Forest Service Exceeds Ecological Restoration Goals

From USDA:

Posted by U.S. Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell, on December 19, 2014 at 1:00 PM

The Paisley Ranger District of the Fremont-Winema National Forest in Oregon worked with numerous partners to complete a large-scale multi-year restoration project that covered 15 miles of the Chewaucan River. The project included adding vegetation to eroding stream banks. (U.S. Forest Service)

I am proud to announce that we exceeded our ecological restoration goals for Fiscal Year 2014. This was no small feat.

A lot of great people across the U.S. Forest Service worked hard to make it a reality. We did substantial homework and planning, and then based on that we made strategic investments across all agency programs to help us create resilient forests, grasslands and watersheds while sustaining communities. This work reduced the wildland fire threats to communities and firefighters and minimized the risk of forest pests and climate change, while supporting American jobs and rural economies. That is a fantastic combination.

The results of this hard work are nothing short of amazing.  The projects we carried out lessened the threats to communities by reducing hazardous fuels on 1.7 million acres in the wildland urban interface, sustained or restored watershed conditions on 2.9 million acres and resulted in 2.8 billion board feet of timber volume sold. Impressively, we did all this despite simultaneously facing a government shutdown, as well as rising costs of fire-fighting that drain resources from our work across all program areas.

On a personal level, these accomplishments reflect how much members of our Forest Service community are committed to improving the forests and grasslands that have been entrusted to us by the American people. For these reasons, I could not be more proud of everyone who has come together to make restoration such a success in the past year.

The Paisley Ranger District of the Fremont-Winema National Forest in Oregon worked with numerous partners to complete a large-scale multi-year restoration project that covered 15 miles of the Chewaucan River. The project included adding vegetation to eroding stream banks. (U.S. Forest Service)

The Forest Service did not do all of the heavy lifting alone. We also leveraged our partnerships to help meet our ecological restoration goals. Conservation groups, the forest industry, local communities, sportsmen and others assisted with monitoring of resource conditions and project implementation as part of our “adaptive management” concept. Some of the diverse programs, tools and activities used in this endeavor include the Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Program, Stewardship Contracting Authority, Integrated Resource Restoration tools, and 2014 Farm Bill provisions.

Although our budgets are flat to declining, our employees are embracing landscape scale analysis and adding capacity through partnerships, volunteers and collaboration. This is not about “doing more with less,” it is about building capacity by increasing social advocacy for our mission.

Green Mountain and Finger Lakes national forests employees look over harvested trees as part of the agency’s Integrated Resource Project. The project process uses a team of interdisciplinary specialists who conduct analysis and set priorities at the landscape scale to identify a full suite of activities to help improve the watershed. (U.S. Forest Service)

We are positioned to accelerate efforts to restore the health of forests, grasslands and watersheds, while reducing wildland fire threats to communities in the coming year – and we’ll have some assistance in doing it. Bi-partisan legislation supports our call for a change in how wildfire suppression is funded. This would free up more funding to improve the resiliency of forests and rangelands across all landscapes.

America’s natural resources are integral to the social, ecological and economic well-being of the nation, and each of our employees play a vital role in the care of natural resources for current and future generations.

U.S. Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell

Earth Team Volunteer Benefits USDA with Wetland Expertise

USDA Blog Post:

Posted by Michelle Banks, Natural Resources Conservation Service, on April 8, 2014 at 4:15 PM

Molly Stetz, a graduate student in wetland ecology in New York, gives of her time and expertise to NRCS through the Earth Team program. NRCS photo.

When not in class, Molly Stetz volunteered her time to USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), assisting with the agency’s efforts to restore wetlands and curb other environmental concerns.

As part of National Volunteer Week, NRCS is celebrating the contributions of volunteers like Stetz that help the agency advance the conservation mission through Earth Team.

Stetz, a graduate student in wetland ecology at the State University of New York at Brockport, donated more than 900 hours to NRCS through the agency’s Earth Team volunteer program.

“Volunteers are an integral part of our agency,” NRCS District Conservationist Heath Eisele said. “In a one-employee field office, every bit of assistance helps.”

Stetz worked closely under Eisele’s supervision assisting with many of the day-to-day operations of the office, including compliance reviews, highly erodible land slope measurements, construction checks and wetland plant identification.

“She helped us with so many different projects, it was like having another NRCS position on staff,” Eisele said.

She took the lead in creating a map guide of the Tonawanda Creek watershed and revised a guide on another creek watershed. These are used to show visitors and residents boat launch areas, fishing locations and other attractions within the watershed.

When she wasn’t in the field, Stetz was offering top-notch computer support with geographic information systems, or GIS, and developed innovative techniques for identifying potential natural resource concerns.

She conducted the annual monitoring of seven wetland easement sites throughout Genesee County, N.Y. Her knowledge of wetland plant identification and hydrology was critical to the success of the project, Eisele said.

Her volunteer work helped her with her master’s thesis in wetland ecology. Stetz and her professor received $5,000 as part of a grant from USDA Rural Development for agriculture and water quality studies.

Stetz’s service won her the national individual service award from the Earth Team. Only four of these awards are given out each year. To read more volunteer stories or see how to sign up to be an Earth Team volunteer, visit www.nrcs.usda.gov/EarthTeam.

Jointly Developed Watershed Assessment Model Being Used in Yosemite National Park

USDA Blog Post:

Posted by Tara T. Weaver-Missick, USDA-Agricultural Research Service Information Staff, on December 3, 2013 at 3:00 PM

Bridalveil Falls, Yosemite National Park, California (USDA-NRCS photo by Ron Nichols).

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.

An award-winning watershed assessment tool, the Automated Geospatial Watershed Assessment (AGWA), was deployed to assess potential Rim Fire threats in Yosemite National Park in California.  The park experienced a devastating fire that began on August 17, 2013, and took several months to contain. The fire burned more than 400 square miles in and around the park, cost $125.8 million to date, and is considered one of the largest wildfires in California’s history.

BAER (Burned Area Emergency Response) is a multi-agency group that includes USDA’s Forest Service and others, and is responsible for identifying potential threats such as downstream flooding and developing plans to rehabilitate and restore burned areas. BAER teams use AGWA to target immediate efforts to prevent threats to people, wildlife and the land.  Using AGWA combined with the burn severity map produced by BAER teams, experts can rapidly pull together information on pre- and post-fire conditions. For example, knowing where to apply mulch after a fire can reduce runoff and erosion and can help minimize downstream risks from fire induced land cover and soil changes.

AGWA has already been successfully used for post-fire BAER team watershed assessments following fires in Arizona, New Mexico, California, Idaho and Washington.  AGWA was jointly developed by scientists with the USDA Agricultural Research Service (ARS) Southwest Watershed Research Center in Tucson, AZ, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the Universities of Arizona and Wyoming.

ARS researchers and their partners originally developed the computer model as a multipurpose computer system and software tool designed for managing and analyzing water quantity and quality to help keep our Nation’s watersheds cleaner. AGWA uses nationally available data sources to rapidly establish and execute results from two ARS-developed watershed models, the Kinematic Runoff and Erosion Model (KINEROS2) and the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT).  It enables the user to visualize and compare model results to understand the impact of a certain practice on a given landscape.

How we manage activities that take place on crop production areas, rangelands, pastures, forests, meadows, and urban areas influences the quantity and quality of water available for domestic, industrial, agricultural and ecological uses. You can learn more about AGWA at www.tucson.ars.ag.gov/agwa.

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.

USDA Researchers Working Together to Conserve Our Nation's Resources

USDA Blog Post:

Posted by Tara T. Weaver-Missick, Chief, Information Products and Services Branch, USDA Agricultural Research Service, Information Staff, on September 11, 2013 at 1:30 PM

USDA researchers are working together to protect and conserve our beautiful nation and all of its majestic natural resources for generations to come.  As part of USDA’s Conservation Effects Assessment Project (CEAP), more than 60 USDA-Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists are working together to gain a better understanding of the role that agricultural conservation programs and practices play in achieving our nation’s environmental objectives of clean air and water, healthy soils and flourishing natural habitats.

USDA began the CEAP program in 2003 to study the environmental benefits of conservation practices implemented through 2002 Farm Bill programs.  As part of CEAP, ARS scientists are evaluating 14 watersheds across 12 ARS locations to provide the additional scientific basis for the CEAP National Assessment being led by USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service.  Those watersheds were selected in part to address specific concerns, like manure management on animal feeding operations, water use on irrigated cropland, drainage water management, wildlife habitat and riparian restoration. These watershed studies also should help develop performance measures for estimating soil, water and air quality, and perhaps other potential benefits for specific conservation practices.

ARS scientists have developed Web-based tools, databases and models to help farmers, ranchers, land managers, policy makers, other Federal agencies and experts more easily manage and evaluate information that can help them make more informed environmentally- and economically-based decisions that support our nation’s conservation efforts.

As a further extension of ARS’ conservation research efforts, in September 2012, ARS established the Long-Term Agro-ecosystem Research (LTAR) network, which includes 10 ARS sites and builds on existing ARS experimental watersheds—including  several that also contribute to the CEAP watersheds and rangelands efforts nationwide. The LTAR network addresses large-scale, multi-year research, environmental management and technology transfer related to the nation’s agricultural ecosystems in an assortment of different environments, at regional-to-continental scales.

What we do and how we do it has a lasting impact on our wildlife and their habitats, our water, land, air, and ultimately our planet’s health as a whole.  Information gleaned from programs like CEAP and LTAR will provide a stronger knowledge base on the true effects that agricultural, environmental and other practices have on our nation’s natural resources—helping us all to be better stewards and protectors of our world.

For a list and description of the watersheds in this study visit: http://www.ars.usda.gov/Research/docs.htm?docid=18645

For more information about USDA’s CEAP program visit: http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/main/national/technical/nra/ceap/

For more information about the LTAR network visit: http://www.ars.usda.gov/research/programs/programs.htm?np_code=211&docid=22480