Measuring Environmental Effects of Conservation Practices

From the #USDA:

Posted by Tynisha Tolbert, Agricultural Statistician, on May 5, 2015 at 1:00 PM

Drip irrigation is a system used to deliver slow, precise application of water and nutrients to a plant roots zone. This system maintains an optimum moisture level within the root zones, efficiently conserving water and helps prevent runoff while providing the proper balance of water and air needed for successful plant growth. USDA photo by Alice Welch.

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 profile.

Have you ever heard the saying, “In God we trust, all others bring data?” Those are the words of William Edwards Deming, a distinguished American statistician and researcher. As an agricultural statistician at USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS), collecting and distributing reliable data are the most important things I do. The data we provide help shape many key decisions about all sorts of things related to agriculture, including conservation practices.

But I don’t only collect and distribute data. I get to administer the Conservation Effects Assessment Project (CEAP) survey – something I’m especially proud of. CEAP is a major project led by our sister agency the Natural Resources Conservation Service. The results of the survey contribute to a first-hand look into how operators maintain agricultural lands for tomorrow. This insight is so important because soil erosion, climate change, water shortages, and feeding ever-increasing populations are common concerns today.

NASS’ part in this project involves surveying farmers about their conservation practices. This part of CEAP gives farmers the power to provide a more complete and accurate picture of conservation practices on their lands. Most of us already know that there are no better stewards of our land than farmers. After all, their very livelihoods depends on a healthy environment. This is why I’m especially honored that my work serves to help empower U.S. farmers to share what they are doing to protect natural resources on their lands and how effective those activities are.

Starting this July NASS representatives will visit more than 23,000 cultivated and non-cultivated cropland areas. Farmers and ranchers whose lands meet certain criteria could be asked to participate in the survey between October and February. Their responses can help leaders focus on the conservation practices that most benefit both the producer and the environment.

The information collected through the CEAP survey is vital to help determine what resources farmers and ranchers may need to protect soil, water, and other natural resources and to document existing on-farm conservation practices. These practices matter because they can help farmers, ranchers, and rural communities maintain healthy farmland. Regardless of where you live, whether it’s a major metropolis or a tiny town, the health of the land where our food comes from, impacts you!

A tractor turns the cover crop into the soil in preparation for planting at Leafy Greens, a farm in the Salinas Valley of California. USDA Photo by Lance Cheung.

    

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Why Environmentalists Are Trying to Stop a Solar Farm | TheBlaze.com

JACKSON, N.J. (AP) — Environmental groups have filed suit over a New Jersey theme park’s plans to cut nearly 19,000 trees to build a 90-acre solar farm.



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Waste not: Chefs, authors, eaters are turning attention to discarded food | Miami Herald Miami Herald

What’s the point of worrying about organic food, genetically modified organisms, locally sourced items and fair trade if more than a third of it will simply go to waste?

Discarded food is a serious issue, and it’s garnering attention from a variety of places. Statistics are stunning: Approximately 40 percent of food in America goes uneaten — the equivalent of $165 billion a year.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/living/food-drink/recipes/article20249667.html#storylink=cpy

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Four Science Students Receive Environmental Excellence Awards from Illinois EPA

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The Joy and Value of a Meadow

From the #USDA:

Posted by Georgia Dempsey, U.S. Forest Service, on May 4, 2015 at 11:00 AM

Forest Hydrologist Tracy Weddel helps restore meadow landscape burned by the Rim Fire. (Photo courtesy of U.S. Forest Service)

Watching the golden glow of the sun alight upon meadow grasses stirs my imagination.  My mind conjures up misty visions of the famous naturalist, John Muir, traipsing through the Sierras, admiring Corn Lilies and sedges. A red-tailed hawk swoops into this vision and silently plucks a pocket gopher with outstretched talons. Coursing through this living landscape, creating a back drop for this scene, is the magical, musical sound of water. 

Aside from their beauty, meadows provide a variety of important ecological functions. A multitude of species depend upon riparian areas and meadows to survive. Black bears turn over meadow logs looking for ants. Deer nibble the grasses and brush. Coyote music echoes across the flatlands and bounces between walls of lava stone. Walk close to the waterway of a meadow and you may hear the plop of a basking frog as it jumps the bank to enter the stream of life.

Hydrologically speaking, meadows are an important part of the water flow not only for wildlife and rare plants like moonwarts, but for us.  When meadows are endangered the repercussions affect us all. Fifty percent of the surface water in California flows from National Forest lands and meadows help to hold and purify that water. 

“Meadows help filter flood waters, trapping sediment and other pollutants,” said Zachary Croyle, a hydrologist who works on the Calaveras District of the Stanislaus National Forest.  “That action improves water quality and makes the water flowing downstream from our mountain meadows relatively clean.”

Meadows also act like large sponges. They slowly absorb and release water. That sponge-like quality allows meadows to store water and release it steadily, over time.   

“In a post-fire environment healthy meadows can lessen the threat of flooding and reduce downstream sedimentation problems,” said Mary Moore, Stanislaus National Forest hydrologist. “That’s one reason we have assessed more than 40 meadows and are committed to restoring 25 of these meadows found within the perimeter of the Rim Fire.”

Watersheds that have been impacted by fire take seven to ten years to heal. It may take months or years for plants to recolonize burned sites and the ground cover to be restored. In the interim, heavy rain storms can pick up ash and bare soil particles, sweeping them into waterways. 

“That increases sedimentation problems down-stream,” said Moore. 

In the past five years, large wildfires have cost municipal water users over $300 million dollars due to filtration and sedimentation problems.

It does not, however, take a large wildland fire to drive home the importance of meadows or restoring the landscape. 

Being good land stewards is an everyday project that we all need to embrace. The worth of our Forests is not only in the value of our timber, nor strictly in the water we provide, but is in the health and resiliency of the landscapes and watersheds we love, and depend on. 

“Caring for the land now, helps all of us down the road,” said Croyle.  “Ecological restoration is happening within the footprint of the Rim Fire but the Cornerstone Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Project is also aimed at restoring these critical features elsewhere on the Forest because of their vast importance.”

As the climate changes in the Sierras, scientists expect less winter snow to fall in the mountains. The snow pack acts as a reservoir, releasing water as it melts throughout the spring and early summer. 

If snow gets replaced by rain, water flow would rapidly decline during the dry season when it is needed the most. A well-functioning meadow can capture and slow down the fleeting flow of water, making it more available in the drier months of the year. 

Keeping meadows in good shape is not as easy as you might think for they can be harmed in a variety of ways.  Stressors such as livestock grazing, road development and unauthorized off-highway vehicle use can negatively impact meadows.  Native plant communities may shift as a result and that can contribute to soil erosion and the loss of water availability.  Gullies and deep channel cuts can change water flow patterns detrimentally and even conifers can encroach upon meadows when normal fire cycles are missed or when droughts persist. 

In a rapidly changing world, it’s comforting to know that the true value and joy of a meadow can be found in coyote songs and meadow flowers. It can also be found in the tall glass of pure drinking water you press to your lips on a hot day.  John Muir once said, “When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe.” The story of meadows and water is no exception. This story winds its way through forest, sedge and Corn Lily. It touches the life of the bear and hawk and travels many mountainous miles to our very own drinking tap.

    

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Northern Plains Regional Climate Hub Vulnerability Assessment Published

From the #USDA:

Posted by Rachel Steele, USDA National Climate Hubs Coordinator, on May 4, 2015 at 10:00 AM

Moving cattle on the Northern Plains. Photo Credit: Matt Mortenson

The Northern Plains Regional Climate Hub—encompassing Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Nebraska, and Colorado— has a high diversity of land use types including the largest remaining tracts of native rangeland in North America. Substantial areas of both dryland and irrigated cropland and pasture, mosaics of cropland and grassland, and forested lands can be found across the region. With the publication of the Northern Plains Regional Vulnerability Assessment, the Northern Plains Hub is providing stakeholders with an introduction to the region, regional sensitivities and adaptation strategies for working lands, a greenhouse gas emissions profile with mitigation opportunities, and an overview of how partner USDA agencies are being affected by a changing climate. This vulnerability assessment is an important first step in establishing a baseline “snapshot” of current climate vulnerabilities, and provides region-specific adaptation and mitigation strategies to increase the resilience of working lands in the region.

Ranchers, farmers and forest land owners in the Northern Plains have experienced warmer temperatures (1 to 1.5 degrees F), longer growing seasons (about a week and a half) and generally more precipitation (5 to >15 percent increases over the eastern 2/3 of this region) over the past twenty years compared to most of the 20^th century.  As a result, land use changes and shifts in production systems have occurred with 1) cattle increasing with stock coming in from drought-stricken areas of California and Texas/Oklahoma, and 2) displacement of wheat acres in counties in the eastern part of the Northern Plains by substantial increases in corn and soybean acres. 

Projected climatic changes are expected to result in continued longer and warmer growing seasons with mountain areas most impacted, and this will alter the amount of snowpack and timing of snowmelt to impact runoff to reservoirs for irrigation use on crops, hayland, recreation, navigation, fish habitat and human consumptive use.  Predicted increases in winter, spring and fall seasonal precipitation (and slightly drier summers) will result in no changes or reductions in consecutive dry days in this region, even though growing seasons will be longer and temperatures warmer.  As a result, the expectation is that corn and soybeans production systems will continue to move north-northwest in the region, at further expense of wheat and small grains (e.g., barley) with expansion into southern parts of Canadian provinces of Saskatchewan and Alberta. 

Increased emphasis on conservation measures and adaptation strategies will be needed to deal with vulnerabilities of altered snowpack levels with earlier snow melt that affect reservoir management for irrigation, decreases in levels of groundwater aquifers, water runoff and quality impacts from soil erosion associated with a higher frequency of downpours (high intensity rainfall) and increased pest and weed pressure for crops.  Conservation efforts including mitigation strategies involving increased irrigation efficiency (i.e., more crop per drop),and new technology for subsurface irrigation, and adaptation strategies involving enhancement of soil organic matter and soil health (and as a result greater water holding capacity and enhanced nutrient cycling) by cover crops, especially mixtures involving legumes, and integrated crop-livestock systems. Additionally, genetic development of varieties through sophisticated breeding programs involving molecular approaches can help offset negative impacts of rising temperatures and drought.

To read the full report and learn more about the Northern Plains Regional Hub click here:http://climatehubs.oce.usda.gov/pdf-files/northern-plains-vulnerability-assessment

Each USDA Regional Climate Hub will be publishing a Vulnerability Assessment in 2015—stay tuned for your region in the coming months!

The Midwest and Northern Forests Regional Vulnerability Assessment can be accessed here.

    

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25th anniversary of American Wetlands Month

From the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers St. Paul District:

This May marks the 25th anniversary of American Wetlands Month, a time when organizations celebrate the vital importance of wetlands to the Nation's ecological, economic, and social health. Do you have plans to celebrate American Wetlands Month?http://go.usa.gov/kRUH