Arkansas Conservation News -- Winter 2006

Conservation Corner

Kalven L. Trice
State Conservationist

Dear Arkansas NRCS Staff,

Everyone likes to hear complements and I am no exception. I attended the recent Farm Bill Forum hosted by Deputy Secretary Chuck Conner and heard the accolades, the thank you, and the general support of the Natural Resources Conservation Service and conservation programs from the farming community. Again and again landowners stood behind the microphone and gave testimonials of appreciation for the 2002 Farm Bill as it applies to NRCS and the people who carry out the work. There is no question in my mind that it is you, the employees, along with the Arkansas Conservation Partnership, who deserve their gracious acknowledgements.

Speaking of recognition, on October 14 the NRCS Soils Survey Program gave recognition to the past and present soil scientists in celebration of completing the “Last Acre of Initial Soil Mapping in Arkansas.” The last county mapped was Grant County. It is no small feat to map the soil of an entire state, and the work spans generations. Over 96 individuals contributed to soil mapping, and over 26 of those people have passed on. The Management Team and I give special tribute to each one of you who ventured into the fields and woods, dug into the soil, and contributed to the historic record of the “Initial Soil Mapping of Arkansas”.

There appears to be some confusion about the role of NRCS employees. District Conservationists do not supervise conservation district staff. They do however provide technical supervision. I am asking conservation districts to develop operating procedures and review the mutual agreement and cooperative working agreement to determine the appropriate interaction between NRCS and conservation districts.

It is impossible to think that we (Management team) can set in Little Rock and know the priorities and concerns of the field staff. To better understand the issues and to support you, the Management Team will show more of a presence in the field offices this year, visiting your work and attending district meetings. Hopefully, with more presence in the field, some of these questions can be answered and your role re-clarified for conservation districts. Looking ahead to the next round of sign-ups, we anticipate that the ranking period will be earlier than in the past. Consequently, we expect to receive Farm Bill dollars sooner. One of the goals for the year is to obligate the contracts earlier too. By advancing the time frame we hope to alleviate the rush of end-of-year spending.

I look forward to visiting the field service centers and attending the area award meetings this fall. It will be a pleasure to have a word with you in person. Congratulations again for the generous accounts made by our clientele at the Farm Bill Forum and keep up the good work.

NRCS Funds More than $54.1 million for Conservation Projects in Arkansas

The Natural Resources Conservation Service has funded more than $54.1 million of conservation projects throughout Arkansas this year.

“Conservation practices carried out by farmers, ranchers and other landowners in Arkansas with technical and financial assistance from NRCS employees have improved the quality of life and built stronger rural communities.

Our food supply, water and air have the state with $1 million more going to WRP and $865,000 to WHIP. The WRP total includes regular funding and Wetlands Reserve Enhancement Program funding.

NRCS has provided $4.7 million for watershed protection programs including land treatment, water conservation, water quality practices, irrigation projects and flood reduction improved tremendously,” said Kalven L. Trice, state conservationist.

The financial assistance provided by NRCS includes:

• Money for individuals involved in the Environmental Quality Incentives Program tripled between 2002 and 2005 with an increase to $19 million this year.

• Arkansas landowners have enrolled two million acres into the Wetlands Reserve Program. In 2005, Arkansas residents received $13.9 million from the program.

• Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program funding has almost doubled from 2002 with NRCS in Arkansas rewarding $700,000 in 2005.

• The rediscovery of the Ivory- Billed Woodpecker has also helped measures throughout the state.

• Arkansas landowners have received more than $13.1 million through 571 contracts during the 2005 Conservation Security Program.

• More than $972,000 has been allocated to Resource Conservation and Development Council programs across Arkansas in 2005.

“Arkansas is a state blessed with a wealth of diverse and extraordinary natural resources that provide safe drinking water, recreation, wildlife habitat, commerce, aquaculture and irrigation for cropland. Protecting and maintaining these valuable resources are essential to the well-being and livelihood of all its residents as well as future generations of Arkansans,” Trice said.

Soil Survey Web Site

Internet-based system allows users access to Soil Survey information

Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns announced the launch of a USDA Web Soil Survey site that will provide secure public access to the national soils information system. This site is a simple yet powerful way to access and analyze soils data that contributes to every aspect of public and private land use and development.

Prior to the launch, all soil survey maps were printed and bound into soil survey books that were free to the public at USDA Service Centers, NRCS field offices and public libraries. The soil survey publications will be phased out and the federal government’s initiative of electronic government information will replace the printed publications.

Currently, NRCS has soils maps and data available online for more than 95 percent of the nation’s counties and anticipates having 100 percent in the near future. The site will be updated and maintained online as the single authoritative source of soil survey information.

“Soil surveys are the foundation for land conservation activities as well as private and commercial land development,” said Johanns. “Soil survey maps help to enable agricultural producers, conservationists, engineering firms, county and city planners, and others to make informed decisions concerning land use. Posting soil survey information on the internet is one more step in our effort to make information more accessible to the citizens we serve.”

Soil surveys are conducted in a partnership effort known as the National Cooperative Soil Survey. “The Web Soil Survey provides access to soil information and maps using latest technologies in a user-friendly fashion”, said Luis A. Hernandez, NRCS state soil scientist.

“We have just complete the initial soil mapping of the entire state. Soil mapping is an ongoing process because land use and user needs change. By next year, Arkansas residents with access to the internet will have access to the latest soil information for every acre of land in the state.”

The Web site has been designed with three easy to use features: Define, View, and Explore. It operates much like internet sites that provide locator and directional information. When viewers visit the web soil survey, they are asked to “Define” a geographic area of interest by selecting a state and county or just by highlighting an area or areas. Once a location has been defined and projected on the screen, the viewer has the choice to print the map and related information, save it to their hard drive or download the data for use in a geographic information system (GIS).

The viewer also can “Explore” the designated location for specifi c soils data giving the viewer important information on soil suitability in relationship to usage. This flexibility provides the viewer an opportunity to build a customized report that addresses the viewer’s individual needs. Information can be delivered in a variety of formats to include print, CD, DVD or other media.

To view the Web site go to http://soils.usda.gov/survey.

Calculating the Cost of Catastrophes

Socioeconomic planning looks at future damages caused by disasters

Belinda Bell
Agricultural Economist

A disaster can strike at anytime, anywhere.

We have had our share here in Arkansas, and as we speak our neighboring states are still affected by the recent hurricanes.

The NRCS disaster planning process is initiated through the Emergency Watershed Protection Program. Socioeconomics is part of the process in addressing the overall effects a disaster may have on human lives.

After a disaster strikes may not appear to be the time for disaster planning, but from the socioeconomic view, that is when it begins. The key phrase in socioeconomic planning is “Estimate damages to the values at risk if the threat is imminent but not yet realized.”

In other words, while others, FEMA, the media, etc. look at what just happened, the economics are to project the future damages (new damage yet to happen).

There is socioeconomic information to gather and evaluate for documentation purposes:

• who and what is impacted by taking action or no action?

• what is the value of what can be lost in the future if nothing is done? Good economists go beyond the actual site in order to consider who may have been impaired as a result of the event. During a field visit, economists identify affected properties. Local sponsors can provide assistance. The next step is to identify future damage costs:

• Properties, along with their descriptions e.g.; 12 houses (1950s-1970s) 1 and 2 story, 150 sq. ft., 3 bedroom, 1 ½ bath ranch with attached garage.

• Business and farm losses e.g.; restaurant (120 capacity), loss of revenue from businesses shut down, fencing 2,500 linear feet.

• Social losses, e.g.; income loss while off work, detours-travel time and cost to set up road blocks and detours.

• Losses of infrastructure such as bridges, roads and utilities. Property values can be assessed by using median home values, county census data, market value from assessed value from county clerk/local sponsor. There is no value consideration for dwellings that were destroyed by the event, only the ones that survived the event.

The Repair Cost Method, Damage Dollar Method, and Mix Methods are three ways to estimate future damages values. If you need to estimate the cost of the repair of future damages or what damage can occur in the future, then Repair Cost Method is what you would use.

Damage Dollar Method is the dollar value of the future damages or the property value that could be lost. Mix Methods is a combination of repair cost and damage dollar methods. Social defensibility is a critical element in capturing the overall effects a disaster may have on human lives. To capture this element the following questions need to be answered:

• Has there been a loss of life as a result of the event?

• Is there potential for loss of life?

• Has access to medical or emergency services been disrupted? Remember, socioeconomic planning begins after disaster strikes.

Get to Know … Public Affairs

We are a small but critical staff based out of the state office in Little Rock. There are four of us: Brenda Tustison, secretary; Pat Hoeffken, visual information specialist; Creston Shrum, public affairs specialist; and me, Molly Voeller, state public affairs specialist.

In private industry we would be the public relations and communications team. We concentrate on communications, both internal and external. We make the displays and posters. We write the newsletters and news releases. We provide hot issues reports to Washington D.C. and marketing advice to the Arkansas Management Team.

We are a busy team. Creston is the Web master and Brenda is also the secretary for Water Resources. Pat oversees the Earth Team Program for Arkansas and I manage Freedom of Information Act requests.

Our “Other-Duties-as-Assigned” include directing the Combined Federal Campaign for the state office, organizing the NRCS State Fair booth, participating in the Farm Family of the Year competition, and coordinating all sorts of major and mini special events.

We keep little things from falling through the cracks, like the employee directory and the state photo library.

As a staff, we play to our strengths. Pat is great with colors and layout, Creston can write fast and clear, I organize our workload, edit our drafts, and attend all sorts of meetings, Brenda keeps us in supplies, edits letters, and makes sure we enter our time.

Public Affairs is here to take care of you. We tell the American people about NRCS, what NRCS provides, and the good work accomplished through NRCS.

Invite a public affairs person to your next event, send us your best pictures, share what is happening in your county in this newsletter, and know that we are here supporting you behind the scenes and in front of the camera.

TSP Offers ‘Lifecycle Fund’

The Thrift Savings Plan now offers “lifecycle fund” investments.

Lifecycle funds are “target asset allocation funds.” These funds have a mix of investments of different types and characteristics, such as domestic stocks, international stocks, and bonds. The mix is chosen based on the date when employees will need to use their money.

If that date is a long time from now, the lifecycle fund will be more heavily weighted toward equities (stocks or stock funds). As the date employees will need their money gets nearer, the allocation will be weighted more heavily toward fixed income or stable value investments (e.g., bonds or bond funds, Treasury securities).

The TSP lifecycle funds will invest only in the fi ve funds currently offered by the TSP. Thus, the lifecycle funds will be composed of various percentages of the G, F, C, S, and I Fund assets.

The C, S, and I Funds will provide exposure to domestic and international equities, while the G and F Funds will provide fixed income and stable value investments. The TSP has decided to offer five lifecycle funds, collectively referred to as the “L Funds”:

• L 2040, with a horizon date of 2040

• L 2030, with a horizon date of 2030

• L 2020, with a horizon date of 2020

• L 2010, with a horizon date of 2010

• L Income, for participants who are already withdrawing their money or who are just about to begin withdrawal.

For more information on “L Funds,” visit the TSP Web site at www.tsp.gov.

Percentage limits lifted on TSP contributions

The percentage limitations on Thrift Savings Plan employee contributions will be lifted in 2006. Effective the first full pay period in January 2006, employee contributions to the TSP will be limited only by the restrictions imposed by the Internal Revenue Code. For 2006, the elective deferral limit is $15,000.

This limit does not apply to agency contributions made to the accounts of FERS participants. or to catch-up contributions that may be made by participants who are age 50 or older

NRCS Aids Vineyard

Ron Brown, Outreach Specialist

Efforts are being made to assist John Diaz, a Hispanic landowner, with improving the health of natural resources on his farmland.

Diaz has a vineyard and plans to learn how to start producing wine to sell to the Little Rock area. He is also looking at other eco/agri-tourism options on his property.

Assistance is being provided by Larry Hamilton, district conservationist at the Clinton Field Service Center; Lori Barker, Resource Conservation and Development coordinator of the Ozark Foothills RC&D Council; Luis Hernandez, state soil scientist; and others.

November is American Indian Heritage Month

A Native American Journey Through Time

In the beginning, it is said that the Cherokee (meaning “the first people) came to the Earth from holes in the ground and they had nothing – starving, sick, cold and suffering. It is also said that the Earth, the plants, and the animals saw the peoples’ suffering and had pity.

The generous and compassionate earth and living things therein, decided to sacrifice themselves to provide all that the people needed and end their sufferings.

And so it was that the first people and the Earth trusted in each other as a mother and child through out the phases of life: A perpetual trust that the Earth will provide and the people will respect, conserve, and protect the soil, water, air, trees, plants and animals in their service.

They are forever interdependent and intertwined – Trust and Stewardship. This painting depicts the perpetual trust of Mother Earth pouring forth her bounty from the Earth’s soils, waters, forests and seas.

Mother Earth has sacrificed this for the people since the beginning; providing all through out the phases of our lives. Our births–our new moon. Our prosperous life–our full moon. And, at the close of our life–our waning moon.

Thus, the title of this painting is: “The Trust & the Stewardship.”

S. Denise Housley

Calendar of Events

November

1 -- Northeast Area All Employees Meeting and Awards Program, Newport

1-2 -- Plant Materials Center and State Conservationist Advisory Committee Meeting, Booneville and Fort Smith

3 -- South Area All Employees Meeting and Awards Program, Mountain Pine

9-10 -- MO9/MO16 Board of Directors Meeting, Fort Worth, Texas

11 -- Veterans Day Holiday

14 -- State Office Awards Program

15 -- Northwest Area All Employees Meeting and Awards Program, Conway FSC

16 -- Management Team Meeting, State Office

24 -- Thanksgiving Day

December

7-8 -- Management Team Meeting, State Office

9 -- Farm Family of the Year Luncheon, 4-H Center, Ferndale

13-14 -- Arkansas Association of Conservation Districts Annual Meeting, North Little Rock

12-16 -- National Organization of Professional Black NRCS Employees Training Conference, Little Rock

26 -- Christmas Holiday

Comings & Goings

Monica Acre is the new soil conservation technician at the Marion Field Service Center.

Ray Erickson, water quality specialist at the Texarkana Technical Service Center, retired Oct. 1.

Crystal Evans is the new soil conservationist at the Searcy Field Service Center.

Amanda Mathis is the new soil conservationist at the Paris Field Service Center.

Joseph Mullins is the new soil conservation technician at the Wynne Field Service Center.

Richard Vaught is the new soil scientist at the Glenwood Soil Survey Project Office.

Spotlighting Volunteers . . . With a STROLL Through the Database

SOUTH AREA: Area Volunteer Coordinators: Doug Hunter & Sandy White, Camden FSC

• Clint Ramsey, District Conservationist in Nashville: Louis Morris and a group of volunteers worked 328 hours during March 2-8, 2005.

• Debra Crawford, District Conservationist in Texarkana: Volunteer John Turner has devoted 344 hours in Back To Nature and forestry activities since March 2004.

• Doug Hunter, District Conservationist in Camden: Camden had 16 active volunteers in FY-05.

• Robert Hankins, District Conservationist in Star City: Three Volunteers worked a total of 2,344 hours since 1998.

NORTHWEST AREA: Area Volunteer Coordinator: Alvin Peer, Clarksville FSC

• Bill Pugh, District Conservationist in Paris: Billy Garner volunteer 442 hours from March 2004 to February 2005 as an application assistant.

• Kelly Shrable, District Conservationist in Salem: Mitchell Wilkey volunteered 390 hours in planning assistance from March 18 to May 21, 2005.

• Rebecca Long, District Conservationist in Ash Flat: Volunteer Patty Sample distributed Water Quality Monitoring Kits to her biology class at Evening Shade High School. Students volunteered 455 hours to take 290 samples from rivers, tributaries and streams in Sharp County and registered them on-line with the National Water Quality Monitoring Database.

• Sid Lowrance, District Conservationist in Marshall: Volunteer Frank Bostwick worked 422 hours in FY-05. Volunteers in this office contributed 593 hours and built 140 Eastern Bluebird boxes in 2005.

NORTHEAST AREA: Area Volunteer Coordinator: Dawn Fox, Jonesboro TSC

• Corey Farmer, District Conservationist in North Little Rock: Six volunteers have contributed a total of 1, 639 hours since 2002.

• Marshall Handcock, District Conservationist in DeWitt: Three volunteers have donated 408 hours since June 2004.

• Willard Ryland, District Conservationist in Forrest City: Two volunteers have donated 415 hours since 2004.

• Tanya Patterson, a full-time college student, volunteered 328 hours as an administrative assistant, using Excel to create and manage all CRP, CSP, EQIP, and WRP activities in St. Francis County and Microsoft Word for clerical assignments.

STATE OFFICE: Area Volunteer Coordinator: Holly Anderson, Little Rock

• Patricia Hoeffken, State Volunteer Coordinator: In July 2005, Visual Information Specialist Ervin Ricks captured video of 10 Earth Team Volunteers building 12 Eastern Bluebird boxes on the grounds of the William Jefferson Clinton Presidential Library. See the national video “Getting the Job Done” currently up on MyNRCS: https://my.nrcsusda.gov/PortalStatic/videos/GettingtheJobDone4.r4m.

• Holly Anderson, State Office Volunteer Coordinator: Twelve volunteers (provided by the state office and NLR FSC) assisted with the “Backyard Conservation Waterfest 2005”. Thirty-five partners and agencies presented 20 demonstration booths for more than 300 students at Robinson Middle School in Little Rock. KARK-TV presented information on “Weather” and covered the event. N A volunteer reproduced 50 DVD on “Management Intensive Grazing of Beef” that will be distributed to the field.

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