Strawberry guava plant.

This month a Brazilian beetle, tested for years by the U.S. Forest Service, is being released in Hawaii to hopefully devourer a non-native fruit known as strawberry guava. Though it sounds delicious, this colorful plant is invading and threatening Hawaii’s native forests and watersheds and has already overtaken hundreds of thousands of acres on the archipelago in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Read more »

USDA Rural Development Maine State Director Virginia Manuel made a major announcement to Region II School of Applied Technology, in Houlton, on Friday. The School received the news that it will benefit from three USDA Rural Development Distance Learning and Telemedicine Grants.

The grant funds will provide access for adult learners in rural Maine to improve their employability and obtain marketable technical skills. This project has three wings, with each wing of this network introducing a new configuration of rural end-users and content providers who will add value to the education network: Read more »

This post is part of the Science Tuesday feature series on the USDA blog. Check back each week as we showcase stories and news from USDA’s rich science and research portfolio.

In partnership with the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the Cradle of Forestry Interpretive Association, the Forest Service is pleased to announce the second Natural Inquirer World’s Forest edition. Read more »

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) constantly battles false and misleading information about its rules and regulations.  No better example exists than the myth that EPA proposed to “regulate” dust on farm fields.  Simply not true! EPA is not now, nor has it ever proposed regulating dust.

The House of Representatives sought to perpetuate this myth when it passed legislation to stop the EPA from tightening national standards for coarse particles—or dust.  The Obama Administration has repeatedly explained it has no intention of doing any such thing, raising the legitimate question of why the House spent time debating a non-issue. Read more »