Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman honored USDA employees from across the Nation for exemplary service and achievements in the 53rd annual USDA Awards Ceremony. NRCS award winners are:

Equal Opportunity -- Individual Winner: P. Dwight Holman, NHQ, Washington, D.C. Individual Winner: Ricky R. Tafoya, St. Michaels, Arizona.

Environmental Protection -- Group Winner: Aqua Fair Team, Jackson, Mississippi. Group Leader: Jeannine B. May. Group Members: Chuck Jepsen, Denise Branch, Deborah Laird, Nancy Magee, Kathy Respess, Lynn Porter. NRCS Earth Team Volunteer Group Member: Laura Beiser.

Environmental Protection -- Backyard Conservation Campaign -- Group Leader: David C. White. Group Members: Lynn Betts, Mary M. Cressel, June M. Davidek, Michele R. Eginoire, Arnold King, Wendi S. Kroll, Christopher E. Lozos, Ron Nichols. National Association of Conservation Districts Group Member: Ronald G. Francis. Wildlife Habitat Council Group Members: Robert J. Johnson, Jana Goldman, Nancy McAllister.

Environmental Protection -- Outstanding contribution to water quality and natural resource protection -- Individual Winner: Joseph R. DelVecchio, Syracuse, New York.

Environmental Protection -- Outstanding scientific research -- Individual Winner: George P. Demas, Snow Hill, Maryland.

Personal and Professional Excellence -- Individual Winner: Phil Hogan, Woodland, California. Individual Winner: Michael L. Petersen, Greeley, Colorado.

Unsung Hero Awards -- David Dickens, Forest Grove, Oregon. Barry Hamilton and Victor Blackburn, Columbia, Missouri.

Hammer Awards -- Team Oregon Conservation Partnership, Portland, Oregon. Shared Neutrals Program, NRCS, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Elkhorn Slough Watershed Protection Team, NRCS, Salinas, California. East Regon Field Office Computing System, NRCS, Beltsville, Maryland. Pennsylvania Emergency Watershed Protection Team, NRCS, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Integrated Taxonomic Information System Partnership, NRCS, Washington, D.C. Bonneville Field Office Team, NRCS, Provo, Utah.

Public Service -- Individual Winner: Troy S. Mumphrey, Tyler, Texas.

Reinventing Government -- Group Winner: Field Office Workload Reduction Team, Washington, D.C. Group Leader: Carole Jett. Group Members: J. Kevin Brown, Lowell Noeske, Vicki S. Anderson, Robin E. Heard, Fred Johnson, Charles T. Huff, Renee Melvin, Brett J. Prevedel, Ronni Vens.

Reinventing Government -- Group: South Carolina Human Resources Group. Group Leader: Delores J. Stevenson. NRCS Representatives: Frank P. Wilcox, Adline M. Crum, Dorothea E. Martinez, Robin F. Jordan.

Public Service -- Techline Team, Forest Service, Madison, Wisconsin. NRCS Representative: Edward Weber.

1998 Labor-Management Partnership Award -- The Union Coordination Council.

NRCS Chief Pearlie Reed honored the above employees and presented two additional awards at the June 9 awards ceremony.

NRCS National Civil Rights Award -- Group Winner: Wyoming Civil Rights Team, Casper, Wyoming. Group Leader: Phil Gonzalez. Individual Winner: Cresencio Perez, San Antonio, Texas.

NRCS Chief's Workforce Diversity Award -- Manager: Kalven Trice, Little Rock, Arkansas. Congratulations to all NRCS award recipients!

FOCUS ON THE FIELD

A Special Day of Learning for Special Kids - NRCS Connecticut Project Coordinator Carol Donzella and Earth Team Volunteer Betty Durso showed the growing relationship between soil and seeds at the 10th annual Learning for Life outing held at Shady Beach in Norwalk. More than 500 special-needs students from 28 elementary and middle schools attended the day-long event. A NRCS soil exhibit was set-up and sunflower kits were handed out. Public Affairs Specialist Carolyn Miller developed the kits after viewing the televised Earth Day event held on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Each kit contained soil, seeds, a cup, and directions. Learning for Life is a subsidiary of the Boy Scouts of America. For more information, please contact Carol on Carol.Donzella@CT.usda.gov

Plantings Workshop Cultivates Cultural Understanding - NRCS California and its partners recently sponsored a workshop to teach lessons in Native American plant-tending techniques. The event, called "Tending the Wilderness: Restoring the Land and Restoring Relationships to the Earth," showed the connections between Native Americans and native plants. Interest in the event's topic was so great that a website is being developed and a second session is being planned. The workshop was held at Camp Ocean Pines, a Boy Scout camp in Cambria. For more information, please contact Margy Lindquist, district conservationist in the Templeton Service Center. Margy's e-mail address is margy.lindquist@ca.usda.gov

RC&D, Partners Take More than 1,000 on Forest Walk - Imperial Calcasieu Resource Conservation and Development (RC&D) Council, Inc., and its partners recently took more than 1,000 students and adults on an day-long educational forest walk in celebration of Forestry Awareness Week. The event featured a series of hands-on lectures and demonstrations developed and facilitated by NRCS, the Louisiana Department of Agriculture and Forestry, Louisiana Cooperative Extension Service, members of the forestry industry, and others. Exhibits included forest ecology and conservation and wise use of forest products. Donated were more than 1,200 volunteer hours, 10 buses and drivers, and 1,500 trees, which were given to the students. Grants were received from International Paper Company and Arizona Chemical Division. For more information, please send an e-mail message to the RC&D at impcal@cfweb.net

NRCS' Relations with Local Governments Impresses South African Visitors - NRCS Mississippi reports that, on a recent visit, representatives of the Government of South Africa were greatly impressed with the excellent relationships that the agency has with local governments. The delegates visited with several mayors to learn more about agriculture, outreach, rural development, and working relationships among city and county governments and NRCS.

Summer Student Programs Emphasize Workforce Diversity - To expose minority college students to career opportunities with the agency and diversify its workforce, NRCS Minnesota has recruited 25 students from various backgrounds for summer employment. At NRCS offices throughout the State, the students are working in disciplines, such as soil science, engineering, biology, and soil conservation. Through similar efforts over the past several years, six former students, including three minority students, have been hired as permanent employees. The students were recruited through the Student Career Experience Program and the Student Temporary Employment Program.

WHAT'S UP IN WASHINGTON, D.C.

FY 2000 Ag Appropriations Bill Passes House - On Tuesday, the House passed H.R. 1906, legislation making Fiscal Year 2000 appropriations for agriculture programs and agencies, by a vote of 246-183. A long string of amendments by Rep. Tom Coburn (R-OK) ended after House Appropriations chair, C.W."Bill" Young (R-FL) passed an amendment which reduced agriculture department funding by $102.5 million. Most of these reductions came from USDA buildings and facilities funds and funding for the Food and Drug Administration. Funding levels for the Natural Resources Conservation Service were unchanged from the mark-up levels set at the Subcommittee level.

Wetlands Reserve Reauthorization Legislation - On Tuesday, Representative Charles "Chip" Pickering of Mississippi introduced H.R. 2066, legislation that would amend the Food Security Act of 1985 to extend the authorization of the Wetlands Reserve Program (WRP) until the year 2005. Specifically, the bill would authorize annual enrollment of 250,000 acres in the program. The legislation would also provide greater flexibility for utilizing third-party assistance in program implementation through cooperative agreements. The bill has been referred to the House Agriculture Committee.

First Agency Chief Featured in Oxford Bio - The life of Hugh Hammond Bennett was recently published by Oxford University Press in the latest edition of its 24-volume American National Biography. The entry was written by agency historian Douglas Helms. The collection has been awarded the Dartmouth Medal for the best new reference work produced in the United States.

Tech Tip from the NRCS Science and Technology Division

Opportunity Costs--A Basic Principle of Economics - The idea of opportunity costs can be understood by asking yourself what it costs NRCS for you to read "NRCS This Week." There are two kinds of opportunity costs--explicit and implicit. Explicit opportunity costs are out-of-pocket costs. An example is the salary you earn while you read this document. An implicit opportunity cost is the work that is foregone by your reading this document. Together, these constitute the opportunity costs of your reading the document.

Farmers encounter opportunity costs in practicing conservation. These include out-of-pocket costs for items, such as terraces, and production opportunities foregone by not being able to raise crops on the terraces. Economists can rationalize cost sharing on many conservation practices because social benefits in the form of reduced erosion and improved water quality result from the farmers incurring opportunity costs in practicing conservation.

SPECIAL EVENTS

Second National Mitigation Banking Conference

Grand Hyatt Atlanta

Atlanta, Georgia

June 13-15, 1999

 

Joint HEPM/FWPM Annual Training

Las Vegas, Nevada

June 14, 1999

 

7th Annual National Organization of Professional Hispanic NRCS Employees

Training Conference

Las Vegas, Nevada

June 15-17, 1999

 

Federally Employed Women, Inc., Annual Training Conferences

Phoenix, Arizona

July 19-23

NRCS State Conservationist Michael Somerville is the honorary chair.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK"

There is life in the ground: it goes into the seeds; and it also, when it is stirred up, goes into the one who stirs it.

-- Charles Dudley Warner, My Summer in a Garden (1871)

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