"The farmers represent and preserve the values of our nation: hard work, risk taking, love of the land. I always like to say people who own their own land understand the necessity to be good stewards – every day is Earth Day if you own your own land. The farmers represent love of family and love of our country. And farming is our first industry, the industry that feeds us, that clothes us and, increasingly, provides our energy."

–- - President George W. Bush, 43rd President of the United States from remarks to the Farmers Journal Corporation Convention, November 28, 2001.

Focus on the Field
California: Chilean Officials Tour California
Connecticut: Connecticut Hosts Deputy Secretary Mosely
Kansas: Wetland Alliance Seminars Huge Success
Missouri: Wetlands Project Nears Completion
South Carolina: New AFO Field Tools Developed

Word From Washington

Grassroots Community Planning Given a High-Tech Boost

National
Recycle Lore

Tech Tip
Fact Sheet Emphasizes Human Aspects of Conservation
Flood Control Program Released

Sites to See

American Customer Satisfaction Index

Actor Morgan Freeman Narrates Public Service Announcements for NRCS
NRCS Legislative Summaries
AGRICOLA: USDA's AGRICultural Online Access
National Association of Conservation Districts e-Notes

Web-agri, the Smart Farming Search Engine

American Customer Satisfaction Index

FOCUS ON THE FIELD

Chilean Officials Tour California - To learn more about how the NRCS Coordinated Resource Management Planning (CRMP) process can help reduce nutrient and pesticide run-off into rivers and lakes, government officials, university professors, and environmental scientists from Chile recently traveled through central California. In Napa, NRCS district conservationist Phillip Blake and Lockeford Plant Materials Center manager David Dyer explained how riparian buffers, managed wetlands, and stream setbacks not only provide wildlife habitat, but also keep nutrient and pesticide run-off out of streams on Lee Hudson’s vineyard in Carneros, California. Blake also led a tour of the Napa Resource Conservation District’s Sustainable Agriculture Demonstration Farm to give added perspectives on how wetland restoration, use of native grass cover crops, and riparian restoration projects keep nutrient and pesticide run-off out of Huichica Creek and other central California rivers, streams, and lakes. The day concluded with a look at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Living River Project that uses restored floodplains, marshplains, and wetlands to manage flood events. NRCS conservationist Mike McElhiney described how NRCS programs are addressing local resource concerns and improving water quality by installing riparian buffers. Mike explained how the Jamestown sewage treatment plant uses poplar trees to absorb treated water and nutrients. Your contact is Jolene Lau, NRCS Public Affairs Specialist, at 831-754-1595.

Connecticut Hosts Deputy Secretary Moseley - The NRCS State office turned out in force for Deputy Secretary Moseley's appearance at the annual Agricultural Forum held at the University of Connecticut Litchfield campus. Winding up a tour of the State, where he visited a number of farms and sampled locally grown produce, Deputy Secretary Moseley spoke at the forum, where he delighted the audience with anecdotes of his experiences on his Indiana farm, his college days, and his work at USDA. On a more serious note, he reflected on the September 11 terrorist attacks and, in keeping with the forum theme of the 2002 Farm Bill and Connecticut Grown Solutions, talked about the national farm policy legislation and its role in the future of American agriculture.
For more information contact Kip Kolesinskas, NRCS soil scientist, at 860-871-4047.

Wetland Alliance Seminars Huge Success - Seminars organized by NRCS and its conservation partners from the southwestern Kansas alliance for wetland and riparian projects and opportunities in the Upper Arkansas River Basin, were held recently in Spearville and Garden City. Numerous government agencies, wetlands groups, businesses, and individuals with an interest in wetland and riparian areas attended the meetings. The seminars featured presentations that addressed the function and value of wetlands and riparian areas, as well as planning and design considerations for these areas. Afternoon tours visited completed wetland and riparian area projects, as well as potential sites for future projects. Discussion during the tours often focused on interest in forming new local wetland alliances -- a positive indicator that the seminars generated real enthusiasm and interest in protecting and restoring the area's wetlands.
Your contact is Amanda Shaw, NRCS district conservationist, at 620-275-0211.

Wetlands Project Nears Completion - When the Missouri Department of Transportation announced plans to remove soil for a highway project, NRCS wetland team leader Mark Abney saw an opportunity to create a new wetland interpretive area. Now, nearly 2 years after the initial groundbreaking for the interpretive area, the earthwork phase of this project is nearing completion. The contractor who's removing dirt for use in nearby highway improvement is scheduled to finish within the next few weeks and will be ready to pour concrete for the spillway connecting Coon Creek to the 44-acre oxbow lake being created at the site. According to Mark, this cooperative wetland project is the result of mitigation provided by the Missouri Department of Transportation in exchange for the loss of soil removed for use on the Highway 36 improvement. "Since they were removing dirt anyway, they agreed to allow the NRCS and Missouri Department of Conservation wetland team to direct where the dirt should be removed to create a natural-looking oxbow lake similar to those once found throughout the Grand River bottom area," Mark said. The entire wetland area being constructed will encompass about 250 acres, 44 acres of which will consist of the new oxbow lake.
Your contact is Norm Klopfenstein, NRCS public affairs specialist, at 573-876-0911.

New AFO Field Tools Developed - University of South Carolina’s Earth Sciences and Resources Institute (ESRI-USC) recently released AFOWizard, a new tool developed as part of an ongoing project for developing geographic information system (GIS)-based natural resource conservation applications. The application works seamlessly within the NRCS Customer Service Toolkit. The AFOWizard calculates land application and setback areas based on State regulatory requirements using field acreage. The tracts and fields are digitized along with all setbacks (or buffers) using Toolkit. Once all setbacks are completed, the AFOWizard makes land application calculations and transfers this into a Microsoft Excel® spreadsheet sorted by tract, field, acres, setback acres, and application acres. The AFOWizard determines the amount of land available for land application based on the type of animal and quantity of waste produced. The application is flexible, as it uses both local crop rotations and nitrogen or phosphorus limitations, and will work anywhere in the U.S. using each State’s buffer or setback requirements. This technology recently received Common Computing Environment (CCE) approval from Fort Collins. It will be available on the CCE homepage for downloading in the near future. ESRI-USC has also developed a CRPWizard that calculates the CRP Environmental Benefits Index based on spatial data.
Your contact is Wylie Owens, NRCS resource conservationist, at 803-253-3229.

Grassroots Community Planning Given a Hi-Tech Boost - The NRCS Farmland Protection and Community Planning Staff works to advance the technical assistance available to communities through a community planning initiative designed to provide natural resource and socioeconomic data and assessments to communities engaged in comprehensive community planning. In the fall of 2000, NRCS began two community planning pilots, one in Wisconsin and one in Ohio. Using the agency's soils data as the foundation, and other data as available, three suitability models were identified and built as part of a methodology for assessing natural and socioeconomic resources in a community. Much like the Customer Tool Kit, these assessments are done in an ArcGIS environment, but at a scale smaller (larger in area, smaller in resolution) than that of the farm field. This information, displayed in several map layers, will help communities make more enduring land use decisions by basing planning decisions on existing inherent natural resource attributes and existing cultural and community attitudes. Communities can then target Federal, State, and local financial and technical resources to achieve the plan’s objectives to strengthen the local economy, conserve natural resources, and protect farmland and open space. A handbook defining the concept and methodology for resource assessment in community planning is also being written as part of the National Planning Procedures Handbook. And an implementation strategy is being developed to identify appropriate tools, training, and personnel to integrate this assistance into the agency’s current operating systems.
Your contact is Bob Snieckus, NRCS National Landscape Architect, at 202-720-9155 or Ginger Murphy, NRCS Community Planning Staff, at 202-690-5979.

Recycle Lore - Did you know that Americans throw away enough office paper annually to build a wall 12-feet high stretching from Los Angeles to New York City? And that every Sunday, we fail to re-cycle nearly 90 percent of our Sunday papers that take about 500,000 trees to produce? If everyone in the United States recycled just one-tenth of their newspapers, the U.S. could save an estimated equivalent of about 25 million trees a year. Considering that if one tree can filter up to 60 pounds of pollutants from the air each year, those 25 million trees could remove over a billion pounds of pollutants over the same period, helping to improve air quality. Did you know that we Americans throw away enough aluminum every 3 months to rebuild our entire commercial air fleet? And that 20 aluminum cans can be produced from recycled aluminum with the same amount of energy it takes to make one new can? Glass and plastic are also high on the list of materials we need to recycle more effectively. Considering that every American generates an estimated 4.4 pounds of trash a day, as conservation experts, we in NRCS should be aware of our recycling responsibility. For more information on how you can improve local recycling efforts, go to http://americarecyclesday.org

Fact Sheet Emphasizes Human Aspects of Conservation - The Social Sciences Institute's People, Partnerships, and Communities series includes a new fact sheet titled, "Planning Human Aspects of the Conservation Planning Environment." It defines factors in the four main segments of the conservation planning environment: natural resources, social issues, economic issues, and policy and legal issues. It graphically portrays how the four segments intersect in the conservation planning process to make up the conservation planning environment. The conservation planning environment concept is appropriate for conservation planners of individual to area-wide conservation plans. This concept is an integral part of the conservation planning training course offered by the NRCS National Employee Development Center. Your contact is Michael Johnson NRCS cultural anthropologist, at 520-626-4685 or mdjnrcs@ag.arizona.edu

TO TOPq

Flood Control Program Released - NRCS, the Agricultural Research Service, and Kansas State University have developed an updated NRCS flood routing program (SITES 2000) for large and small dams. The updated program is now additionally capable of developing hydraulic ratings for pipe drop, hood inlet, and earthen spillways. The program includes new technology for evaluating the erosion and breaching potential of earthen spillways and an interface to assist the user with inputting the data required for a valid model routing. Help screens are available for each data entry field in the interface, as well as a data integrity checker and enhancements to the input and output interfaces. Graphic displays are available to help evaluate erosion in earthen spillways as well as other program outputs. Over 42 output items may be displayed in text and graphical form, at the option of the user. A new manual is also available in a .pdf format. SITES 2000 may be downloaded at http://www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/water/quality/hydrol/

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.

< NRCS This Week Archives