Alabama Earth Teamers Excel, Come Out Winners - Earth Team members who work in NRCS' Guntersville Field Office recently took home the 1998 Chief's Earth Team Field Award for the Southeast Region. Making them winners was their outstanding work in forming partnerships with other conservation groups, and their giving of more than 11,000 hours of work time.

NRCS Has New Tool for Assessing Streams - The National Water and Climate Center (NWCC) announces that landowners and NRCS personnel now have available an important new tool for evaluating water quality and stream habitat. Entitled "Stream Visual Assessment Protocol," the 36-page guide shows its users, even those who have little training and experience, how to evaluate streams and identify water quality and habitat resource problems. The assessment procedure features educational materials that are designed to enhance the resource knowledge of landowners. Copies were sent to State Offices for distribution to Service Centers. The document is available on the World Wide Web at http://www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov The NWCC has also developed a 1- to 2-day training course for field conservationists entitled "Introduction to Stream Ecological Assessment." Course materials have been provided to each State.

Saturday in the Park...and in the Pequea-Mill Creek Watershed - NRCS Pennsylvania reports that to some folks in York and Lanacaster counties, conservation work is definitely not a Monday-through-Friday thing. In York County, residents of Hallam Borough recently spent a Saturday working with NRCS and conservation district employees to plant trees and stabilize streambanks in a community park. Participating were college students, Boy Scout troops, and Lions Club members. In Lancaster County, NRCS and conservation district employees, along with State and local partners spent a Saturday morning planting trees along a tributary in the Pequea-Mill Creek Watershed. The event's 28 participants had toured the watershed last fall and agreed to support conservation efforts there.

Water Quality Course Gives Best of Both Worlds, Attracts "International Audience" - A new NRCS training course, "Introduction to Water Quality," proves that you can have high quality and low cost at the same time. Produced by the agency's' National Employee Development Center (NEDC), the course takes a self-study approach rather than a classroom approach -- a method that NEDC estimates will save as much as $750,000 in training the course's nearly 580 current participants. The course saves time, too. Training that otherwise would take 5 years to deliver will take only 6 months. Most students come from NRCS and the districts; however, there is one interesting exception -- a Ph.D. candidate in Romania who signed up for the course on the Internet. For more information, visit NEDC's home page at www.ftw.nrcs.usda.gov/nedc/homepage.html or call Dave Drennan, NEDC, at 817-509-3246.

Student Apprenticeship Initiative Proves Popular in Kansas - NRCS' Earth Team recently kicked off the Kansas Natural Resources Apprentice Initiative (KNRAI), which offers students opportunities to learn about the importance of conservation and conservation ethics. The initiative made a successful trial run last summer when students worked on the Kansas NRCS homepage, did desktop publishing, gathered and recorded field data, and worked at a fish hatchery. Many of the students enjoyed their apprenticeships so much that they rescheduled their paying jobs to spend more time with NRCS. KNRAI is the brainchild of NRCS State Conservationist Tomas Dominguez.

WORDS FROM WASHINGTON

NHQ Thanks Field Staffs, Districts for Making Convention Exhibit A Success - The Conservation Communications and Soils Staffs at National Headquarters (NHQ) offer a hearty "thank you" to everyone who worked on the agency's exhibit at the National Science Teachers Convention held last week in Boston. Pulling together for this outstanding effort were people from NRCS' Massachusetts and New Hampshire offices, National Soil Survey Center, NHQ, and local conservation districts. More than 22,000 of the Nation's leading science teachers saw the importance of natural resources conservation and learned about the important work that NRCS and the districts do.

National Town Meeting on Sustainability Set - The President's Council on Sustainable Development and the Global Environment and Technology Foundation are sponsoring the National Town Meeting for a Sustainable America, May 2-5, 1999, in Detroit, Michigan. The event is expected to spark a national movement toward sustainable development and will showcase best practices that promote sustainability. More than 3,000 people are expected to attend the event in Detroit with thousands more participating in local events to be held throughout the Nation. For more information about the event, please call (888) 333-6878, or visit the National Town Meeting's web site at www.sustainableamerica.org

Mission-Critical Systems Okay for Y2K - NRCS' mission-critical systems, including SNOTEL, have passed tests for Y2K compliance. The tests were conducted by independent contractors, and will soon be tested by the Office of the Inspector General.

SPECIAL EVENTS

National Volunteer Week

April 18-24

Don't forget to thank all of your Earth Team members for the exceptional work they do!

Ag-Earth Day

National Mall, Washington, D.C.

April 22-23

Visit the Ag-Earth website at: http://www.nasda-hq.org/nasda/earth/events1/index.html

 

"Restoring Louisiana's Wetland Heritage" Celebration

Monroe, Louisiana

May 1

Contact: NRCS State Public Affairs Specialist Herb Bourque at 318-473-7762; or e-mail:

hbourque@laso2.la.nrcs.usda.gov

 

"Asian Pacific American Heritage Month" Celebration

USDA, Jamie Whitten Building

Washington, D.C.

May 6, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

"QUOTE OF THE WEEK"

Farmers have only temporary control over their land. It can be theirs for a lifetime and no longer. The public's interest, however, goes on and on, endlessly, if Nations are to endure.

-- Hugh Hammond Bennett, from The Hugh Bennett Lectures, 1959

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