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Matt Gordon, Executive Director of the Vermont Maple Sugar Makers Association, holds a certificate of appreciation for the City of Worcester accepted by Paul Moosey, Commissioner of Public Works and Parks, and Robert Antonelli, Assistant Commissioner of Public Works and Parks.

The Vermont maple syrup industry is well aware that an invasive, tree-killing insect could threaten the production of its delicious, all-natural commodity.  So on December 13, just four days before National Maple Syrup Day on December 17, the Vermont Maple Sugar Makers Association and Vermont state officials hosted a special pancake and maple syrup breakfast to thank partners for supporting the Asian longhorned beetle (ALB) eradication program in Massachusetts.

Why would people in Vermont make breakfast for their neighbors in Massachusetts?  Vermont’s Forest Health Program Manager Barbara Schultz told the group how much the Massachusetts ALB eradication effort has improved the local landscape, municipal budgets, and the daily life of citizens.  The Asian longhorned beetle poses a significant threat to our northeastern forests and the insect could spread throughout the region and devastate maple sugaring in Vermont if it’s not eradicated in Massachusetts.

Since the beetle was detected in Worcester County, Massachusetts in 2008, communities within the quarantine area have cooperated in the removal of over 35,000 trees. The beetle prefers to attack maple trees the most out of the 12 different types of trees it can develop in and emerge from.

With the maple syrup industry valued at $131 million annually, maple sugar makers are right to want the beetle stopped and eliminated from within the U.S.  Attendees included representatives from the cities and towns impacted by the ALB quarantine, the Greater Worcester Land Trust, the Worcester Tree Initiative and state legislators representing Worcester County.  Representatives from the USDA, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service’s ALB Eradication Program staff were available to answer questions and discuss program activities, including the need to be vigilant and report damage during the winter months.

Signs of Asian longhorned beetle devastation include:

• Perfectly round exit holes, about the size of a dime or smaller, in tree trunks and branches.
• Shallow oval or round scars in the bark, where the adult beetle has chewed an egg site.
• Sawdust-like material, called frass, on the ground around the tree or in the branches.
• Dead branches or limbs falling from an otherwise healthy-looking tree.

More information about the Vermont Maple Sugar Makers Association is available on the web at http://vermontmaple.org/.   For information about the Vermont Department of Forests, Parks and Recreation, visit http://fpr.vermont.gov/.  Learn more about how you can help fight the ALB at APHIS’ website: https://www.aphis.usda.gov/pests-diseases/alb.

Steven Sinclair, Director of Forests for the State of Vermont, with Matt Gordon, Executive Director of the Vermont Maple Sugar Makers Association, present certificates of appreciation to town administrators.

Visit the MyPlate, MyWins landing page on December 28, 2016 to discover healthy eating solutions for 2017!

The holiday season is a wonderful, exciting, and incredibly busy time.  Between the celebrations, family gatherings, and the food (so much food!), healthy eating isn’t likely the first thing on your mind. And that’s OK.

In a few short weeks, many of us will be turning our attention to the new year. What will 2017 bring? What are our personal goals for the year?  Every January there is an overload of information about New Year’s resolutions, and many people will set goals that focus on health, fitness, and nutrition.  But while we often set high hopes on January 1, less than half are still committed to accomplishing our resolutions months later.

This year, as part of our MyPlate, MyWins campaign, we want to offer an alternate approach.  Rather than setting unrealistic expectations, we want to help you make a plan based on real solutions that actually fit into your everyday life.

MyPlate, MyWins embraces the fact that there’s more than one way to eat healthy.  The campaign encourages Americans to make – and celebrate – small, practical changes that add up to a healthy lifestyle over time. We call these changes “MyWins.” Our new video gives you a quick introduction to MyPlate, MyWins and the tools and resources available now to help you discover personalized healthy eating solutions.

With the release of this video, MyPlate is excited to announce that an expanded MyPlate, MyWins campaign will launch on December 28, 2016. The campaign will feature new materials filled with tips and tools to help you start off 2017 ready for success!

So when you are ready to think about YOUR New Year’s Resolutions, let MyPlate, MyWins be the place you start. Visit ChooseMyPlate.gov/MyWins on December 28^th to start your personal journey towards healthier eating.

And until then, on behalf of the MyPlate team, Happy Holidays!

For more healthy eating tips and resources, visit ChooseMyPlate.gov, follow MyPlate on Facebook and Twitter, and sign up for email updates.

Food and Nutrition Service Administrator Audrey Rowe (left) speaks with an attendee at the Jobs NOW! event in San Francisco. Photo courtesy: Barbara Utuchian, FNS

On a recent trip to California,  I took part in a wonderful event in San Francisco’s Mission District – also known as “The Mission” – one of the most racially and economically diverse areas in the nation.  After parking the car, Jesus Mendoza Jr., Regional Administrator of the Food and Nutrition Service’s Western Region, escorted me to a room buzzing with activity and excitement. Now given my role as Administrator for the Food and Nutrition Service (FNS), you might expect that we were visiting a food bank or a meal program for low-income children.

But this visit wasn’t about food.

It was about jobs!

Employers were strategically located around the room, waiting to interview the hundred-plus jobseekers attending the recruitment event for Jobs NOW!, San Francisco’s nationally recognized Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) Employment and Training (E&T) program. I had the chance to meet with several employers. Some were new to the program, while others had participated for years and hired dozens of program graduates. But they all had one thing in common: their support of the E&T program and the quality work it does preparing participants for employment.

In the second room, jobseekers sat patiently awaiting their opportunity for a job interview. They looked confident and ready, and rightly so. Interview preparation is one of the E&T program’s many critical components. But it doesn’t stop there, because the program doesn’t only promote job readiness. It also provides training, work experience opportunities, and supportive services such as clothes, tools, and transportation.

The E&T program is centered on seven intensive components that provide employment opportunities to participants at every level of job readiness.  It simultaneously, creates a new, untapped talent pool for San Francisco area employers struggling to find workers.

Although San Francisco has a minimum wage of $13/hour, Jobs NOW! understands how difficult it can be to afford housing in one of the most expensive cities in the United States on those wages.

So the E&T program’s goal of self-sufficiency means that Jobs NOW! works to move people into job opportunities that pay more than minimum wage.

Following the tour of the recruitment event, I met five former Jobs NOW! participants who had all moved into unsubsidized employment, most with incomes in the $25/hour range. This diverse group each had barriers ranging from alcohol and drug abuse to incarceration and homelessness prior to enrollment in the program. And each, like countless other program participants, credits SNAP E&T with changing their lives.  Eighteen months after exiting the program, 53 percent of participants no longer required SNAP benefits, according to Jobs NOW!

It was a thrill to meet real people and families to hear the stories of how our programs transform lives. The evidence shows that these programs really work to move people with significant barriers to employment into steady employment with family supporting wages. The SNAP E&T program is demonstrating, throughout the nation, how quality training and work readiness programs can achieve exactly that result. In San Francisco, Jobs NOW! is one of the programs leading the charge.

USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack and others at the newly renovated USDA Child Development Center

I would like to congratulate all who work at USDA for the incredible improvement in our ranking in the Best Places to Work in the Federal Government.  In 2016, for the first time, we have moved into the Top 10 Best Places to Work among large Federal agencies.  When I became Secretary of Agriculture in 2009, one of my first priorities was beginning a cultural transformation of our Department, redoubling our efforts on diversity and inclusion and retooling USDA to be a modern, 21^st century employer and premier service provider that better reflects all of the communities we serve.  Participating in this transformation has been one of my most meaningful experiences as Secretary, and I am immensely proud that it has become part of the fabric of our Department.

Over the past eight years, USDA has worked to become a model employer by making it a priority to improve in areas such as communication, teamwork, diversity and inclusion, work-life balance, and employee training and development.  Today, as a result of these efforts, I am proud to announce that the Partnership for Public Service, a nonprofit organization, has recognized USDA for the strides we have made across our Department to improve the quality of our workplace.

The Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey (FEVS) has been a key tool for USDA’s leadership in hearing from our most valuable resource – the employees who make up the People’s Department. The U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) conducts the FEVS each year, soliciting input from employees across the Federal government to measure employees’ perceptions of whether their agencies have the characteristics of a successful organization, such as employee satisfaction and engagement.  Each year the Partnership for Public Service uses the results of the FEVS to publish a ranking of the Best Places to Work in the Federal Government.

When I became Secretary, one of the goals I established early on was to move our Department into the Top 10 in the Best Places to Work ranking. In 2012, USDA was ranked #16 out of 19 large agencies.  Our ranking has steadily improved, and last year, we were #11.  This has been an organization-wide effort that reflects a commitment to making real and lasting improvements in our workplace.  The past few years have been particularly challenging for our workforce because of budget restrictions, pay freezes, sequestration, and even a government shutdown in 2013, making these improvements during this period even more remarkable.

I’m very pleased to report that in 2016, USDA has moved to #9 among large agencies, the highest ranking our Department has ever received. We have also been awarded “Most Improved,” which is the direct outcome of our collective efforts across USDA and is something of which we can all be very proud.

Leaders across USDA have made many changes to help make our Department a better workplace.  After learning that employees were interested in having Individual Development Plans, or IDPs, we implemented a policy that requires that eligible employees receive an IDP annually.  The IDP represents a commitment that leaders make to the growth and development of employees.  Previously, only about 30% of employees had IDPs, but as of last year, over 86% of eligible employees had IDPs.  We ensured that performance standards are linked to the mission of the organization, and that there are regular meetings between employees and supervisors about performance.

We have also recognized the value of giving employees an opportunity to interact regularly with their leaders.  This promotes the type of collaboration that drives employee engagement.  We asked leaders to implement Employee Advisory Councils, which are now up and running across USDA and serve as a mechanism that empowers employees to be on the front edge of changes and improvements.    In addition, employees asked for more mentoring. We have launched a USDA-wide Mentoring Portal and established mentoring programs in all of our offices.  To demonstrate a commitment to mentoring, we asked leaders to serve as mentors to help us build the leadership pipeline.  Last year, 51% of our senior executives were serving as mentors.

Employees let us know that work-life balance is important to them.  We have responded by setting a goal and monitoring our efforts to improve employee participation rates in telework and flexible work schedules.  We trained our leaders to understand the value of telework and flexible schedules, and helped them understand how to manage in this environment so that the programs are used to promote high performance.  Last year alone, participation in telework increased by 6%, with 41% of eligible employees regularly teleworking.  Additionally, 86% of our eligible employees are on a flexible work schedule.  We know from employee feedback that by having leaders who support work-life balance, we are attracting and retaining employees who value this program.

Each of our employees has played and continues to play a significant role in reshaping our work environment for the better.  The input and leadership of our employees has guided our journey to make USDA an even better place for employees to thrive.  The changes implemented as a result of the feedback received through the FEVS will last well into the future and continue to make a positive impact throughout our workforce. We take pride in knowing our efforts will continue to make a profound difference for our customers, stakeholders, and colleagues.

I would like to recognize all of our employees for their commitment to USDA’s mission and to helping USDA live up to our potential as an organization.  I am constantly impressed with our public servants and their unwavering dedication to providing critical services to the American public.  Together, we have improved organizational performance and delivered record levels of service, and for that, I am grateful.  It has been my pleasure to serve alongside our hardworking employees and help build a better workplace for all.

December 15th, 2016|Tags: Climate|0 Comments

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By Doyle Irvin, American Forests

Credit: Mallory Dash via Flickr.

When the holiday season rolls around, it is easy to get caught up in the frenzy of good cheer and pine scents. People seem to be happier, those people you grew up with are returning to their hometown and meeting at the pub for a pint, and the joy on a child’s face when they open up the shiny new thing they’ve been obliquely hinting at since April is indeed nonpareil. Thus, there’s an immense social pressure not to be the “Grinch” who says “Wait a second, here…”

But, the Grinch has a point.

The environmental impacts of the holiday season are beyond immense. The amount of waste produced by the U.S. increases by 25 percent between Thanksgiving and the New Year,[i] an additional 1.2 million tons per week. Christmas cards alone cut down 300,000 trees a year,[ii] and everyone only pretends to read them in the first place. When you combine Europe and the U.S., roughly 80 to 90 million trees are used for decorations annually.[iii]

Credit: Michael Bentley via Flickr.

To add to this, The Independent shares some startling statistics about the holiday season: roughly 40 percent of festive food goes to waste. Forty-one percent of the toys children receive specifically for Christmas will be broken within three months. The U.K. alone uses enough wrapping paper to gift-wrap the Isle of Jersey and burns or dumps enough gift cards (1 billion) to circle the globe five times if laid end-to-end.

So, how do we fix this? Is there any good news?

Unfortunately, according to The Nature Conservancy, artificial holiday trees are no solution to this problem, it turns out — unless you carefully store and re-use the same one for more than a decade (that’s about when the impact for real versus artificial evens out). Most of these trees are made in China using PVC, and the petroleum used to both create PVC and then ship it far outweighs the environmental cost of cutting a real tree. PVC doesn’t biodegrade and isn’t recyclable.[iv] Many of these trees also contain lead.[v]

The chief saving grace for real trees is that they are carbon sinks while they are growing and also provide habitats for all kinds of wildlife. Given that other things that the farmers could be growing instead of trees are not nearly as positive for the environment, real trees do include a step towards carbon neutrality (as long as you recycle or replant the tree properly). Many of the farms are also pursuing measures to reduce pesticide use as well — for example, North Carolina reported a 71 percent decrease in use from 2000 to 2013.

Even with real trees, however, you still have to consider the energy costs of shipping the tree to your door. The trick is to get one meant for potting and replanting, so you can use it year after year. You can send your distant friends and family e-cards, or, if the gift needs to exist in reality, you can recycle obsolete materials, like old newspapers, phone books or the calendar from last year, to wrap it. Another idea is to focus your gifts on things that aren’t essentially disposable. This either means gifts that are built to last, or experiences. You can also look into purchasing gifts from companies that give back to the environment on behalf of your purchase. Or, if you really want to embrace the Green Eco-Conscious Grinch, you could just give them a hug and a slap on the back.

[i] “The environmental impact of our holiday celebrations,” Team EcoEtsy. December 19, 2011. http://blog.ecoetsy.com/2011/12/the-environmental-impact-of-our-holiday-celebrations/html.
[ii] “How to have a ‘green’ Christmas.” Eartheasy. http://eartheasy.com/give_sustainchristmas.htm.
[iii] “Real Vs Artificial Christmas Tree: What the science says.” Andrei, Mihai. December 23, 2015. http://www.zmescience.com/other/feature-post/real-vs-artificial-christmas-tree-science-says/.
[iv] “PVC plastic’s environmental impact.” Green Living Tips. January 4^th, 2010. https://www.greenlivingtips.com/articles/pvc-and-the-environment.html.
[v] “Green Holidays: Real vs. Fake Christmas Trees.” Nature.org. http://www.nature.org/greenliving/gogreen/greenholidays/real-vs-fake-christmas-xmas-trees.xml?utm_campaign=social.nature&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&utm_content=1480625116.

The post There’s a Reason the Grinch Is Green appeared first on American Forests.

In 2015, the Pine Glade apartments for elderly and disabled people received USDA funding to modernize 32 affordable apartments in Greensboro, North Carolina.

Groceries, childcare, education, transportation, insurance, utilities: these are just some of the essential places families nationwide spend their paychecks every month. Making ends meet takes hard work, but sometimes even after working long hours and shopping right families need help to make it.

Twenty years ago essential affordable housing opportunities were scarce in rural America. Banks weren’t investing in these opportunities because deals that would build affordable rentals required long-term, patient capital that turned profit much slower than those big, new, luxury apartments in cities and larger towns.

Congress recognized this shortage twenty years ago, and determined banks needed to be incentivized to invest in affordable housing in rural America. Congress also recognized the incentives needed to be managed and overseen by a Department that knew and safeguarded rural America’s needs. In 1996, the Guaranteed Rural Rental Housing Program was born at USDA.

For 20 years USDA has acted as the guarantor of more than $1 billion in private investments that create and preserve affordable rural rental housing. We’ve done more than guaranteed loans – we’ve worked with the private sector to create more than 41,700 affordable apartments in rural America since 1996.

That’s more than 41,700 affordable homes to do homework, to make dinner, to spend time with family, and to relax after a long day at work. These investments have created 41,700 reasons to be proud of the work USDA does in rural America.

Families, senior citizens, people with disabilities, and all other hardworking Americans deserve to have access to affordable housing opportunities. USDA’s Guaranteed Rural Rental Housing Program works with private lenders, both national and local, to help them provide affordable housing opportunities to their communities. These are investments that matter, and USDA is proud to support them.

If you or a loved one is in need of an affordable rural housing opportunity reach out to your local USDA Rural Development office today and request a list of USDA rental properties in your area.

From left to right: Tony Schwager, Good Natured Family Farms Project Manager; Sara Cano, USDA Senior Auditor; Doreen Choffel, USDA Senior Auditor; and Diana Endicott, GNFF Founder and Director review audit information. In August, Good Natured Family Farms became the first cooperative certified under USDA’s GroupGAP program.

For more than four generations, Amish farmers in the Kansas City area have abided by a simple tenet:  farm sustainably and care for the earth to preserve their way of life for future generations.  Good Natured Family Farms (GNFF), a cooperative of 18 Amish family farms in Missouri, is using GroupGAP, a new USDA audit program, to help them safeguard their future by building strong markets for the high-quality, local foods they produce. In August, the group made USDA history as the first to receive an official USDA Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) certification through our new GroupGAP program.

Since 2002, the Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) has provided the traditional USDA GAP audit program to the fruit and vegetable industry. GAP is a voluntary program that verifies its participants follow U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) guidelines and industry best practices to minimize risks of food safety hazards when producing, handling, and storing fruits, vegetables, and other specialty crops. In 2016, AMS conducted nearly 4,000 traditional GAP audits.

The new GroupGAP option has only been around since 2014, and began as a two-year pilot program. This new style of audit was developed to make food safety certification accessible to all growers—including small and mid-sized producers.  The program allows farmers, food hubs, and other organizations to pool their resources and go through certification as a group, rather than individually.

GroupGAP is designed to increase opportunities for the entire industry to supply and buy GAP-certified produce, opening doors for family farms and cooperatives like the GNFF farmers in Kansas City. The program officially became the newest food safety certification option offered by USDA in April 2016. Since then, AMS has conducted 10 GroupGAP audits representing more than 300 operations.

If you own or manage one of America’s more than 186,000 produce farms, or you’re thinking about starting one and want to know more about how to get your farm certified for food safety, learn more about our Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) & Good Handling Practices (GHP) options.

12 Gifts of Conservation graphic. Created by: Jenn Cole

Holidays are a time to enjoy the warm comforts of home and family. A time to reflect and give thanks for life’s blessings. This month, we’re going to highlight important gifts given to us when we conserve natural resources: soil, food, plants, wildlife, people, health, protection, recreation, air, water, technology and future.

Unlike a single wrapped present, conservation is a gift to the whole world, and to the future. Each breath of air, sip of water and bite of food you will ever take, exists because of it. Were the world not continuously renewed, it would soon be consumed and barren. Conservation is the gift that keeps on giving.

Mother Nature is the perfect conservationist. At USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service we study nature. One of our goals is to help growers mimic natural systems. The closer they come to matching those systems, the better the results. The voluntary conservation efforts of America’s farmers and ranchers benefit us all.

And conservation is beneficial on any scale. When you plant a small backyard garden, you send positive impacts rippling through the world. You provide habitat for billions of living things, from microbes to wildlife. Your plants clean the air, and their roots and leaves prevent erosion, while building underground reservoirs of water and soil health. Your garden would mean the world to many creatures, and a healthier world for us all.

Our agency was formed to prevent another Dust Bowl. Our mission has since expanded to conserve the full range of natural resources, but soil health is our foundation. And it’s the first of 12 gifts we will highlight this December.

Happy Holidays to you and your family from NRCS! We encourage you to give the gift of conservation. As always, we’re here to help.

December 14th, 2016|Tags: wildlife|0 Comments

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By Lindsay Seventko, American Forests

Caribou on the Quartz Creek Trail in the White Mountains National Recreation Area. Credit: Bureau of Land Management via Flickr.

Many people don’t know that the lower 48 states have their own wild reindeer — the South Selkirk herd of caribou (yes, caribou are the same species as reindeer!). There are 12 of the fantasied animals remaining south of the Canadian border, but they used to roam across the northern United States — from Washington to New England. Despite the fraction of a population that remains, Native American tribes and conservation organizations are now battling for their return.

To many Native Americans in the northern United States, caribou traditionally held a sacred role as a primary (and legendarily tasty) food source as well as holding spiritual significance. The tribes are hoping to see populations restored to the point where they could once again hunt them, while conservation organizations are hoping caribou populations will increase enough to round out a traditional ecosystem balance among several rare species like wolves and lynx.

Following Canada’s lead, where caribou repopulation has succeeded in large part due to the designation of 400 square miles of protected habitat, 570 square miles were proposed to be protected in the northwest U.S. in order to re-establish caribou herds. However, the proposal came under fire and was quickly cut down to a mere 43 miles in 2013, when progress was paused to allow more time for planning.

The task of assessing the best possible way to bring back the lower 48’s caribou fell on the shoulders of the Kootenai Native American tribe, who have already successfully negotiated sturgeon restoration. After their review, the proposed protected caribou habitat was reopened for commenting this past spring. As interest groups opposed to the conservation lobbied for the down listing of caribou to threatened (to allow more recreational access to lands, especially for snowmobiling), the proposal of about 30,000 acres in northeastern Washington and Northern Idaho was approved. Only time will tell if this newly protected habitat, less than a 10^th of the area that was originally deemed necessary, will successfully restore caribou to populations where they can once again be hunted on Native American land.

The post The Return of America’s Reindeer appeared first on American Forests.