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.
Students from Esopus, New York, took the top prize of $15,000 at the 2021 National Conservation Foundation (NCF)-Envirothon, an international environmental and natural resources education competition for high schoolers, hosted by Nebraska July 25-28.
Iowa farmer and former National Association of Conservation Districts President Tim Palmer said producers need to get a 10 percent profit or the market will dry up.
The project is the brainchild of the Ada Soil and Water Conservation District. The idea is to increase pollinator habitat — and the number of pollinators in the Treasure Valley — by having people plant 32 different flowers.
Conservation implementation specialist Sara Ernst of the Franklin Soil and Water Conservation District said limited grants are available for residents who install rain gardens with technical assistance from district staff members.
(Opinion) So while you’re enjoying that sports drink while hiking or taking that Sunday drive through our vast supply of parks, remember to clean up, recycle, take care of the environment because it takes care of you!
The Pennsylvania Association of Conservation Districts has announced the winners of the 2021 “Healthy Forests = Healthy Communities” statewide poster contest.
(Subscriber Only) The nominee for undersecretary of natural resources and environment at USDA, who will oversee the Forest Service, promised he would work closely with local communities in managing the more than 190 million acres of national forests to prevent wildfires and create markets for wood products.
A University of Missouri extension weed specialist says using cereal rye as a cover crop can help reduce waterhemp pressure without building its herbicide resistance.
(Subscriber Only) The Senate Appropriations Committee on Wednesday approved a fiscal 2022 spending bill for the Department of Agriculture and Food and Drug Administration that includes about $7 billion in disaster assistance and $700 million for USDA’s ReConnect program for rural broadband.
Cover crops offer producers many soil health benefits, such as suppressing weeds, increasing organic matter, improving soil structure, reducing soil loss, increasing nutrient and water holding capacity just to name a few. These benefits cannot be fully achieved unless the cover crops are planted at the proper rate and date for optimum growth and productivity.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is investing $15 million for a new drought pilot to assist agricultural producers impacted by worsening drought conditions to provide relief to impacted California and Oregon producers in the Klamath River Basin.
Shovels, sieves, plastic cups and cotton garments are all that’s needed for a better understanding of your farm ground’s health, says soil microbiologist Kris Nichols.
Not having to till the soil has added benefits: It requires less energy usage from agricultural equipment, hence less pollution; and the crops that follow are more resistant to droughts, floods, and pests. In addition, they may require less water and pesticides.
The USDA’s climate mitigation initiatives will be built on a simple rule: “If they don’t work for producers and landowners, they’re not going to work for the climate,” said Robert Bonnie, the Biden nominee to run the USDA’s crop subsidy and land stewardship programs, on Thursday.
(Subscriber Only) Congressional Democrats are pushing for a historic increase in conservation program funding that would help pay farmers to address climate change, but the money also could create some challenges for the House and Senate Agriculture committees as they write the new farm bill.
U.S. Forest Service officials in New Mexico have approved a plan for the restoration of wetlands and areas along waterways in the Carson, Cibola and Santa Fe national forests and the Kiowa National Grasslands.
The new project, which includes interactive maps, shows D.C. does have a disparity in tree cover, but the city is doing better than many other cities, and much better than it was doing 20 years ago. The project gives D.C. a tree equity score of 91 out of 100 — among the best in the nation.
Instead of leaving fields bare after corn silage harvest, adding a living mulch may help no-tillers prevent costly soil erosion and improve soil health.
Conditions in and above the Atlantic Ocean continue to suggest that this year’s hurricane season will be an above average one, a government scientist said Wednesday.
“It’s the biggest (fire) we’ve ever had on this island,” Big Island Mayor Mitch Roth said of the more than 62-square-mile (160-square-kilometer) blaze. “With the drought conditions that we’ve had, it is of concern.”
(Subscriber Only) During a visit with Gov. Gavin Newsom to the site of the massive 2020 August Complex fire, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack promised the federal government would send more resources to California, and other states combating an increased threat to prevent catastrophic fires.
(Subscriber Only) The Biden administration has reiterated its pledge to get input from a wide variety of stakeholders, including the agricultural industry, on how it plans to define “waters of the U.S.” in the Clean Water Act as it announced a series of upcoming “community engagements.”
The eastern Arizona reservoir that provided much of her water was drying up, leaving empty the canals and ditches that surround her property. Bigger-than-usual summer rains did not prove ample to rescue dead fields. The drought was at her door.
Firefighters in Oregon reported good progress in the battle against the nation’s largest wildfire, while authorities canceled evacuation orders near a major blaze in Northern California and another on Hawaii’s Big Island.
This summer, Kansas researchers will join an international team to conduct a study looking at the interaction between playas and agriculture in western Kansas.
Amid intensifying drought, state water regulators voted Tuesday to enact a drastic emergency order that will bar thousands of Californians — primarily farmers — from using stream and river water.
Fried said the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services’ Office of Agricultural Water Policy is moving forward with updating “best management practice” rules that the agriculture industry is expected to follow.
Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig says the state desperately needs rain to push the crops to the finish line, and that the off-seasons will be very important this year.
Greater buffer zones around bodies of water and more consistent enforcement of water protection regulations are needed to reduce agriculture-based pollution in the Western U.S., a recent review from Oregon State University found.
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