Author: Site Owner

We all have a different connection to nature. For those who have a love of outdoor adventure and spend much of their time in nature, that connection is imperative to who they are. This is the case for KC Deane. Deane is an accomplished skier and mountain biker who also happens to be great with a camera. He’s competed in numerous renowned events and had his photography published frequently. In the following interview, learn more about Deane’s connection to nature and the environment in which he thrives.

Q: Do you think it was nature or nurture that created in you the seeds of the passion you have for outdoor adventure?

A: For me, I think it was both. Having parents that get you in the outdoors is a key element. Then, once you get out in nature, it keeps you coming back. The older I got the more I wanted to be outside and looking for new places.

Q: How young were you when you first knew you wanted to be pushing your limits outside?

A: I was probably about 5 or 6 years old. I had been skiing for a few years at age 6 and looked up to my brother and my dad. Also, the influence of watching ski movies made me want to be a skier.

Q: Was there a mentor or influence in your life that drew you to these sports?

A: My dad, 100 percent. He is the reason I am doing so many different sports. He was taking me skiing and climbing as a little kid and towing me up hills on my bike before I had enough strength to keep up with everyone. He was constantly taking me into the mountains, and, by an early age, I was always looking forward to doing something new.

Q: What is the connection for you, if any, between your adventure life and your view of the natural world?

A: Every day that I get out to do a sport, I’m in nature. So, being in nature on a daily basis and seeing the effects humans have locally, as well as globally, through global warming, it is hard not to become protective over the places we go and what we have.

Q: As a photographer, filmmaker and blogger/adventurer, what impact do you hope your work will have on others?

A: One of the best things for me is to inspire others to go do things and see more. Personally, one of the best compliments as an athlete/photographer is when I get a comment or meet someone in person that tells me, “hey, I just upped and left what I was doing because I wanted to go see and experience the places that I’ve seen through your images.” So, to continue that is one way I hope to impact people, and the other is to see and admire a place while leaving it as it is. Sometimes, the more people visit a place, for instance, you can see the effects they have on it. I like to think that when a person goes to see a place I took an image of they see it without any trace of myself or anyone else that has been there before.

The best time to bee a friend to pollinators is now! Today is the first day of summer and the launch of National Pollinator Week, June 20-26. Around the globe, people are celebrating with events that emphasize the importance of pollinators and teach ways to save them. Here at USDA, we’ve issued the National Pollinator Week Proclamation and are hosting our seventh annual Pollinator Week Festival this Friday, June 24 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. outside USDA Headquarters in Washington, DC.

The festival highlights the work of USDA agencies, other federal departments and institutions such as the United States Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Smithsonian Gardens, and the U.S. Botanic Garden, who along with partners like the National Honey Board, Pollinator Partnership and University of Maryland Extension are working to address pollinator decline.

It’s a free (and fun) event for all ages to learn about the birds and the bees – as well as other pollinators like bats and monarch butterflies. Ask experts, participate in kid-friendly activities and watch live demonstrations about why you should care about pollinators, what is being done to protect them, and how you can help them not only survive but thrive. It’s as easy as planting a window box for pollinators.

Pollinators like bees and bats shouldn’t scare us. What should be worrisome is a world without them. The simple truth is that every one of us needs pollinators to survive. Pollinators visit flowers providing an essential ecological function – pollination, which in return produces fruits including many summertime favorites like watermelon.

You can see how such a crisis could affect our food system at the USDA Farmers Market, located next to the Pollinator Week Festival. Stop at the market for groceries or lunch and see signs labeling produce and prepared food offerings we’d be without if not for the hard work of bees, birds, butterflies, bats and other pollinators.

National Pollinator Week is an annual reminder that each of us can be a friend to pollinators. Learn ways to help in your community on the People’s Garden website at https://peoplesgarden.usda.gov/ and don’t forget to share your actions, big or small, with us on Twitter @PeoplesGarden. Your neighborhood pollinators will thank you!

USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service, Transportation and Marketing Program oversees the People’s Garden Initiative for the Department.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack visited the Caribbean Climate Hub in Puerto Rico earlier this month to lead a roundtable discussions with local agricultural officials, farmers and ranchers, USDA agency leaders, economic investors, and scientists, and to view first-hand the Hub’s pioneering work in climate change research, education and outreach.

“Adaptation to climate change is a matter of National Security.  We need to have a functional food economy to counter food insecurity,” said Secretary Vilsack during the Climate Hub Roundtable held at the El Yunque National Forest.  Local USDA agency leaders expressed concern about the increasing incidence of pests and diseases affecting agriculture and forestry in the Caribbean, mostly related to climate change, and the need for more education and support for water and soil conservation measures.

To increase awareness and promote climate adaptation and mitigation, the Caribbean Hub has developed ADAPTA, an innovative outreach project to deliver climate services and provide tools and educational resources for practitioners through videos, factsheets and podcasts.  During the Secretary’s visit, the Caribbean Hub released the second video of the ADAPTA series, which features Duamed Colón of AgroTropical, a plantain and vegetable farmer using cover crops, contour farming, intercropping, and plant tissue culture technology to reduce the impacts of drought and increased temperatures on his farm in central Puerto Rico.

This new video entitled “Climate Resilient Agriculture: Plantains & Vegetables” demonstrates viable adaptive practices for building soil health and battling pests, both of which are critical in building resilience to climate change.  The Caribbean Hub, located at the International Institute of Tropical Forestry in Puerto Rico has prioritized listening and is working closely with agricultural advisers and producers to understand how climate change is affecting food production, and what tools and information farmers need to prepare for the future.

Since 2014, the Hub has tailored climate change science to the unique needs of tropical growers. Throughout his visit, Secretary Vilsack highlighted the potential of pursuing organic and value-added production methods in helping Caribbean producers compete in a global market.  He also stressed the importance of the Caribbean Hub as a nexus for information sharing and recognized the value of the Hub as a resource not only for the U.S. Caribbean, but for international partners in Latin America and the Caribbean, and to tropical agriculture and forestry around the world.

Caribbean Hub Contact: wgould@fs.fed.us and iparesramos@fs.fed.us

Farmer Duamed Colón of AgroTropical shares sustainable land management practices for climate change adaptation in the new ADAPTA video “Climate Resilient Agriculture: Plantains & Vegetables” produced by the USDA Caribbean Climate Hub. (Video Credit: Isabel Parés, Caribbean Climate Hub, U.S. Forest Service)

 

When one thinks about home, they often think about warm meals on the dinner table, cozying up on the couch, painting the nursery, or even building equity in a place one calls their own. When I think housing- especially new housing: I also think opportunity; I think jobs.

Jobs come from laying foundations, installing windows, and making sure faucets pour water and lights shine bright. Most importantly, jobs go home at the end of the shift, and gather at that dinner table knowing local economies are improving. We have had 75 straight months of private-sector job growth in America, and the housing sector has played its part.

That is good news, but it’s not enough.

Job growth can only continue when employers are succeeding, and public agencies like the USDA’s Rural Housing Service support the work of private property owners, community organizations and local leaders. I’ve come to realize this is especially important in small towns and rural places. To have a dependable, well-functioning housing market, you need a critical mass of capital and housing expertise to keep buyers buying, sellers selling, and local communities growing. If a place does not have enough capital, credit, or investment it will struggle to produce new houses and maintain home values. If a place does not have enough builders, skilled trades, realtors, appraisers, and title companies it will struggle to renovate and replace older housing, let alone build new homes.

USDA has programs built for the needs of rural places. We provide credit and capital when it is in short supply. We support the work of local housing professionals, knowing they are necessary to get the job done. We are making it easier than ever before to use our homeownership programs to build new homes, and therefore create jobs.

For example, USDA has upgraded its Single Family Housing Direct Home Loans and Home Loan Guarantees to help folks who typically cannot afford to own a home, buy affordable homes in rural areas. An individual or family can now use these programs to buy a lot, prepare it for construction, and build a new house all under one affordable mortgage.

We look forward to celebrating Homeownership Month with you this June. You can be certain USDA will continue to work with lenders, law makers, home builders, and home buyers to create affordable housing stock, generate new jobs, preserve existing ones, and ultimately Build Communities Together.

If you, a friend, or a loved one wants to own a home in rural America, but is unsure how to make it financially possible reach out to your local USDA Rural Development office today. We may have an opportunity for you.

Find out the latest in forest news in this week’s Forest Digest!

• Even Indoor Kids Should Worry About California’s 30 Million Dead Trees — Wired.com
  Last year, the state of California lost nearly 30 million trees, and this changing landscape will impact residents in a variety of ways, including increased wildfires, potential mudslides, poor water quality and more.
• U.S., Norway say forests vital to global climate goals — Reuters
  In a joint statement made on Wednesday by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and the Norwegian government, both countries have signed a deal focusing on protecting forests, and engaging the private sector in doing so, in order to address climate goals.
• Canadian forests a refuge as warming creeps north — ScienceDaily
  A recent Harvard study, analyzing more than 26,000 trees across an area of Canada, helps to reveal how increased rainfall may help certain trees in the area survive the threats of climate change.
• Trees Lining California Streets Are Worth An Extra $1 Billion A Year — Huffington Post
  A new study estimates each street tree within California to be worth $111, based on the benefits they provide, which can assist the state’s urban foresters in advocating for the planting of more trees and strategic selection of trees that provide maximum economic and environmental impact.

Shadows start falling fast while you scurry to gather the last scraps of dead wood before it’s too dark – and too scary – to leave the relative security of the campsite on your favorite National Forest or Grassland. But, once the fire is safely lit, everyone gathers around to start roasting marshmallows and listen to…ghost stories!

No one really knows when or how the tradition of telling scary ghost stories around a campfire began. It just did, and we really like to do it. In fact, there are many books out there that provide those with less creative story telling talents to get a group of outdoors enthusiasts nervously shifting their eyes and jumping at the sound of what was certainly a twig being broken by the heavy foot of a monstrous creature in the night or, yes, even a clumsy ghost.

There are many reasons most of us, to some degree, are afraid of the dark especially while outside. Some believe it’s simply an evolved trait that kept us from, well, being eaten by the above mentioned monstrous creature in the night.

All I know is as a creative writer myself, I really looked forward to trying out my story telling skills around a campfire. Sometimes my spooky tales are really creative like the ghost of Isabella who haunted a nearby meadow searching for her child who wandered off and was never seen again.

And, sometimes, my stories are complete rip-offs from classics like Washington Irving’s headless horseman, albeit with a little twist. My headless dude was a lumberjack who literally lost his head in a bizarre tree cutting accident that really challenged my imagination to the delight of those around me.

But, bad, good or just silly—ghost stories that really scare you are best served around a campfire with friends and family. So start your summer this Great Outdoors Month and Get Outdoors with some really spooky and memorable fun!

As I travel across the country visiting our nation’s summer meals sites, I am proud of the commitment we’ve collectively made to nourish both the bodies and minds of our country’s children and teens. Schools, recreation centers, places of worship, libraries and other community sites have generously opened their doors to ensure kids receive healthy, balanced meals during the summer months – a time when many low-income families struggle to provide their children nutritious meals and snacks each and every day.

At USDA we’ve long recognized summer as a vulnerable time for kids and have been focused on closing the food security gap that occurs during the months when school is out of session.  Since 2009, more than 1.2 billion meals have been served through the Summer Meal Programs, fueling kids and teens throughout the summer and helping to ensure they are healthy and ready to learn when the school year begins.

In support of these same goals, the White House announced earlier this year the Summer Opportunity Project, a multi-agency initiative to expand opportunities for young people through the summer.  The initiative aims to increase the participation of youth in evidence-based summer opportunity programs and make sure young Americans have the support they need to get their first job.

USDA’s Summer Meal Programs play an important role in achieving this mission. By ensuring the most basic need of good nutrition is met, kids and teens in eligible communities can more easily pursue and leverage summer opportunities.  Many sites offer not only healthy meals and snacks, but also host physical and enrichment activities to keep kids engaged and coming back day after day.  By including free and low-cost activities into Summer Meal Programs, sites boost attendance and make the meal service more fun for children, their families, and volunteers.  To support these efforts, this spring USDA published Summer Food, Summer Moves to help sites and sponsors offer ideas on engaging kids, teens, and their families.

Increasing the number of meals served through the Summer Meal Programs has been a rewarding achievement during my time at FNS, as each meal served elevates the life of a child or teen in our country.   With the help of our creative and hardworking volunteers, sponsors and partners, we were able to serve more than 190 million meals last summer.  Groups like Fuel Up to Play 60, Feeding America, Catholic Charities, United Way, and First Book have all played a key part in providing access to summer meals for children living in areas with high food insecurity.  Engaging the community in summer meals is also integral to the success of the program.  These programs allow communities to take a lead role in preventing hunger and focus their efforts where there is increased need.

To locate a summer meal site near you, visit http://www.fns.usda.gov/summerfoodrocks

By Lindsay Seventko, Communications Intern

There are still extraordinary places left on earth where old-growth trees have been climbing hundreds of feet to the sky for centuries, safely distanced from the watchful eye of development and industry. Here, rare wildlife flourishes, like it did in the breathtaking and doubt-inspiring accounts of Lewis and Clark’s first expeditions, off the beaten path of destinations and away from typical tourists.

However, stands of ancient trees have also stood among us, sometimes largely unnoticed, as recreationalists trek by with eyes focused on the trail, river or rock ledge.

Whether you’d rather explore deep within the wilderness where few venture, or enjoy a simple walk in the outdoors, there are beautiful, old-growth forests waiting to be visited. Put one of these areas on your list of places to explore, and who knows, maybe the next Champion Big Tree is waiting to be discovered.

1. Tongass National Forest, Alaska

Tongass National Forest is home to some of the oldest trees on earth — many of them dating back more than 800 years. Spruce, cedar and western hemlock trees stretch more than 200 feet into the sky and reach nearly 12 feet in diameter at chest level. These impressive trees mark the section of southeast Alaska that makes up 30 percent of the temperate rainforests on earth and one of the last great marvels of biodiversity and natural abundance. Here, some of the rarest wildlife on earth abounds — bald eagles, grizzly bears, Alexander Archipelago wolves, the Goshawk and the Marbled Murrelet. Ancient glaciers feed the Icy Straight, a winding river that delivers three times as much essential organic carbon to the ocean than the Amazon River does, supporting lush marine life from krill to sea lions, whales and a range of salmon species. Exploring the Tongass can be a short hike or a deep wilderness trek, but the time to visit is now, as the forest’s timber harvesting plan threatens the remaining old-growth trees and the health of the wildlife habitat.

2. Chattahoochee National Forest, South Carolina and Georgia

Chattahoochee National Forest is home to massive hemlocks, pines and hardwoods, with stately trees stretching more than 160 feet tall and 3 feet in diameter. Scattered across the slopes of Medlin Mountain in South Carolina, the massive trunks contrast with the heavily logged bank of the East Fork of the Chattooga River. Towering canopies shelter dense, luscious rhododendron bushes, wildflowers and endangered plants such as the rattlesnake plantain and mountain camellia.

The area used to be the end of what was a large section of old-growth forest across the entire watershed, where the average tree height was a record 160 feet. Due to the knotty nature of the wood, timber harvesters avoided the area and the trees were left to flourish for centuries, some up to 600 years. It wasn’t until the woolly adelgid, an invasive insect, began covering the area and the hemlocks were put into shock and, ultimately, began dying off. Some of the old stands remain, however, covering the mountainsides. Spring is the time to explore the trails, when the solitary viereo, black-throated green warbler and Blackburnian warbler nest in the hemlock branches and rhododendron bushes bloom underneath the cover.

3. Heart’s Content Recreation Area, Allegheny National Forest, Pennsylvania

Nestled within a small 120-acre area of the Allegheny National Forest, some of the largest old-growth trees in North America grow alongside an easily accessible, one mile trail. The Heart’s Content Recreation Area is home to a white pine that is more than 900 cubic feet, as well as a 300-year-old hemlock and beech. This preserve is a great way to view an old, beautiful forest and its wildlife without traipsing deep within a wild area.

4. Adirondack State Park, New York

The Adirondack wilderness in New York is home to about 300,000 acres of ancient trees scattered about the vast wilderness. Some of the largest hardwoods in the world can be found dotting remote ridgelines and lining secluded rivers deep within the park, where logging wasn’t able to disrupt centuries of steady growth. However, some select stands have remained in accessible areas. A few minutes’ walk on the Ampersand Mountain trailhead leads to statuesque hemlocks, magnificent sugar maples and gangly yellow birch that have been growing for nearly 400 years.

5. Jedediah Redwoods State Park, California

A list of old-growth forests wouldn’t be complete without mentioning California’s awe-inspiring redwoods, but the Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park in the northernmost section is especially impressive. A trip begins with one of the most beautiful drives in the state — winding through towering redwoods over rough gravel for 10 miles and ending deep within the ancient forest. Miles of remote trails explore stunning waterfalls, rare wildlife and, of course, gigantic trees. Here, two massive redwoods entwine each other into one massive trunk that stretches 40 feet across at the bottom. The park is also the launching pad for discovery of the fabled Grove of Titans, a group of famously massive trees whose location isn’t made publicly available in order to protect them from damage.

Across the country, there are still groves of old-growth forests deep within a wilderness valley, protected in a recreational area or even in someone’s backyard. Whether you want to simply walk and appreciate an ancient forest, or go off on an expedition to find a new champion tree, there is an area of old forest waiting, with trees continuing their centuries long climb to the sky.

Whether you are new to exporting or your company has been in the business for years, USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) and its partners can help you build markets for your products around the globe. FAS offers a variety of services and programs that help U.S. agricultural exporters succeed in the global marketplace. From facilitating relationships with potential foreign buyers, to providing technical and financial assistance, FAS resources and expertise link U.S. agriculture to a world of opportunities.

For those new to exporting, a great place to start is with the State Regional Trade Group (SRTG) that covers your area. FAS supports four of these nonprofit organizations, which in turn assist U.S. food and agricultural businesses with the entire exporting process. Your SRTG can help you learn the fundamentals of exporting, identify overseas opportunities and market your products through trade shows and trade missions. With FAS support, SRTGs also help fund international marketing campaigns and promote U.S. farm and food products overseas. FAS and SRTGs work closely together with the ultimate goal of helping U.S. food and agricultural interests build a global business. Here’s more information about the STRGs.

FAS also partners with more than 70 nonprofit trade associations, called “cooperators,” that represent producers of myriad food and agricultural products — from pecans to papayas, from sorghum to salmon, from dried beans to beef, and beyond. As part of their mission to promote U.S. agricultural products around the world, many cooperator organizations offer exporter assistance, sponsor inbound and outbound trade missions, and help farmers and ranchers identify international market opportunities. Here’s the online directory of FAS cooperator organizations.

Doing business in foreign countries and cultures can be daunting, but FAS has a global network of offices, covering more than 170 countries, with staff who serve as the eyes, ears and voice for U.S. agriculture around the world. They analyze foreign market opportunities, prepare trade forecasts, and track changes in policies affecting U.S. agricultural exports and imports. This first-hand intelligence can help exporters make informed decisions about how and where to grow their businesses.

Even experienced exporters can run into challenges. Navigating certification, documentation and registration requirements can be confusing and time-consuming. But help is just a phone call or an email away. The FAS Trade Facilitation Desk (202-720-2378 or agexport@fas.usda.gov) serves as a point of contact for exporters, state departments of agriculture and industry cooperator groups seeking assistance and guidance on foreign import requirements.

Wondering if your business is ready to take the leap into the international marketplace? In addition to the above resources available from FAS, you can visit BusinessUSA to assess your export-readiness and find out how to tap into a host of U.S. government programs and services to help you get started.

Sound business decisions are based off of reliable data, and this is certainly the case for food producers and retailers.  For small and mid-sized producers, access to timely and reliable data can be critical to their success.  Whether they are selling products on the wholesale or retail market, producers need to quickly see the commodities in demand and how much they should be charging for their product or what products are the best buy for shoppers at that moment in time.

The entire agricultural supply chain turns to USDA Market News – administered by USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) – for the data they need when they need it.  Serving stakeholders of all sizes and at all levels of trading, from small producer to retailer to consumer, USDA Market News allows producers and purchasers to realistically compare prices, trends, supply and demand from day to day and from market to market across the country.  USDA Market News ensures that no group is disadvantaged by lack of information.

For retail data, Market News provides advertised retail pricing information, also known as weekly specials, for several hundred commodities at major retail supermarket outlets on a weekly basis.  The information is gathered from publicly available sources like retailer websites from approximately 220 chain groceries, representing some 26,000 stores nationwide.

The data includes individual weekly reports for dairy, lamb, veal, pork, beef, poultry, eggs, and specialty crops (primarily fruits and vegetables).  These reports represent weekly advertised retail prices by region, along with a national summary.

For instance, the National Retail Report – Specialty Crops, issued on June 10, 2016, lets you know that foods for summer barbecues and beach picnics were also being featured, including fresh local produce alongside lunch meats and cheeses, cuts for the grill, chips and ready-made desserts in the bakery.  Looking for a deal?  The same report lets you know that the prices for vine tomatoes were down by 21 percent.

All of the retail reports present the data in user-friendly pie charts, graphs, and of course raw numbers.  The reports include current data, the previous week’s data, and data from the previous year.  They even include pricing for organic products, and a percentage of the fruits and vegetables advertisements that are labeled as locally grown.  For more detailed information on organic and locally grown produce, you can also visit the National Retail Local and Organic Report.

To simplify data collection for multiple commodities, Market News issues the Retail Summarized Dataset, which combines all the data represented in the individual retail reports and is available in various formats.

As an unbiased resource, Market News retail reports help encourage market stability and transparency by promoting healthy competition within the marketplace and providing equal access to market information for all producers and retailers.  These reports also help producers adapt their production and marketing strategies to meet changing consumer demands, marketing practices and technologies.

If you are in the market for agricultural commodity retail data, be sure to visit the USDA Market News Retail Page.