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December 21st, 2016|Tags: recreation|0 Comments

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By Lindsay Seventko, American Forests

During winter, it can be tempting to curl up indoors away from the cold wind and wet snow, but this time of year is when some of America’s landscapes transform into breathtaking winter wonderlands. Even if you’ve experienced these locations at other times throughout the year, they offer a completely different experience during the winter months.

Mount Rainier National Park, Wash.

Many people avoid traveling to the northwest during winter, fearing the deep cold and treacherous snow, thanks to a World Record 1,122 inches of snowfall (the height of a 10-story building!). But, Mt. Rainier National Park in Washington State can be a magical winter getaway with plenty of unique winter wildlife to view under the snow-capped firs. Foxes and rabbits dart across the landscape and stick out against the white snow, while white-tailed ptarmigan and snowshoe hare blend into the drifts with their stark-white pelts.

One other feature that sets this park apart is that, in addition to traditional winter sports (snowshoeing, cross-country skiing, snowboarding and snowmobiling), the park offers designated areas for sledding and sliding. Long, clear stretches of snow offer pristine and scenic slides down the mountainside, while the deeply packed snow prevents any damage to the meadow vegetation underneath.

Blue Chinook Pass, Mount Ranier, Wash. Credit: JD Hascup via Flickr.

Crater Lake National Park, Ore.

Crater Lake in Oregon is a pristine body of water within a sleeping volcano. During winter, the area freezes under up to 44 feet of snow, creating a pristine wonderland through several forest ecosystems — ponderosa pines at lower elevations, lodgepole pine and mountain hemlock up the mountain slopes and the Whitebark pine up above 7,500 feet. Through these ecosystems, witness wintering herds of Roosevelt elk wandering beneath the trees, a herd of pronghorn antelope along the slopes and Clark’s nutcracker up in the branches above.

Crater Lake, Ore. Credit: Forrest Stanley via Flickr.

Acadia National Park, Maine

Acadia National Park in winter is a special destination for several reasons. The snow-capped firs lead right up to ocean’s white-capped waves along the coast, and up in the highlands, hikers who trek up Cadillac Mountain in early morning will be the first people in the country to see the light of sunrise. With 45 miles of carriage roads to explore, Acadia offers beautifully groomed trails to explore by snowshoe, cross-country ski or snowmobile.

Acadia National Park, Maine. Credit: Amy Meredith via Flickr.

Grand Tetons National Park, Wyo.

The Grand Tetons area is the country’s must-visit location for wildlife during winter. The icy peaks jutting out of the forested landscape provide habitat for elk, bison, the one remaining bighorn sheep and four wolf packs with home ranges in the area. The park also has limited snowmobile access, offering quiet and remote trails to traverse on foot, undisturbed by motor noise.

Grand Tetons, Wyo. Credit: Carfull via Flickr.

Niagara Falls, N.Y.

Niagara Falls takes on a new light during winter — literally. As the spray of the falls coats everything it touches, it creates beautiful ice sculptures, icicles and prisms which reflect and sparkle in the winter sun. The Canadian side of the falls also hosts the Winter Festival of the Lights, where millions of sparkling lights decorate trees, lampposts and buildings.

Niagara Falls, N.Y. Credit: Mr. Buinn via Flickr.

The post 5 of America’s Winter Wonderlands appeared first on American Forests.

Oklahoma farmer Steve Burris feeds Angus cattle on his farm, purchased from his father-in-law, who retired after 69 years. myRA, offers retiring farmers and ranchers a simple, safe, and affordable method to start saving for retirement.

In agriculture, retirement can mean something quite different compared with other U.S. households.

Often, our parents and senior relatives on the farm or ranch are far from “retired,” and, in fact, remain active participants in daily operations and decisions.

Financially, retirement in agriculture can be different, too. Compared to the general population, farmers and ranchers have a distinctive combination of assets, income sources, and saving habits, with large percentages of their financial portfolios intertwined in the business equity, all which must be carefully considered when planning for intergenerational transfers, and while generating and maintaining retirement income.

As for actual savings accounts, while 60 percent of all households nationwide participate in some type of a retirement account, just 40 percent of eligible farm households do. In fact, only 7 percent of farmers and ranchers contribute to the types of Individual Retirement Accounts (IRA) that can provide helpful tax advantages, with just 3 percent of the general population having an IRA.

That’s why the U.S. Department of the Treasury recently launched a new tool, known as myRA, for anyone interested in a simple, safe, understandable, and affordable method to start saving for retirement.

It costs nothing to open an account, there are no fees, and contributions are invested in a U.S. Treasury security that safely earns interest. You can contribute as little as a few dollars each month, or even create automatic contributions from your bank account or paycheck, up to $5,500 per year. When you’re ready, you can roll over these savings into a private sector Roth IRA at any time to continue growing your savings.

The myRA is not intended to replace existing employer-sponsored retirement plans, such as a 401(k) plan, because those accounts may offer special incentives like an employer matching payment. But if you don’t have access to a retirement savings plan, or excessive fees and complicated investment options are daunting, or perhaps you would like the younger members of your family to have better retirement awareness, then the U.S. Treasury’s myRA savings account might be an option for you?

Even if your future goal is to receive on-farm income, inheritance, or varying degrees of off-farm income such as social security, rental income, or veterans benefits, a myRA account still may be a helpful addition to your portfolio. Plus it is never too early to start saving: if you are 18 or older, not a full time student, and not a dependent, you are eligible.

So as the holidays approach, and the year nears its end, perhaps a new myRA could be a great way to take that first step towards building, or complementing, that retirement nest egg. To learn more about the program and its beneficial tax attributes, visit myRA.gov.

Sarah, a regular Webster volunteer, enjoys joining kindergarten students for lunch.

How do you create a better lunch experience for students? It all started with a conversation between Ginger Davis Kranz, Principal of Webster Elementary School, and the Minneapolis Public Schools’ Director of Food Service, Bertrand Weber. In September 2016, I was fortunate enough to visit Webster Elementary School in Minneapolis and see for myself how their family-style dining works. I’d like to share Webster Principal Ginger Davis Kranz’s inspiring blog about her school’s innovative and thoughtful approach to the students’ mealtime experience.

By Ginger Davis Kranz, Principal of Webster Elementary School

What if school lunchtime was more than just a wait in line and a race to find a seat and eat, but instead was more like a traditional family meal – a time when friends gather to enjoy their food, engage in meaningful conversation, build relationships and gain important life skills? After reflecting on this question, Webster Elementary, a Minneapolis public school, made the decision to abandon the typical chaotic and impersonal lunchroom experience and create a family-style dining program.

Our goal was to look at lunch in a different way. We seized the opportunity that lunch can provide students a chance to gain important knowledge, life skills and habits. We reflected on what that would look like and decided to eliminate the lunch line, seat children at round tables where food is served family style, give the children meal responsibilities where they help their peers and maintain the environment and bring teachers, staff and volunteers in the dining hall to join students for the 30 minute lunch. We have found that family-style dining is helping us reach our vision for our students’ lunch experience. Bringing an appreciation of food and where it comes from; an awareness of self and others; an understanding of healthy eating; a calm space for eating, learning and manners; time to eat and socialize in a healthy way; a reduction in waste and students taking responsibility for their meal time.

During the meal, our staff monitors portions and meal pattern requirements, while students take responsibility for themselves and their community by helping to set the table, passing food around, serving themselves and get assigned clean up jobs to restore the environment. The student “table leads” or “hosts” get milk orders from their tables, then pour it into cups and serve to their peers. Water is also available, and students assist in serving their peers that as well. Volunteers encourage healthy eating, sharing conversation, helping each other and taking care of the environment.

The change has been embraced by students, volunteers and staff. Students comment that “I like not having to spend lunch time waiting in line.” Others enjoy having jobs to do. Many beam with pride as they take drink orders and pour the glasses themselves. Our volunteers think this opportunity to connect with students is a treat. They have shared how they are impressed by student conversation skills.

Such a large change does not come without challenges and a need for flexibility to adjust along the way. Gaining support from building staff and food service was critical, as well as carefully observing, listening to feedback and making changes to ensure the process works for everyone.  Since we started last January, we continue to tweak the process, but overall, it has been well received by students, families and the community. Instead of a chaotic, student management problem, our lunchroom is a welcoming community that enriches students and adults alike.

Serving bowls for family-style dining

December 20th, 2016|Tags: End-of-Year Campaign 2016, whitebark pine, wildlife, Yellowstone|0 Comments

The post Home for the Holidays: The Grizzy Bear and Its Whitebark Pine Home appeared first on American Forests.

Beginning in 1935, the agency helped countless farmers in the region install structures that would reduce soil erosion and prevent sediment from leaving crop fields. Photo: NRCS.

This month, we’re highlighting 12 important gifts given to us when we conserve natural resources: soil, food, plants, wildlife, people, health, protection, recreation, air, water, technology and the future. NRCS’ mission is to conserve the full range of natural resources, but soil health is our foundation. And it’s the first conservation gift that we’re going to highlight. And without soil, we couldn’t celebrate with food. We encourage you to give the gift of conservation this season!

Curbing Soil Erosion

Soil is the foundation for a healthy environment. If you need proof that no-till farming works, look no further than the rolling hills of north-central Oregon.

For decades, this region was dominated by winter wheat farms that used extensive tillage to control weeds during fallow years. It was the conventional way of farming in the area, from the early 1900’s through the 1980’s.

But over time, soil erosion became a serious threat.

Many people living in the region recall stories of roads, houses, and other buildings being buried in silt mud after major rain events. Evidence of severe soil erosion can still be witnessed today in the large gullies that were once roadside ditches.

Enter the Soil Conservation Service (SCS)—now named the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). Our agency was formed to prevent another Dust Bowl. Beginning in 1935, the agency helped countless farmers in the region install structures like diversions, sediment basins and grassed waterways that would reduce soil erosion and prevent sediment from leaving crop fields. Conservation practices including terraces and no-till farming—a conservation practice that grows crops without disturbing the soil—dramatically reduce soil erosion.

In fact, many farmers have said that if they had to return to conventional tillage, they would rather stop farming because it’s so taxing on themselves and the land.

Increasing Healthy Soils

Healthy soil is the foundation for healthy food. Jay Galusha and the five generations of the Galusha family who have farmed this rugged land, understand no-till and soil health are good for the land and people.

Galusha farms 400 acres of hay land and 220 acres of corn on his Fairfield Dairy Farm in Williamstown, Massachusetts.

“I’ve got quite a bit of hilly ground, so spreading manure’s a challenge. Corn planting is a challenge,” said Jay Galusha. “I’ve got some steep ground. That’s where no-till fits right in.”

In no-till agriculture, the farmer uses a no-till planter to create a narrow furrow just large enough for seed to be placed.  By not plowing or disking, cover crop residue remains on the surface, protecting the soil from crusting, erosion, high summer temperatures and moisture loss.  Additionally, the soil structure remains intact and improves every year.

No-till farming increases the amount of water that infiltrates into the soil, organic matter retention and cycling of nutrients. It can reduce or eliminate soil erosion. Done in conjunction with cover crops, it increases the amount and variety of microbial life in the soil, which makes soils more resilient and full of nutrients.

Galusha plants rye and hay as cover crops. The sugars exuded by the hay and rye feed microbes in the soil and helps with soil aggregation, which results when soil particles bind to each other more strongly than to adjacent particles. The spaces between the aggregates provide pore space for retention and exchange of air and water. No-till planting into a cover crop encourages earthworms, which feed on the residue and help with the aggregation process. They also create pores and add nutrients.

Earthworms pull the plant residue down into its hole where it attracts bacteria and fungi, which it eats, along with the residue. Then the channel is lined with slime from the worm’s body and is higher in nitrogen, phosphorous, potassium and calcium than the surrounding soil.

“It’s thousands of dollars of savings and it works. It’s so easy. It’s just easy,” said Galusha.

And conservation is beneficial on any scale. NRCS continues to help farmers and ranchers bolster the health, productivity and vigor of their soils. Nationwide, NRCS offers science-based guidance, resources and financial assistance programs to help farmers install soil conservation practices on private lands. To find out what opportunities are available in your area, contact a local USDA Service Center near you.

And now, decades later in 2016, the landscape has transformed across Wasco County. Photo: NRCS.

The FoodKeeper app on an iPhone

The holidays are a time for celebrating with family and friends. Office parties, holiday buffets and potluck dinners offer great opportunities to exchange gifts and goodwill. But if food is not properly handled, they can also be a breeding ground for dangerous bacteria that causes foodborne illnesses. Following the recommendations below will help keep foodborne bacteria off of your menu.

Shopping for Your Feast

• Separate raw meat, poultry and seafood from other foods when placing them in your shopping cart, packing them in grocery bags and storing them in your refrigerator.
• Buy cold foods last and plan to drive directly home from the grocery store. Take a cooler with ice or frozen gel packs for perishables and always refrigerate food within two hours (one hour if the surrounding temperature is above 90 °F).

Storing Your Food at Home

• When storing food, make sure the temperature in the refrigerator is 40 °F or below and 0 °F or below in the freezer.
• Juices from raw meat may contain harmful bacteria. Place raw meat, poultry and seafood in separate containers in the refrigerator or on a shelf below raw fruits and veggies, to prevent their juices from dripping on other foods.

Preparing Your Holiday Meals

• Wash hands and surfaces often.
• Wash hands with soap and water for 20 seconds before and after handling food. Use paper towels or clean cloths to wipe kitchen surfaces or spills.
• Never thaw food at room temperature. There are three safe ways to thaw food: in the refrigerator, in cold water and in the microwave. Cook food immediately after cold water or microwave thawing. See the “The Big Thaw” fact sheet for more information.

Cooking

• Cook stuffing in a casserole dish. If stuffing poultry, stuff just before roasting and use a food thermometer to check the internal temperature of the stuffing. It must reach 165 °F to be considered safe.
• Food should not be tasted until it reaches a safe minimum internal temperature. Partially cooking food increases the risk of bacterial growth on the food. Refer to the internal cooking temperature chart below for the recommended safe temperatures.

Serving Your Meal and Keeping Foods Out of the “Danger Zone”; Keep Hot Foods HOT and Cold Foods COLD

• When serving hot food on a buffet, foods should be held at 140 °F or warmer. You can keep hot foods hot with chafing dishes, slow cookers and warming trays. Make sure to heat foods to at least 165 °F. Do not reheat cold food in your slow cooker.
• Cold foods should be held at 40 °F or colder. Keep cold foods cold by nesting the serving dishes into bowls of ice. Otherwise, use small serving trays with smaller portions of food and replace as needed. If transporting cold foods, use a cooler with ice or a commercial freezing gel.

Be sure to refrigerate or freeze leftovers in shallow containers within two hours after cooking. Don’t forget to discard all perishable foods, such as meat, poultry and casseroles that were left at room temperature longer than two hours (one hour in temperatures above 90 °F).

For additional questions about storing leftovers, download our FoodKeeper app on your Android and iOS device. This app offers storage guidance on more than 400 items and cooking tips for meat, poultry, seafood and eggs.

The holidays give us the opportunity to build and maintain unity in our families and communities. Don’t allow harmful bacteria to spoil your fiesta. Prevention is safe food handling.

The USDA Nematode Collection is one of the largest and most valuable in existence. Online listings of more than 38,000 specimens are among dozens of important scientific collections that USDA makes available on the Internet. Photo credit: USDA

Federal agencies act as custodians of hundreds of diverse scientific collections that contain everything from plant and animal specimens, tissues, and DNA to microbes, minerals, and moonrocks. These collections are part of the country’s science infrastructure, and support work in fields that include public health and safety, agriculture, trade, homeland security, medical research, trade, and environmental monitoring.

Agencies have been working to improve access to information about these collections and expand opportunities for their use. Now, through a joint effort between the USDA and Smithsonian Institution, an Interagency Working Group on Scientific Collections (IWGSC) has been cataloging them in a newly established Registry of U.S. Federal Scientific Collections (USFSC) managed by the Smithsonian.

This registry provides unprecedented access to information about more than 125 scientific collections managed by more than 475 Federal institutions. Agencies will continue to add collections to the registry over the coming months. Scores of them are maintained by USDA, while others maintained by other agencies provide access to information that is quite useful to people involved in food and farming issues. Among the collections already listed, those include the following:

The National Animal Germplasm Program Database contains a collection of 885,000 samples from 44,400 animals (livestock, poultry, aquatic species and insects). The collection provides a secure backup of genetic resources in the event of catastrophic events, plus a source of genetic variability readily used by public and private sector to reintroduce genetic variation into specific populations and provide researchers with genomic material for a wide array of experimentation.

USDA’s Soil Sample Archive contains over 212,000 soil samples with associated analytical data and site metadata. It is playing an essential role in developing mid-infrared spectrometry techniques that farmers can use for rapidly identifying the soil properties that guide decisions about irrigation and fertilizer application. It is also used as to develop a method for identifying hydric soils that do not develop the color patterns typically used to identify wetland soils.

The Madison Wood Collection (MADw), located in the U.S. Forest Service’s Laboratory of Wood Anatomy, contains 28,700 wood specimens of which 65 percent are from the Americas. The rest come primarily from Asia and Africa and also from Australia, Europe, and the Pacific Islands. The country with the most specimens is the United States, with 8,300 specimens. The information in this collection is of great value to users of wood and wood products and others who rely on scientific names as a key to reliable information on wood properties.

The USDA Nematode Collection Database is one of the largest and most valuable collections in existence of the microscopic, wormlike animals which include parasites of insects, plants or animals. The database contains over 38,000 species entries from world-wide sources which can be used for taxonomic research and reference purposes. A broad range of data is stored for each specimen, including species, host, origin, collector, date collected and date received.  It also provides data on nematode hosts, occurrence and distribution.

The U.S. National Entomological Collection contains about 450,000 insect specimens online, and includes genetic samples and primary type, specimen, and species inventories. They are part of the more than 33 million taken care of by three government agencies: the Agricultural Research Service Systematic Entomology Laboratory, The Smithsonian Institution, and the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research’s Biosystematics Unit.

Following guidelines developed by the IWGSC, more than a dozen federal departments and agencies have developed policies specifying approaches to improve the management of these and other federal scientific collections to help ensure they will remain viable and be expanded as needed to support future research and agency missions. Completed policies are posted on the IWGSC clearinghouse.

In coming months, agencies will add more collections to the Registry and more agencies will complete their collections policies. The IWGSC also plans to find ways to strengthen the contributions of federal scientific collections to priority areas of national interest, such as emerging infectious diseases, food security, soil health, microbiome research, and open science. It will seek opportunities for greater coordination internationally among institutions that maintain scientific collections. These are among the tasks the IWGSC will continue to pursue as it continues its efforts to maximize the returns from the Federal investment in important scientific collections.

December 16th, 2016|Tags: Forest Digest|0 Comments

The post Forest Digest — Week of December 12, 2016 appeared first on American Forests.

The Summer Electronic Benefit Transfer demonstration offers a new model to help close the summer feeding gap.

Summer is tough to enjoy when you’re hungry. It’s a hard reality that many kids from low-income households face when school is out and the weather turns sunny. To help close the summer feeding gap, the Summer Electronic Benefit Transfer demonstration offers a new model to do just that.

Without the daily nutrition provided by the National School Lunch Program and the School Breakfast Program, many families facing poverty are also experiencing its most difficult symptom: hunger. USDA has several tools to help solve this problem, with the newest addition being the Summer Electronic Benefit Transfer for Children demonstration project, commonly referred to as Summer EBT.

To better leverage this innovative solution, last month eight participating states and Tribal Organizations met over the course of two busy, inspiring days. Here, FNS hosted a conference for current grantees to meet and share best practices for making the most of their Summer EBT programs. Grantees from Connecticut, Cherokee Nation, Chickasaw Nation, Delaware, Michigan, Missouri, Nevada and Oregon gathered to discuss successes, challenges and hopes for the future of their programs. This was the first time since the beginning of the demonstration project that all were gathered together.

Despite significant strides made in recent years to increase access to summer meals across the country, only about 16 percent of the 22 million children that receive free or reduced price meals during the school year are reached through traditional summer meal programs. With this in mind, FNS looked at other strategies to feed children during the summer. Summer EBT was initiated in 2011 to test whether electronic benefits used at food stores (loaded onto EBT cards) helps reduce food insecurity among low-income children during the summer months.

A rigorous evaluation of the demonstration showed impressive results: benefits issued through Summer EBT reduced very low food security among participants by one third! In other words, one third of participating children who would have otherwise experienced severe food insecurity did not. As such, Summer EBT has the potential to be an additional tool in FNS’s toolbox of anti-hunger programs.

State and Indian Tribal Organization (ITO) programs, while all under the Summer EBT banner, each operate in a unique fashion. Although they have the same goal—to reduce children’s food insecurity—their paths to reach this vary. This flexibility to try different options was intentional on FNS’s part; not only is FNS testing the program, we are also testing program models. For example, some states issue benefits that can be used similarly to SNAP, where benefits can be used on any food items at SNAP retailers. Other states allow benefits to be used only at WIC retailers, on items in a specific food package.

In addition, when each program has their own way to address challenges—like building program infrastructure or working with food retailers—there are multiple avenues FNS considers when deciding the best, most efficient way to operate Summer EBT. The conference enabled states and ITOs the opportunity to share ideas and offer each other advice and support, all of which leads to stronger, more creative programs.

At FNS, we’re excited to continue coordinating collaboration between states and ITOs implementing the Summer EBT demonstration, especially in light of the reductions in food insecurity seen by the program. Perhaps these states will be among the forefront of new and innovative models to fight hunger across the country as a part of a National Summer EBT, leading the charge in USDA’s commitment to end child hunger.