Conservation Clips is a weekly collection of articles distributed by NACD that provides our members and partners with the latest news in what’s driving conservation. These articles are not indicative of NACD policy and are the opinions of their authors, unless otherwise noted. If you have a relevant submission or need assistance with accessing articles, please contact the NACD Communications Team.
“NACD is encouraged by the proposals to strengthen funding for conservation,” National Association of Conservation Districts (NACD) President Michael Crowder said in a news release.
She has also been a national director for the National Association of Conservation Districts. “I’ve thoroughly enjoyed meeting all the people. I have learned so much from the Conservation Districts. If I have a question, I know who to call.”
When the Routt County Conservation District, with organizational roots that extend to 1942, reconstituted in spring 2019, the top priority was soil health.
The Crow Wing Soil and Water Conservation District released the 2020 conservation report to highlight the conservation work being done in the Brainerd lakes area.
Kootenai-Shoshone Soil and Water Conservation District may start a no-till drill rental program for local landowners. The goal is to improve soil health, water quality, reduce erosion, save time and money for landowners with tillable soil, according to a press release.
The Marin Resource Conservation District was awarded over $700,000 by the State Board for its Conserving Our Watersheds Program. This project helps ranchers within the Point Reyes National Seashore prevent nitrogen, phosphorus, sediment, and bacteria from livestock operations from running off into Tomales Bay.
The standing litter does protect the soil by acting like armor. Wildfires will increase bare ground, which can lead to a higher risk of erosion. Land with slopes or rough topography will be highly susceptible to erosion or sluffing of soil downslope.
Restoring forests, using fire as a management tool and getting more buy-in from private landowners are among the strategies outlined in New Mexico’s latest forest action plan.
(Opinion) Soil health practices support the goals that conservationists have always strived for – less soil erosion, better water quality, improved wildlife habitat, and reduced water quantity leaving the landscape.
Fields across the Canadian Prairies and the U.S. Northern Plains are among the driest on record, raising production risks in one of the world’s key growing regions for canola and spring wheat.
A bovine diet of almond hulls, cotton seed, spent grains and other by-products reduces water and energy costs and the land needed to grow feed. It also helps the planet.
With anticipated continued drought, flooding likely won’t be an issue this year in the upper Missouri River basin, according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and other federal officials.
The USDA would double the size of the Conservation Reserve, the government’s largest land-idling program, as part of supporting land stewardship on 100 million acres of farmland under companion bills filed in the House and Senate on Monday.
Hundreds of farmers who rely on a massive irrigation project that spans the Oregon-California border learned Wednesday they will get a tiny fraction of the water they need amid the worst drought in decades, as federal regulators attempt to balance the needs of agriculture against federally threatened and endangered fish species that are central to the heritage of several tribes.
This year the fuel-moisture content across the Santa Cruz Mountains is terrifyingly low as the state moves out of a second, consecutive rainy season marked by dry conditions. The 2020-2021 winter was the third driest on record, according to the California Department of Water Resources. The region’s reservoirs are beginning to see the impact and are at half their total capacity.
A small fraction of U.S. farmers who have pursued contracts for capturing carbon in the soil – an incentive for climate mitigation – say the going rate is $20 an acre or less, said Purdue University on Tuesday.
“It is a wonderful opportunity,” says Joe Outlaw, co-director, Agriculture Food Policy Center, Texas A&M University. “But it’s like every opportunity, you have to understand what you’re getting yourself into.”
The new strategy could be a game-changer. An army of scientists and state biologists are spending millions of dollars annually in California to combat an increasing scourge of invasive species — more than 1,700 types of plants, bugs and marine animals that are out-competing, elbowing out and, in some cases, devouring native plants and animals.
