her own individual place healthy."

--America's Private Land: A Geography of Hope

NRCS This Week is issued weekly by the Conservation Communications Staff, NRCS headquarters, Washington, D.C., and posted on the NRCS Home Page at http://www.nrcs.usda.gov. Please send correspondence and material via e-mail to: nancy.garlitz@usda.gov or mail to Editor, "NRCS This Week," NRCS, P.O. Box 2890, Washington, DC 20013 or FAX to Editor, "NRCS This Week," 202-690-1221.

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