USDA Unites wtih Partners to Improve Water Quality in Lake Champlain

From the USDA:

Posted by Jason Weller, Natural Resources Conservation Service, Chief, on January 22, 2015 at 1:00 PM

The Vergennes-Panton Water District along Lake Champlain in Vermont was able to upgrade the city's water treatment plant with support from USDA. The Department is working through several agencies to help improve water quality in the lake. USDA Photo by Bob Nichols.

In recent years, blue-green algae blooms have frequented Lake Champlain, impairing the lake’s water quality. Through a new partnership with USDA, nearly 20 organizations in the area will work together with farmers and ranchers to help improve water quality of the lake and reduce algae blooms.

The Vermont Agency of Agriculture Food & Markets and the Vermont Agency of Natural Resources are uniting partners to engage and support farmers and forest landowners who use voluntary conservation practices that lead to cleaner water. Called the “Accelerated Implementation of Agricultural and Forestry Conservation Practices in the Lake Champlain Watershed of Vermont and New York,” this project will provide outreach to farmers throughout the watershed and help connect them with innovative conservation solutions for their land.

Last week, I visited this natural treasure and met with the local partners who are making this effort possible. Lake Champlain provides habitat for more than 300 bird species and 80 fish species, holds 6.8 trillion gallons of water, and provides drinking water for more than 200,000 people. The lake provides critical habitat as well as serves as an economic driver from recreation.

But a high level of nutrients, like phosphorous, has jeopardized the lake’s health. Agriculture is one contributor of phosphorous, and this project will enable farmers and forest landowners to take proactive steps to reduce or prevent runoff of phosphorous.

Lake Champlain is the sixth largest body of fresh water in the United States, topped in size only by the five Great Lakes. It contains 6.8 trillion gallons of water and is a drinking water source for nearly 200,000 people. Water quality is the lake is negatively impacted by phosphorus pollution.

Studies show that most of the phosphorous entering the lake comes from a relatively small footprint of land. Together, these local partners working with USDA, will target resources to areas most in need, what we call critical source areas, such as steep lands and lands prone to flooding. This project will target outreach and implementation of conservation practices to those areas.

This project is one of more than 100 unveiled last week as part of the first cadre of projects funded by the Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP). Created by the 2014 Farm Bill, RCPP is a partner-driven, locally-led approach to conservation. It offers new opportunities for USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) to harness innovation, welcome new partners to the conservation mission, and demonstrate the value and efficacy of voluntary, private lands conservation to a national audience.

With RCPP, partners are in the driver’s seat with technical and financial help from NRCS.

RCPP empowers local organizations and communities to demonstrate the importance of locally-led action and benefit from strong public-private partnerships in delivering solutions to natural resource challenges.

RCPP also attracts additional resources and allows for the expansion of private lands conservation efforts.  In this round of projects, the agency is providing more than $370 million to 100-plus projects in all 50 states and leveraging at least $400 million in partner contributions.

In Vermont, NRCS plans to invest $16 million in the project, and the partners will match with $20.5 million in contributions, including funding and technical assistance.

The heart of RCPP is about empowering local organizations to design and deliver solutions that benefit natural resources where they live and work. This project in Vermont and New York brings together a variety of partners from the local and state levels, including soil and water conservation districts, agricultural associations, government agencies and non-profit organizations. We’re proud of the leadership these local organizations are providing to execute this program, and we look forward to the benefits to come.

Working together, we can ensure we have a cleaner, healthier Lake Champlain for future generations.

NRCS Chief Jason Weller (at podium) joined leaders and partners from Vermont and New York to announce a new project that will work to improve water quality in Lake Champlain. USDA Photo.

RCPP to Help Improve Water Quality in Lake Erie, Other American Waterbodies

From USDA:

Posted by Krysta Harden, Agriculture Deputy Secretary, on January 16, 2015 at 3:00 PM

The Maumee River (shown here) flows into the Maumee Bay of Lake Erie at the city of Toledo, OH. USDA photo.

In the first wave of funding through the Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP), 70 percent of the 100-plus projects focused on providing for clean and abundant water. Of these many projects, one in the Great Lakes region is poised to do an excellent job in engaging and empowering an army of partners.  The Tri-State Western Lake Erie Basin Phosphorous Reduction Initiative is a multi-state project that brings together more than 40 partnering organizations from Michigan, Ohio and Indiana to reduce the runoff of phosphorous into the waterways in the western basin of Lake Erie.

The lake has suffered from nutrient pollution for years, including last year’s water crisis that left 400,000 residents in the Toledo, Ohio area without water to drink, bathe or cook. Today, Michigan Senator and Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Debbie Stabenow and Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown visited with the many diverse organizations making this project possible. From providing clean drinking water to employing thousands of people in the tourism industry, the health of Lake Erie affects nearly every aspect of life in the region.

With RCPP, partners are in the driver’s seat with technical and financial help from NRCS.  State, local and regional partners join with agricultural producers to achieve specific, measurable natural resource results.

In this case, a large group of partners told us why more conservation work was needed in the western basin of Lake Erie – and how they could do it in an innovative way that leveraged additional funds and brought a wide variety of partners to the table. This project plans to target funding to watersheds most in need, meaning the streams and rivers that have a large impact on water quality in the lake.

This new investment in the western Lake Erie watershed builds on 10 years of work done by the Western Lake Erie Basin Partnership, a group of 14 federal, state, and local government agencies and non-profit organizations.  Many of these partners helped develop the RCPP proposal and will contribute both their cash and in-kind services to the project.

USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service administers RCPP, which directs funding to state-level and multi-state projects as well as projects in critical conservation areas. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack selected eight critical conservation areas, including the Great Lakes Region. It’s so important that we protect the water quality of Lake Erie and the other Great Lakes.

America’s Great Lakes — Erie, Superior, Michigan, Huron and Ontario — hold 21 percent of the world’s surface fresh water and host habitat for a variety of fish and wildlife species of concern. They provide drinking water for more than 40 million people and economic benefits from fishing and recreation. The Great Lakes Region is also a major agricultural area, with more than 55 million acres of land under production.

With RCPP and other Farm Bill programs, USDA is working to accelerate conservation work on private lands. We look forward to the contributions this project will make to the region as well as other efforts by farmers in the regions.

Secretary's Column: New Approach to Conservation Creates New Partnerships, New Jobs

From USDA:

Posted by Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, on January 14, 2015 at 3:40 PM

This graphic outlines the effectiveness of the RCPP program, leveraging Federal and partner support. Click to enlarge.

When USDA unveiled the new Regional Conservation Partnership Program last year, I said that this effort would pioneer a new era of conservation. As of today, the program is doing just that—leveraging an unprecedented three-quarters-of-a-billion dollar investment in projects to preserve clean land and water and create new jobs across the country.

One of the innovative programs in the 2014 Farm Bill, the Regional Conservation Partnership Program brings a wide variety of new partners together—from private businesses, to universities, to local and Tribal governments, to non-profit organizations and more—to develop their own action plans and to pledge their own resources to the project. Local organizations are in the driver’s seat, setting priorities and developing conservation projects that make sense for their communities.

The response to this new approach to conservation projects was overwhelming. Earlier this year, when local partnerships submitted their plans to USDA, they requested more than six times the amount of available funding in the first round. This incredible response is a call to action and it shows how much need there is for a program like RCPP.

From the first round of applications, we selected 115 of the most effective, most innovative projects from across the country to receive more than $370 million in the first round funding. Local partners will invest over $400 million more, for a total funding impact of nearly $800 million.

Leveraging our own resources by encouraging private investment in conservation means we can do more and have a greater impact than we ever could on our own. Since 2009, USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service has worked with 750,000 producers and landowners to implement conservation activities on 325 million acres. The Regional Conservation Partnership Program helps us to extend the impact of our resources even further. Over the next five years, USDA plans to invest a total of $1.2 billion through the program, leveraging an estimated $2.4 billion for conservation in total with the matching investment from partnering organizations.

Today’s announcement is just the beginning. Keeping the momentum going, we will soon take proposals for new projects. Another round of funding will be announced later this year, and USDA is working with new applicants to develop partnership plans that will enable even more worthy projects to be completed in the future. To learn more about the Regional Conservation Partnership Program and to see a list of this year’s projects, visit www.nrcs.usda.gov. For more information on today’s announcement, you can listen to a media call with Secretary Vilsack and NRCS Chief Jason Weller.

Location map for RCPP projects. Click to enlarge.

Vanished Rabbit Reappears on Central California's Dos Rios Ranch

From USDA:

Posted by Dave Sanden, Natural Resources Conservation Service, California, on December 2, 2014 at 10:00 AM

The riparian brush rabbit is state and federally endangered, with all known populations in the northern San Joaquin Valley facing significant threat of extinction. Declines of brush rabbits have largely been attributed to loss of habitat. Photo courtesy USFWS Pacific Southwest Region.

Some exciting news recently came from a large wetlands restoration project now underway in Central California. River Partners, a nonprofit conservation organization, documented the first occurrence of a state and federally endangered rabbit on its habitat preserve at Dos Rios Ranch, a key piece of riverfront habitat located at the confluence of the Tuolumne and San Joaquin rivers in Stanislaus County.

Thanks to a generous loan of wildlife cameras from a professor at the University of California, Davis, River Partners’ summer interns captured images of riparian brush rabbits at Dos Rios Ranch in July in remnant riparian habitat along the Tuolumne River. Riparian brush rabbits are a critically endangered subspecies of rabbit that was thought to be extinct following catastrophic flooding in 1997.

“This rabbit was photographed over a mile away and across the river from known populations,” said Julie Rentner of River Partners. “The nearby San Joaquin River National Wildlife Refuge hosts a thriving population of reintroduced riparian brush rabbits, but there has been no proof that the rabbits were at Dos Rios Ranch since 1997. The camera is still set up and is capturing additional images, so we’ll certainly turn up more if there are more rabbits out there.”

The multi-million dollar wetlands restoration efforts on Dos Rios Ranch began in 2012. The land was enrolled in the former Wetlands Reserve Program, or WRP, a conservation easement program offered by USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service, (NRCS). Easement programs offer landowners the means to restore, enhance and protect wetlands on their property through easements. The 2014 Farm Bill merged WRP with other easement programs to form a new one: the Agricultural Conservation Easements Program, (ACEP), which continues to further wetlands restoration.

The project’s main objectives include restoring the riparian corridor, providing a critical link between this easement and other USDA easements, establishing self-sustaining native plant communities, and providing riparian habitat for wildlife. The property had been used for agricultural production for over a century. This project transforms it back into its former glory as a wetland. NRCS is working with the landowner, River Partners, to design and implement the project and is actively managing and monitoring the restoration process.

The 1,150-acre project area contains remnant floodplain habitats that include wetlands, riparian woodlands and agricultural lands. The 1,600-acre Dos Rios Ranch property was purchased by River Partners in 2012 with funding from seven local, state and federal funding partners for use as a flood management and wildlife habitat project.

“Restoration work is progressing using a phased approach,” said NRCS wildlife biologist Karl Kraft.

Currently, about 500 acres are being restored. Work on 137 acres began in spring 2013. The second phase began in fall 2013 on 384 more acres, and the third phase will begin in 2015, Kraft said.

“More than 944 acres will be retired from production and restored to riparian habitat when the work is complete,” he said. “Numerous wildlife species should benefit from the restoration, including the federally endangered riparian brush rabbit, riparian woodrat, least bell’s vireo, and threatened valley elderberry longhorn beetle,” Kraft said.

Trees, such as black willow, and other native woody species are being planted in rows, much like an orchard, with planting berms and space between the rows for native grasses and forbs. Furrow irrigation between the planted rows is used to apply water to plantings in the initial growing seasons.

Rabbit foraging areas of low herbaceous plants such as Spanish clover, gumplant and native grasses have been established adjacent to patches of clover near the tree plantings. Dense thickets of California wildrose and blackberry established away from trees will offer protection against hawks and other predators.

Some areas of dense, low growing vegetation have been established on elevated ground, known as “bunny mounds,” to provide rabbits cover and flood protection. Kraft said that five of these bunny mounds have been constructed so far.

“The riparian brush rabbit was a primary reason for protecting and restoring the ranch,” said Dean Kwasny, easement programs specialist with NRCS. “It’s encouraging to see that our conservation efforts are having tangible benefits for this focal species.”

It's Personal...Scenic Pennsylvania Lake Community Celebrates Protecting the Environment for Earth Day with USDA Funding

USDA Blog Post:

Posted by Jacki Ponti-Lazaruk, Assistant Administrator, Water and Environmental Programs, USDA Rural Development, on April 25, 2014 at 5:00 PM

Tom Williams, PA RD State Director, Jacki Ponti-Lazaruk, RD WEP Program Assistant Administrator, and Jack Lennox, Roamingwood Water & Sewer Association General Manager, ceremoniously sign a portion of the new pipe that will replace old lines in the current system, making the system more energy, cost and water efficient.

As part of USDA’s weeklong celebration of the 44th anniversary of Earth Day, I had the pleasure of visiting Wayne County, Pennsylvania to announce funding that will bring improved water and wastewater services to residents and businesses of The Hideout, one of the state’s lake communities in the Pocono Mountains.

Thanks to congressional passage of the 2014 Farm Bill, USDA Rural Development received an additional $150 million to help rural communities build or upgrade water and wastewater systems in 40 states and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. We are pairing that grant money with an additional $232 million in regular funding to support 116 projects nationwide.

During my visit, I had the opportunity to talk with several long-time residents about the infrastructure projects.  The residents’ personal commitment and leadership was on display as they talked passionately about the importance of the funding. Betty Sullivan, the charismatic Board President of the Roamingwood Water & Sewer Association, an agent of the South Wayne County Water & Sewer Authority, has been involved in the infrastructure improvement project for twenty years. She has a keen understanding of the environmental importance of the project for both the existing residents and for future generations that will live, work and play here.

Bob Taggart, the father of a 12-year-old son, has owned a home in the community for over 20 years. Impressed by the quality of the school system and the community’s amenities, Bob made the decision to move here permanently from the New York City suburbs just five years ago. As a former environmental specialist for private industry, he also understands the environmental importance of the project. He is interested in the potential for connecting adjoining communities to the new system to help further protect the waters surrounding the community.  With the strong sense of community coupled with federal, state and local support, the future is promising for the growth of the community. The residents are all very appreciative of the Farm Bill funding that will help keep their water and sewer rates reasonable.

The work will be overseen by the South Wayne County Water and Sewer Authority, which is receiving a grant for more than $5 million and a loan of $8.4 million to replace a portion of a gravity sewer collection system.  The second Earth Day project involves replacing leaking water lines in a section of the 30 year-old water distribution system. Rural Development is providing a $2.3 million grant and a loan of almost $4.6 million to help with that effort. By replacing the old water and sewer lines, the project will significantly improve services, making them more energy, cost and water efficient and preventing the Authority from a costly expansion project for more than 3,200 homeowners of the Hideout Community.

As Assistant Administrator for Water and Environmental Programs, it is not hard to see why Earth Day ranks high on my list of favorite anniversaries and holidays!  I am especially grateful that the 2014 Farm Bill expanded our capacity to improve aging infrastructure in rural communities here in Pennsylvania and across the nation.

Get Ready for Earth Day 2014: Small Communities Doing Big Projects to Protect Water and the Environment

USDA Blog Post:

Posted by Doug O’Brien, Deputy Undersecretary, USDA Rural Development, on April 21, 2014 at 11:00 AM

The future of rural communities depends on safe, clean water supplies and healthy watersheds. That future is being challenged like never before and USDA RD is helping them meet the challenge.

With Earth Day on the horizon for tomorrow, we at USDA Rural Development are looking forward to sharing some very big news about efforts kicking off across the nation to ensure clean drinking water and healthy watersheds in small, rural communities that face increasing challenges with aging infrastructure, drought and climate change.

As you probably know, Rural Development works hard to help rural communities plan and build the critical infrastructure they need to grow and prosper sustainably.

Over the past five years, in fact, Rural Development has invested nearly $10.3 billion through 7,867 loans, loan guarantees, and grants for rural drinking water and wastewater treatment upgrades across the nation. Collectively, this work generates powerful environmental benefits. Individually, each project demonstrates how even the smallest community — and the everyday people living there — can accomplish the substantial and vitally important work of preserving and protecting our natural resources and quality of life for future generations.

With an infusion of funding provided by Congress in the 2014 Agricultural Act (Farm Bill) and to our local USDA Rural Development’s speedy delivery of those resources, small towns across the country will kick off a record number of water and wastewater system improvements beginning on Earth Day.

Stay tuned this week to learn more about Rural Development’s largest-ever Earth Day commitment and the communities taking action for a sustainable future.

Better Quality Beef Starts with Improving the Quality of the Land

USDA Blog Post:

Posted by Christy Morgan, Natural Resources Conservation Service, Kentucky, on April 15, 2014 at 1:00 PM

Jake and Jondra Shadowen and family use conservation programs to improve their Benton, Ky. ranch. (NRCS photo)

When Jake and Jondra Shadowen from Benton, Ky. got married 14 years ago, they decided to buy a 26-acre ranch with a goal of raising a healthy herd of cattle. Today, thanks to hard work and conservation, they maintain a strong herd of 26 cattle, up from 11 when they first began.

They worked with USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service to implement a rotational grazing system, which breaks up large pastures into smaller ones. A rotational grazing system allows for grass to grow faster and quicker and prevents soil from becoming prone to erosion.

Healthier grass means healthier forage, or food for the cattle. Jake Shadowen aims to constantly improve the quality of his cattle by improving forage. Through the Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) and other Farm Bill conservation programs, he received technical and financial assistance to put in cross fencing and to implement other conservation activities, or enhancements.

CSP helps agricultural producers maintain and improve their existing conservation systems and adopt additional conservation enhancements to address priority resources concerns. Participants earn CSP payments for conservation performance – the higher the performance, the higher the payment.

As part of a CSP, Shadowen sends fecal samples for lab analysis six times a year to determine cattle health – and see how the cattle are responding to better forage. Shadowen plants a mix of cool-season grasses such as tall fescue, orchardgrass and red clover.

Also, as part of the program, he has added wildlife friendly fences, escape routes in water troughs and pollinator habitat to the farm. He marked fences with flags in locations that are the main thoroughfares for deer, which help prevent deer from getting snagged or injured. He also added the escape ladders to water troughs to keep birds and small animals from getting trapped. Additionally, he plants pollinator-friendly flowers and grasses on the land to help improve the health of bees, butterflies and other crucial pollinators.

CSP is the perfect program for landowners like the Shadowens, who want to make improvements to their existing conservation system and address resource concerns like soil health and water quality. The conservation work benefits his cattle herd as well as the surrounding environment.

Their farm is a model for the community as it has been used for soil health demonstrations to help other landowners see the benefit of rotational grazing and other conservation practices.

In addition to ranching, Jake is a full-time electrician and Jondra works part-time as a dental hygienist. They have three sons.

“My wife and I were both raised on a farm and even though you don’t think the farm work means much at the time, you appreciate it later in life,” Jake Shandowen said of raising his children on the land.

To get started with NRCS, visit your local USDA Service Center or www.nrcs.usda.gov/GetStarted.

The Modern Farmer and USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service

USDA Blog Post:

Posted by Elisa O'Halloran, National Webmaster, Natural Resources Conservation Service, on March 31, 2014 at 11:00 AM

The Get Started page is a new addition to the NRCS website, and it provides the steps to assistance.

For generations, children have been singing about the farmer, his wife and kids, and even the mouse and the cheese. But today, a modern farmer is more likely to be using the mouse on his computer (or more realistically, a smartphone or tablet) than dancing around a small wooded valley with his family and farm animals.

The website of USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service, nrcs.usda.gov, has been evolving to keep pace with the needs of today’s farmer. Our mission is to provide American farmers, ranchers and other visitors with the tools and resources they are looking for on a site that is easy to use and navigate.

The most effective websites combine clear and readable text, usability, functionality and simple navigation. We write the text for targeted audiences, which for us includes farmers and ranchers as well as people who use our online tools, such as Web Soil Survey, PLANTS database and COMET-Farm^TM.

Recently, we created a new Get Started with NRCS page. This new webpage helps farmers, ranchers and forest landowners learn how they can make improvements to their land with conservation.

This webpage provides the five steps to getting assistance from NRCS, so that farmers, ranchers and forest landowners can know about the process of applying for assistance from the comfort of their own home, barn, tractor or wherever else they hop online.

Also, we want to point you to our revamped About NRCS and Drought Resources pages as well as our newly created Resources for Small Farms page. About NRCS provides an overview of what NRCS offers, including those popular tools that bring many visitors to our website.

Drought Resources houses information on assistance and resources that can help farmers and ranchers be more resilient to drought. And finally, the Resources for Small Farms page pulls together information and resources that may be of interest to owners and managers of smaller farms, such as information on organics and seasonal high tunnels.

We use a number of tools to help us create these pages, including site traffic and customer experience information. We’ve found that more than 61 percent of people coming to our website were new visitors, many of whom were farmers, ranchers and forest landowners looking for information on conservation programs.

We have about 13,000 visits per day on the NRCS website, and some of our most popular pages deal with soils, Web Soil Survey and Farm Bill.

We hope you enjoy these new and revamped pages, and we welcome feedback on how we can improve our “digital” service center. We’re excited to have the opportunity to help you get started with NRCS!

High Tunnel, Conservation Planning Help Local Food Mission

USDA Blog Post:

Posted by Julie MacSwain, Natural Resources Conservation Service, Minnesota, on March 25, 2014 at 12:00 PM

Kate Paul operates a community supported agricultural operation in Minnesota. NRCS photo.

When Kate Paul was a girl in northern St. Louis County, Minn., she enjoyed working in the large family garden near her grandfather’s farm. She loved spending time amid the rows of plants, watching seeds germinate and become plants that provided delicious vegetables for her family.

When she left her hometown for college and graduate school, she was able to continue her passion for farming. While living in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, she volunteered at a community supported agriculture operation (a CSA).

“I was inspired by the wherewithal of the family that worked the land,” she said. “I was also inspired by the network of community members who gained more than just healthy, fresh food from the farm but also gained a connection to the farm, the farmers and other farm members.”

In a CSA, people buy shares of a farm, and then they receive a share of what the farm grows or raises.

Fast forward a few years, and now she has her own CSA, called Owl Forest Farms. “Through this experience, I was inspired to start my own CSA farm on my family’s land after I moved back home,” she said.

When she was getting started, she learned of USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service and visited the local service center. That’s where she met Marjorie Sella, a district conservationist with NRCS. Sella helped Paul create a conservation plan for the 120-acre family farm, where four acres are used for the CSA.

In addition to the technical assistance that Paul got from NRCS through conservation planning, she also applied and received financial assistance through the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, one of the core Farm Bill conservation programs.

This financial assistance helped her build a seasonal high tunnel last year. Seasonal high tunnels are plastic-covered structures that enable farmers to have crops ready earlier or later in the season. In high tunnels, plants are grown directly in the ground, and the sun’s heat regulates the temperature inside.

Kate Paul worked with NRCS to install a seasonal high tunnel on her Owl Forest Farms. NRCS photo.

Seasonal high tunnels are important tools for growing food for local customers, and this effort is part of USDA’s Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food initiative.

“As a result of the high tunnel, I can now jump start my growing season and also extend the growing season into October and November,” she said. “This will help to extend the amount of time I can run deliveries for my farm members. I’m incredibly grateful to have the high tunnel and the new potential it provides my farm.”

In her first season, Paul grew tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, cucumbers and a variety of herbs.

“The thing that made this project different was that Paul was a beginning farmer,” Sella said about Paul. “EQIP allowed her to move forward with planning and applying a practice on her land.”

Paul is grateful for NRCS’ technical and financial assistance as this funding enabled her to meet her conservation planning objectives. She looks forward to future growing seasons, especially the produce from her high tunnel.

To get started with NRCS, visit your local USDA Service Center or www.nrcs.usda.gov/GetStarted. Also, be sure to check out NRCS’ resources for small farms.

Tomatoes are some of the many vegetables on Owl Forest Farms. NRCS photo.

Christmas Tree Grower Branches Out

USDA Blog Post:

Posted by Catherine Bailey, Natural Resources Conservation Service, Oregon, on December 26, 2013 at 10:00 AM

Christmas trees are a staple crop for many farms in Oregon, including this tree farm off Interstate 5. (NRCS photo)

During a time of year more often associated with consumption than conservation, Daniel Logan, owner and operator of Logan Tree Farm near North Plains, Ore., shows that managing and preserving the land yields both profit and holiday cheer.

Raising Christmas trees is a family business for Logan, who can remember pruning and clipping trees as early as six years old. His family has grown Christmas trees in the area since 1883, and he continues the tradition, managing about 35 acres of Christmas trees, including Douglas, Noble, Grand and Nordmann Firs.

While the Pacific Northwest may be the among the largest producers of Christmas trees in the nation, growers face a number of challenges, including managing land for extended and sustained use, while coping with both unpredictable weather and volatile commercial markets.

Logan recognized the need for conservation to improve his land and in 1992 began working with USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) to plant cover crops. His goal was to reduce the need for chemical use and improve soil quality.

Logan eventually enrolled in the Conservation Stewardship Program, a Farm Bill conservation program that provides technical and financial assistance to producers interested in conserving and enhancing natural resources on their property. With CSP assistance, Logan continues to reinforce and expand cover crops on his Christmas tree farm.

“It just seemed like the natural next step,” Logan said of his decision to enroll.

Since planting cover crops on his property, Logan has witnessed a number of benefits, including improved soil quality, a reduction in soil erosion and improved tree health. The land is also less muddy, which proves helpful in keeping trees clean and presentable for sales.

“It’s like working on a carpet,” Logan said.

All of these conservation efforts contribute to an improved crop yield, which can only mean good things for locals looking to find that perfect tree. Logan expects to sell upwards of 1,800 trees this year alone, with Noble firs standing out as his top sellers.

“The Noble is a good keeper,” Logan said. “They stand up well, and they’re just really pretty.”

Even so, Logan warns that even healthy, sturdy trees have a shelf life and shouldn’t be kept much longer than two to three weeks. While it’s possible to extend this time by a couple of days by lowering your home’s thermostat several degrees and keeping trees a safe distance away from any heat sources, Logan is adamant that most trees should be disposed of prior to a month.

As Logan and NRCS move forward in their partnership to improve soil quality and strengthen crop yields, the future for Christmas trees in Washington County, Ore. looks bright.

Secretary's Column: A New Report Shows the Critical Benefits of Farm Bill Conservation

USDA Blog Post:

Posted by Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, on December 6, 2013 at 12:00 PM

America’s farmers, ranchers and landowners have led the way in recent years to conserve and protect our soil, water and wildlife habitat.

With the help of Farm Bill programs, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has worked with a record number of producers since 2009 – more than 500,000 of them – to get this important work done.

Ever since the Dust Bowl, we’ve known that investments in conservation on working lands and other wild areas is important. And this week, a new report amplified our understanding for the critical importance of the Farm Bill in protecting natural resources in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed.

The report showed that over the past seven years, conservation efforts have reduced the amount of nitrogen leaving fields by 48.6 million pounds each year – about 26 percent – and reducing phosphorus by 7.1 million pounds, or 46 percent.

These conservation practices are also preventing soil erosion, helping to ensure that our farm fields across the Chesapeake Bay Watershed remain vibrant and productive in the years to come. Conservation practices have lowered the estimated amount of eroded soil by about 15.1 million tons every year, or 60 percent. Put another way, that’s enough soil to fill about 150,000 railcars.

In addition to ensuring healthy cropland and clean water, these programs strengthen wildlife habitat that boosts outdoor recreation. From hunting and fishing, to camping and hiking, outdoor recreation adds more than $640 billion in benefits to our economy each year.

The Chesapeake Bay watershed initiative is just one of many landscape-scale initiatives undertaken by USDA in recent years. From the Mississippi River Basin to the Ogallala Aquifer, USDA has worked with producers to enroll millions of acres in targeted landscape initiatives – and today’s report once again highlights the positive impact this work can have across the nation.

From clean soil to healthier water, the benefits of conservation impact every American – and they’re one reason why USDA is pressing Congress this fall to provide a comprehensive, multiyear Food, Farm and Jobs Bill that continues our record conservation efforts.

A new Farm Bill would continue targeted conservation efforts on working lands that ensure soil quality, water quality, erosion control, forest restoration, and wildlife habitat.  It would continue major working land programs such as the Environmental Quality Incentives Program and Conservation Stewardship Program, through which USDA has provided more than 190,000 landowner contracts since 2009, as well as the Conservation Reserve Program under which we have held a signup each year during this Administration.

A new Farm Bill would also ensure that tens of millions of acres remain in conservation practices by linking crop insurance compliance to conservation program participation.

Across the nation, our farmers, ranchers and landowners are stepping up to protect our natural resources. They deserve our support – and the most important thing that can happen today is for Congress to achieve passage of a new Food, Farm and Jobs Bill that stands by producers and continues our long legacy of conservation.

Secretary's Column: Taking New Steps to Care for the Land and Water

USDA Blog Post:

Posted by Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, on September 13, 2013 at 3:00 PM

Natural resource conservation is paramount to the ongoing strength of our nation. Healthy soil contributes to agricultural productivity. Healthy forests clean our water and air. Vibrant waterways are critical for our health, for transportation and for trade. Investments into conservation spur job growth and community development, particularly in rural areas.

This is an uncertain time for USDA conservation activities. Congress has not yet passed a comprehensive Food, Farm and Jobs Bill that would continue to invest in conservation efforts, while providing rural America with certainty regarding many other important programs.

As we continue urging Congress to provide a new Food, Farm and Jobs Bill, USDA this week took several new steps to strengthen conservation across the country.

We invested in innovation by awarding new grants under USDA’s Conservation Innovation Grants program.  New technologies and tactics are constantly emerging that help producers and landowners care for the environment.  These 33 new awards will help organizations across the country carry out advanced new conservation strategies and share them with producers. For example, several projects will investigate the benefits of cover crops, which could help producers grow more while mitigating the impacts of a changing climate.

These new project awards are part of more than 260 projects funded since 2009, including a special group of Conservation Innovation Grants to help agriculture adapt to drought.

We also invested this week in the future of renewable energy from wood products. USDA announced a partnership with industry to work toward additional wood-to-energy projects, while awarding more than $1 million in grants for five statewide teams that will further develop these efforts.  This builds on past work that has resulted in more than 230 wood-to-energy projects created under the Obama Administration.

Advanced wood energy provides a wide range of benefits for our nation. It encourages forest restoration by providing a new way to use wood byproducts. It contributes to an “all-of-the above” energy strategy, giving folks an alternative to costly energy sources. And it helps to create good jobs in energy and forestry for rural Americans. Renewable wood energy holds tremendous promise for rural America, and the new investments made this week are yet another step forward for this technology.

To cap off a week of positive new developments for USDA conservation efforts, we announced today that the U.S. Forest Service will partner with Coca-Cola, the National Forest Foundation and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation in a long-term effort to restore and clean waterways in our National Forests.

National Forests provide drinking water for more than 60 million Americans – and working together, USDA and Coca-Cola will undertake a range of projects in the coming years to restore forest waterways. These include working on the Angeles National Forest in California to prevent erosion caused by wildfire; restoring a stream in New Mexico that was previously impacted by industrial activity; and enhancing waterways within the Lake Michigan watershed.

Our hope is that these restoration projects will stand as an example for the benefit of public-private partnership to deliver results for the American people, even in a time of tighter budgets.

These new efforts complement the wide range of work we will continue to do with a focus on delivering record conservation results for Americans. With the right tools, including a new Food, Farm and Jobs Bill, there is much more we can achieve in the years to come.