JBK-Environmental

Thursday, November 21, 2013

Public TV Showcases Conservation Efforts in California to Clean & Conserve Water

USDA Blog Post:

Posted by Jennifer Van Eps, Natural Resources Conservation Service, on November 21, 2013 at 4:00 PM

Ann Johnson grows wine grapes in El Dorado County, Calif., where she carefully uses each drop of water. Water is imperative to her operation, and using it wisely and keeping it clean are important to private landowners like her.

Conservation practices, like a drip irrigation system, help her care for this natural resource. A public television series, “This American Land,” will showcase Johnson and other California farmers and ranchers who are working with USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service to put conservation on the ground.

The segment, “Precious Sierra Water,” is included in the season’s sixth episode, being released this month to public TV stations across the country.

Johnson, a fourth-generation wine grape grower, worked with the NRCS to create a conservation plan for her land. With the help of NRCS’ Environmental Quality Incentives Program, she installed a drip irrigation system that uses 20 percent less water.

“It was great because they listened to what our ideas were and issues that we wanted to focus on and then gave us tools for our tool box that we could put into practice,” Johnson said.

Ann Johnson grows grapes for wine in El Dorado County, Calif., where she demonstrates how a drip irrigation system reduces the water used on her farm. Her story and the stories of other California farmers and ranchers are featured in a public television series, “This American Land,” this fall. Photo courtesy of NRCS.

California ranchers George and Toni Forni also worked with NRCS to put conservation work on the ground. With the help of NRCS, they’ve implemented a rotational grazing system, which alternates cattle among different pastures.

By rotating cattle every 30 days, no area is overgrazed. To do this, they installed cross-fencing, which breaks big pastures into smaller ones.

NRCS also helped the Forni family install above-ground water troughs. “What NRCS has done for us has allowed us to make sure that every one of our pastures has a good water source,” Toni Forni said. “They helped us with a fencing plan and a well. We couldn’t have done it without them. And it wasn’t a handout, but a leg up.”

Forest landowner Jeremy Wagner worked with NRCS to plant 18,000 trees on his property, preventing erosion and runoff into a nearby waterway. Like Johnson and the Forni family, his story was also showcased in this public TV series.

“That would not happen purely out of my pocket,” Wagner said. “Without NRCS, I might have been able to do a section of it, but I would not have been able to do 200-plus acres.”

Through a variety of Farm Bill conservation programs, NRCS helps farmers and ranchers ensure water is clean downstream and abundant.

To learn more about Farm Bill conservation programs, visit the NRCS website or a local NRCS field office. For more information on the public television series, visit NRCS’ “This American Land” page.

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Wednesday, November 20, 2013

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Forest, Grasslands Users Now Have Access to Digital Maps

USDA Blog Post:

Posted by Kathryn Sosbe, Office of Communication, U.S. Forest Service, on November 20, 2013 at 1:00 PM

Digital maps available for your smart phone will help visitors find their way around U.S. Forest Service forests and grasslands.

Scaling a mountain or hiking across a meadow is a peaceful, exhilarating exploration – unless you don’t know which fork in the trail to take.

It used to mean taking out a folded map, holding onto it tightly so the wind won’t blow it away or trying to shelter it from raindrops. Now dealing with a map may be faster, easier and more convenient by opening your smart device and using a U.S. Forest Service digital map you downloaded for free or for a nominal fee.

“In many areas of our national forests or grasslands, internet connections are just not available,” said Joan Steber, a cartographer who worked on the digital map project. “The free app and static maps will help because the user downloads the maps to their Apple or Android device before heading to a national forest or grassland.”

The Forest Service maps are available through the PDF Maps Mobile App developed by Avenza Systems Inc. The geospatial PDF maps allow you to use the information without the need to be connected to a live network. Users can measure distance and area, find coordinates, zoom, plot marks, save place marks and add labels and other convenient ways to customize for your own experience.

The app is available for free through iTunes and the Android Play Store. The app provides access to Forest Service maps, such as motor vehicle use maps, which are free while national forest atlases are 99 cents and forest visitor maps are $4.99. Prices are pending for other agency maps.

The maps are geo-referenced with the user’s location appearing as a blue dot. The app works on iPhones (3GS or newer) and iPads with WiFi+3G. It also works with Android 4 or newer operating systems on devices with at least 1 gigabyte of memory.

“Through our web surveys, we know visitors want this type of information, and they want it mobile,” Steber said. “We have worked to offer them a product they can use easily.”

Digital maps showing U.S. Forest Service lands are available for your smart device and will augment age-old tools like your compass. (U.S. Forest Service)

In geographic areas with Internet availability, you will be able to use the products with live data. The interactive map is expected to be available on a limited basis starting in March 2014.

The digital maps are part of the agency’s work regarding President Obama’s initiative to create a paperless government that also provides the American public with better, more accessible information. The Forest Service is currently working on the first phase of a website redesign, expected to debut early in 2014, which centers on a map-based tool for planning trips onto our nation’s forests, grasslands and other special places.

The Forest Service differs from other federal government agencies in how the Forest Visitor map is funded. The Agriculture Adjustment Act of 1938 calls for the sale of maps as the funding mechanism to revise and produce maps for the public. In 1999 the Act was amended to include products available through the web as “geo-referenced data.” The Forest Service’s seven regions are tasked with uploading maps. Users should contact the regional office where a forest or grassland is located if maps are not available on the app.

Paper maps are still available for purchase online at the National Forest Store.

Digital maps available for your smart phone will help visitors find their way around U.S. Forest Service forests and grasslands.

Natural Resources Conservation Service Helps Michigan Tribes with Wild Rice Production

USDA Blog Posts:

Posted by Brian Buehler, NRCS Michigan, on November 20, 2013 at 11:00 AM

Larry Romanelli, with the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians Ogema (left) and NRCS Michigan State Conservationist Garry Lee (right) pose with artist Shirley M. Brauker, the winner of the agency’s Native American Heritage Month poster contest. NRCS photo.

When the Anishinaabe people migrated from the Atlantic Ocean coast to Michigan centuries ago, they were in search of a place where “food grows on the water,” according to their tribe’s legend. Their quest ended when they found wild rice, thriving in shallow waters in the Great Lakes region.

The wild rice, or manoomin, served as a staple of the Anishinaabe diet is still culturally and spiritually important to them. And, today, USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service is helping keep this tradition alive.

NRCS has worked with two Anishinaabe tribes to increase the number of wild rice beds using financial assistance from Farm Bill conservation programs. The Lac Vieux Desert Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula was the first tribe to use NRCS assistance for planting rice. Tribal members planted about 12 acres of wild rice at six locations in 2006.

Wild rice requires very specific conditions to grow. It needs good water quality, shallow but flowing water, and a mucky base.

Through the agency’s Environmental Quality Incentives Program, the tribes were able to implement the wetland wildlife habitat management practice, which helps restore the wild rice stands while providing habitat for wildlife.

The importance of wild rice to tribes in Michigan was recently showcased in a poster honoring Native American Heritage Month, held each November. Michigan artist Shirley M. Brauker painted the poster depicting three women in a canoe harvesting wild rice.

The poster was chosen as NRCS’ national poster to highlight the month, which is displayed at the agency’s offices across the country.

NRCS helps the tribes keep other traditions alive, including the cultivation of other food sources like native fish. The agency helped the tribes to construct aquaculture ponds for raising walleye, a native fish traditionally eaten and harvested by the tribes. The agency also helped tribes construct fish passages to allow for brook trout and other fish to move past man-made barriers.

Learn more about NRCS’ partnership with tribes across the country.

Artist Shirley M. Brauker painted this poster, titled “Gathering Wild Rice,” which depicts three women in a canoe harvesting wild rice. NRCS photo.