WACD Reading List

Dan Newhouse says Tom Vilsack returning to head the USDA is a good thing for the farming community. The Chair of the Western Congressional Caucus, and a central Washington farmer himself, Newhouse said Vilsack can hit the ground running. Adding the Secretary understands many of the issues before Northwest producers.

The new era of climate mitigation on the farm would look like a beefed-up version of longstanding USDA conservation programs, augmented by a carbon bank that sets a floor price for carbon sequestration and reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, said leaders of the Food and Agriculture Climate Alliance (FACA) on Wednesday. “That’s what we’ve modeled it after,” said Chuck Connor, a founding member of the alliance and a former deputy agriculture secretary.

Prior to joining USDA, Harden was CEO of the National Association of Conservation Districts, providing national leadership for thousands of conservation districts across the nation.

Applications are now open until April 12, 2021. NYCALC will take place online from July 5 - July 29, 2021. Sessions will be held on Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday from 2pm-6pm EST. The week of July 19th will be offline to accommodate community engagement projects.

The Future We Desire: A resilient, restorative, economically viable, and climate-smart agricultural system that produces abundant and nutritious food, natural fiber, and clean energy for a sustainable, vibrant, and prosperous America.

Award-winning, conservation-minded landowners will soon be sharing their knowledge by serving as mentors for historically underserved farmers and ranchers.

By a 92-7 vote Tuesday, the Senate confirmed former Iowa Governor and two term Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack to head the USDA yet again. There was really no debate Tuesday, but there was some bipartisan praise from Senate Ag chair Debbie Stabenow and ranking committee member John Boozman.

Washington’s long-held restriction on public utilities offering public broadband service directly to residents is one step closer to being overturned after the House voted 60-37 to pass the Public Broadband Act (HB 1336).

The Agriculture Department said that after a detailed investigation, it found no evidence that someone was trying to harm U.S. agriculture. The report concluded the seeds were likely part of an internet scam to help a seller boost its search results.

In "More Than Meets the Eye? The Role of Annual Ornamental Plants in Supporting Pollinators," Emily Erickson presents the findings of a 2-year field study and describes pollinator visitation to a variety of popular annual ornamental plants.

For the first time in the organization’s 102-year history, the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) 2021 annual convention was held virtually. More than 8,000 people registered for the online event, surpassing attendance records of all prior in-person annual conventions.

Private forestland owners in Oregon’s Wasco County are encouraged to reduce the risk of wildfire and improve their forest health with help from the NRCS. The restoration effort, called the Central Wasco County All-Lands Project, is funded by the Joint Chiefs Landscape Restoration Initiative, a partnership between NRCS and the Forest Service. The overall goal is to reduce the risk of wildfires on both public and private lands.

Negotiations continue on legislation dealing with the agricultural overtime issue. An alternative version of SB 5172 passed out of the Senate Labor and Commerce Committee by last Monday’s deadline. Unfortunately, the amended bill is not supported by agriculture and came out of committee on a party-line vote, but at least we have a bill that is still moving through the process and made the deadline.

The U.S. Interior Department is delaying and reviewing the Trump administration’s last-minute roll-back of federal protections for the imperiled northern spotted owl, which called for slashing protections from millions of acres of Northwest forests.

In an interview with CPR News, Neguse said he plans to use the post to shift the federal approach on wildfire prevention. As one of his first actions, he introduced a bill for a 21st Century Conservation Corps, which would direct more than $40 billion to protect public lands and hire a new generation of forest managers. He hopes Biden makes it a part of an expected infrastructure package.

“A lot of these practices, while they may be good, aren’t always free or they require some investment or they require some new knowledge,” said Bonnie.

Learning is acquiring necessary information to do your job. Learning can be formal or informal, a big deal or simply getting a question answered. You can learn by taking a class, or just leaning over and watching a more experienced colleague do their job. The problem with learning is that it's difficult to quantify for a performance review or checklist.

Former Reddit CEO is looking to solve Climate Change by planting 1 Trillion trees at his new startup, Terraformation

An atmospheric river event known as the "Pineapple Express" is forecast to bring a prolonged period of wet weather and the potential for avalanches to Washington and Oregon beginning Sunday.

“The URLs are malformed, not utilizing the normal URL protocols, such as http:// or https://,” researchers said in a blog post about their findings. “Instead, they use http:/\ in their URL prefix.”

OLYMPIA — The hunt for the Asian giant hornet is being shared in a 90-minute documentary, “Attack of the Murder Hornets,” streaming on Discovery+ starting Saturday.

During CSA Week, which begins Sunday, farmers across the country will promote their offerings. The acronym stands for Community Supported Agriculture, a term that stems from the biodynamic agriculture movement created by Rudolf Steiner in the northeastern United States in the 1980s. CSA members share the risk of farming by purchasing a share at the beginning of the growing season so the farmer can buy seeds and equipment. At harvest time, members get a weekly box of produce.

One way to support the future of the Othello Festival, which is coordinated by the Grant County Conservation District with contributions from volunteers, local business sponsors and wildlife and agriculture experts, is by purchasing a festival T-shirt through the link above.