WACD Reading List

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today announced the U.S. Department of Agriculture will invest $285 million to help the Forest Service address critical deferred maintenance and improve transportation and recreation infrastructure on national forests and grasslands.

The CDC has issued new guidance for vaccinated people, giving the green-light to resume some pre-pandemic activities and relax precautions that have been in place.

“NRCS wants to ensure that the standards used to carry out the conservation practices are relevant to local agricultural, forestry and natural resource needs,” Acting NRCS Chief Terry Cosby said. “We are revising conservation practice standards to make sure they are the best technology and address the needs of producers and the natural resources on their land.”

People who are fully vaccinated can safely have private visits with unvaccinated people who have a low risk for severe COVID-19, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced today in highly anticipated guidance for vaccinated people.

A South Dakota rancher and former head of the Intertribal Agriculture Council has been tapped as the first Indigenous person to lead the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Farm Services Agency.

If you’re a mother or father struggling to get by, who didn’t always know when or where the next meal would come from, you will rest easier tonight knowing help is on the way. The bill not only boosts SNAP benefits through September, it also increases targeted nutrition assistance to mothers and young children and expedites more nutrition aid to U.S. territories. Farmers, business owners, and workers across the food supply chain will see additional assistance to respond to market disruption, as well.

“I really enjoyed the project on the Skookumchuck River as a first planting project. Serving with Thurston Conservation District was a joy as well,” shared AmeriCorps member Kylie Rench. “It was wonderful to have our sponsors with us directly at the site and to plant the beginnings of an oak woodland. I am excited to see how well it does over the years!”

It’s frustrating when a member of your team has mentally checked out. In some cases, this person does only the bare minimum. In other cases, they fail to meet important deadlines, or they drop the ball on critical projects.

From Tuesday to Friday afternoon, zebra mussel sightings have popped up in Washington state, as well as Wyoming, Oregon, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, New York, Pennsylvania and Montana. “This has blown up,” Anderson says. A USGS employee said the agency has heard that at least 12 states have been affected as of Friday afternoon.

This week is the second week in a two week stretch of floor action in the House and Senate.

The Recovering America’s Wildlife Act, also known as RAWA, would direct nearly $1.4 billion annually to state and tribal wildlife agencies to protect overlooked species. The bill also would likely require states to put up 25% in matching funds for the money they receive. Wildlife officials say the extra cash would allow them to multiply their work on non-game animals to many times their current capacity.

In Oregon, state GOP lawmakers walked out of a Legislative session last week over the Democratic governor’s vaccine plans, citing rural vaccine distribution among their concerns.

As public administrators, we are both aware of and resigned to the lack of diversity in our public meetings. Laudable creative strategies are punctually deployed to increase it, including taking meetings with key stakeholder groups, providing evening childcare, making some meetings more ‘fun’ and even doing away with the chambers altogether by hosting off-site meetings.

The [IDAHO] Senate Agricultural Affairs Committee voted 5-3 to send to the full Senate the bill requiring state officials to consider economic ramifications when imposing pollution regulations on farms and ranches producing manure to protect nearby communities and the environment from pollution.

The Washington State Economic and Revenue Forecast Council (ERFC) released their latest economic review this week, finding positive trends in the context of ongoing economic uncertainty.

But a new paper from Hanson and others at the NOAA Fisheries Northwest Fisheries Science Center provides the first real look at what the whales eat the rest of the year, when they cruise the outer Pacific Coast — data that reaffirms the central importance of Chinook to the whales and the importance of recovering Chinook populations to save the beloved mammals.

The bottom line is—don’t fall victim to the misconception that federal government employment is the only opportunity for a veteran to work in public service after their time in the military. If you are a veteran and have a heart for service to others, local government may be the path for you. Don’t discount your local cities, counties or state agencies as a viable option to continue to serve in your community.

A bill to make it easier for Washington ranchers to get their meat directly to consumers unanimously passed the state Senate this week. The bill would create a state-run meat and poultry inspection program with requirements equal to those of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The Northwest snowpack is now well above normal and with the latest model runs, it is pretty much guaranteed to stay that way through April 1. And April 1 is the key date: the defined date for measuring the winter's snowy bounty before the spring melt season begins.

A good snowpack means more water for farmers who need irrigation this summer, as well as municipal water supplies. It can also help mitigate wildfire season.

The 2021 Spring Fly-In will be conducted virtually. Find more information on NACD's Virtual Advocacy Week, to be held the week of March 22.

We expect a 1.3% increase in Washington employment this year which is down from the 3.5% increase in the November forecast. We expect above average growth through the remainder of the forecast as the economy recovers from this deep recession. We expect employment growth to average 2.2% per year in 2022 through 2025 compared to the 1.7% average rate expected in November. Our forecast for nominal personal income growth this year is 3.9%, up from a 1.1% decline in the November forecast.

Federal funding, “and a very significant amount of it,” will be needed to bring broadband access to all of rural America, he said. “I’m skeptical the private sector by itself is ever going to do what it needs to make sure that every remote area of this country has access to high-speed internet” because of the cost of providing service. The government took a prominent role during the New Deal in electrifying rural America.

Here in the northwest, Washington loss 100 farms last year, while Oregon and Idaho showed no change. Meanwhile, Montana gained 100 farms in 2020.

Monday, Feb. 22, was the second legislative deadline, when all bills must have been voted out of their respective fiscal committees to remain “alive.” Since then, the Legislature has mostly ceased committee action and is focused on floor action for the time being, which entails the entire chamber (either the House of Representatives or the Senate) considering and voting on bills. Once a bill passes out of its original chamber, it moves to the other chamber, and the entire committee process repeats.

Producers could see three new revenue streams from climate mitigation, he said. They were income from carbon markets, from conversion of agricultural waste into products ranging from chemicals to fabrics, and capture of methane from manure for use as a renewable fuel.

Discrimination in the Workplace March 2, 4-5pm Please join us for an informational webinar that will cover what discrimination is, the various types of discrimination, and what to do if you believe you have been adversely affected by discrimination.

OLYMPIA — A bill to give counties and cities rather than an unelected state board the power to approve or reject solar panel arrays on farmland has failed.

The Senate unanimously passed 12th District Senator Brad Hawkins Senate Bill 5158, legislation to implement the Electric Utilities Wildland Fire Prevention Task Force recommendations for wildfire prevention.