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NIFA-funded research used genetics to hornless dairy cattle. (Image courtesy of Recombinetics)

Our charge in the food and agricultural sciences is to move from evolutionary discoveries, which contribute to marginal changes over long periods of time, to revolutionary thinking to deal with ‘wicked’ problems by deploying transdisciplinary approaches that solve complex societal challenges. Similar to how the Internet-driven disruptive technologies have transformed America and the rest of the world, advances in data science, information science, biotechnology and nanotechnology can transform agriculture and our capacity to address societal challenges.

Advances in the field of genomics have helped breeders produce desirable varieties of crops and livestock and overcome challenges that had previously been undertaken via conventional breeding. For example, in the dairy industry, most cattle are mechanically or chemically dehorned early in life to protect against injury to other cattle and their handlers. To eliminate this bloody and painful process, a team of NIFA-funded researchers at Recombinetics have successfully used gene editing to introduce the hornless gene into the cells of horned bulls. While the majority of hornless cattle generated via conventional breeding produce low quality milk, gene editing offers a simple and rapid solution of generating hornless cattle that produce high quality milk.

NIFA-funded researchers at Iowa State University recently converted graphene—a recently discovered nanoscale material that is lightweight, strong, stable and perhaps better at conducting heat and electricity than any other material—into a form usable for real-world applications. The research team is using graphene to develop biosensors that can quickly and rapidly screen for multiple pesticides in a single field sample. Such biosensors could alert users of potentially dangerous levels of pesticides in water, soil or food products.  Additionally, the graphene-based electronics offer tantalizing possibilities in “wearable” technologies that can potentially help address sedentary lifestyles and obesity.

Strategically linking computer science, software engineering, statistics, business and economics with traditional agricultural researchers, extension agents and food producers will likely lead to better use of resources in the face of climate variability and pollinator decline. For example, increasingly sophisticated sensing and imaging technologies such as Lidar can help researchers investigate the relationship between habitat diversity and pollinator abundance, diversity and movement. NIFA-funded researchers at Oregon State University are developing miniature wireless sensors that can be worn by bumblebees and track movement and relative visitation rates to crop plants and surrounding habitat.

Advances in imaging technology are also making it possible to rapidly determine fruit count, size, and quality in the field. For example, a team from Carnegie Mellon University created a camera-equipped vehicle with the ability to detect fruit and conduct automated image analysis. This vehicle will improve the ability of fruit, berry, and vegetable growers to predict yield in advance of harvest so that they can adequately plan for harvest labor, shipping, storage, marketing, and sales.

NIFA hosted a Data Science Summit recently, which points to the potential for “big data” to address societal challenges by taking on and solving nutritional security, nutrient management, and “dead” zones in bodies of water due to excess nitrogen and phosphorus, climate change, water use efficiency, obesity, and other such wicked problems.  The transformative developments in computational capabilities, predictive modeling, and machine learning offer tantalizing possibilities of the power of big data.

Already, these advances have catalyzed numerous transformative discoveries that will revolutionize how agriculture is practiced in the field. The future of agricultural data science involves linked, distributed data with multiple layers of accessibility and standards that evolve over time. Entire new fields and cross-sector business opportunities will form around this internet of agriculture, enabling farmers to provide for the next generation in a new world of opportunity.

Oct. 1, 2016, marked the seventh birthday of USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA). Upon its establishment, NIFA committed to addressing the societal challenge of ensuring nutritional security in the context of climate change, diminishing land and water resources and environmental degradation. Over the last several years under the leadership of President Barack Obama and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, the agency has supported the development of various user inspired discoveries and inventions that are transforming lives throughout America.

Addressing society’s “wicked” problems, for which we have the knowledge and ability to solve, but aren’t able to because of lack of agreement on how to deploy the solutions, require transformative and revolutionary discoveries across multiple scientific, economic, industrial and political domains that can result in solutions across the food systems value chain. These efforts will require new advances in the myriad food and agricultural sciences, along with advances in information technology, biotechnology, nanotechnology, and data science. NIFA’s investments in these latter areas point to a future for disruptive knowledge to be able to solve some of the wicked problems.

NIFA and its partners and stakeholders have had great success and are poised and ready to undertake more such work and deploy the solutions to challenges people face. 

NIFA invests in and advances innovative and transformative research, education and extension to solve societal challenges and ensure the long-term viability of agriculture. USDA has invested $19 billion in research and development since 2009, touching the lives of all Americans from farms to the kitchen table and from the air we breathe to the energy that powers our country. Learn more about the many ways USDA scientists are on the cutting edge, helping to protect, secure and improve our food, agricultural and natural resources systems in USDA’s Medium Chapter 11: Food and Ag Science Will Shape Our Future.

A grower and an internal auditor look over records during a Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) audit. The grower is in the GroupGAP Program, which allows grower groups to pool their resources to establish food safety best practices, lead food safety trainings, develop quality management systems, and pay for certification costs. Photo courtesy of the Upper Peninsula Food Exchange.

Are you preparing to meet the new Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Produce Safety rule standards?  Have you heard about Good Agricultural Practices (GAPs)?  Maybe you’ve heard that they can get buyers to notice your products and improve your access to the market place – but you need more information to know if it can work for you.

USDA is hard at work connecting growers with training and resources to support GAP certification and expand their food safety know how. We’ve made big investments in food safety education for growers in recent years, supporting projects through AMS grant programs—the Specialty Crop Block Grant Program, Federal-State Market Improvement Program, Farmers Market Promotion Program, and Local Food Promotion Program.

Last year, the FDA released its Produce Safety Rule as part of its duties under the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA).  The rule introduces specific on-farm food safety regulations for producers of fruits, vegetables, and other specialty crops.

USDA has engaged in partnerships and made investments to assist growers in preparing to meet FDA Produce Safety Rule standards under the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA). For instance, USDA’s National Institute for Food and Agriculture (NIFA) worked closely with FDA as it established cooperative agreements for the National Coordination Center and Regional Training Centers for FSMA education.

More recently, NIFA awarded a number of grants for pilots, multi-state projects, and for food safety education, training and technical assistance projects for producers impacted by FDA rules. The grants, made available through NIFA’s Food Safety Outreach Program, will assist owners and operators of small to mid-sized farms, beginning farmers, socially-disadvantaged farmers, small processors, small fresh fruit and vegetable wholesalers, food hubs, farmers markets and others.

Taken together, these efforts provide additional training opportunities for owners and operators of farms, small food processors, and small fruit and vegetable merchant wholesalers.

Another exciting addition to the food safety training mix is the recent launch of Produce Safety Alliance (PSA) Grower Training and Train-the-Trainer  courses.  USDA is a partner in PSA, along with FDA. The PSA courses give the produce industry critical tools to educate growers who want to gain knowledge about the FSMA Produce Safety Rule, understand how their current GAPs fit within the regulatory framework, and learn about additional GAPs.

These trainings serve an important role for growers, particularly those who need to comply with rule requirements by January 2018.

Four years of development have gone into the Grower Training Course, which provides eight hours of instruction in on-farm and packinghouse GAPs, on-farm environmental coordinated management (known as “co-management”), and other preventive controls. The course also satisfies the Produce Safety Rule requirement that at least one supervisor or responsible party on a farm has successfully completed food safety training recognized as adequate by the FDA.

The Train-the-Trainer Course includes eight hours of core training that includes all seven PSA Grower Training Course modules, and an additional eight hours of training techniques and principles of adult learning, and partnering opportunities. Completion of this course will make you a PSA Trainer who is qualified to teach PSA Grower Training under the direction of a PSA Lead Trainer. PSA created the course to build a network of certified trainers for industry to access across the nation.

Based at Cornell University, PSA was established in 2010 to provide fundamental, on-farm food safety knowledge to growers. Join the PSA email subscription service (listserve) to stay current on the Alliance’s education and training activities. Educational resources and collaborator contact information are available on the PSA website.

USDA is committed to making sure that all growers and producers—regardless of size or style of operation—have the support and resources they need to help keep America’s food supply one of the safest in the world.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced on January 26, 1998 that it was going to require meat and poultry processing plants to have a science-based Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) food inspection system put into place. HACCP is a food production, storage, and distribution monitoring system for identification and control of associated health hazards using definitive scientific tests. Its purpose is to prevent contamination of food products during processing. USDA photo.

Today kicked off “Get Smart about Antibiotics” week in the United States and the World Health Organization’s World Antibiotic Awareness Week in 2016. During this week, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and its other federal partners want to remind families and communities about the importance of responsible antibiotic use in both humans and animals, to help reduce the development of resistant bacteria. This week, we also celebrate the 20^th anniversary of the National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System (NARMS).  Through NARMS, USDA, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) collaborate on everything relating to antimicrobial resistant bacteria.   Since 1996, USDA’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS) and the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) have been active participants in this combined federal surveillance program.

So, what is antimicrobial resistance?  As you might recall, in 1928, Dr. Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin, a drug that revolutionized the treatment of bacterial infections. In the years following, penicillin and the discovery and therapeutic use of other antibiotics, we have relied on antibiotics to treat and cure a variety of illnesses – in both humans and animals, across the globe. The use of these drugs has aided in the development of resistant strains of bacteria. Unfortunately, this development means that some previously treatable forms of bacterial infections are now resistant to the antibiotics that were designed to treat them. It is estimated that the decrease in effectiveness of antibiotics, results in more than two million U.S. cases of antibiotic resistant infections, annually. Some of these types of infections might require longer hospital stays and are more costly to treat successfully. 

As scientists, we call this problem antimicrobial resistance (AMR).  Dr. Fleming even raised this concern in 1945 after receiving the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his discovery of penicillin.  The AMR threat in humans and animals is becoming an increasing problem and requires the adoption of a One Health approach.  This approach is founded on principles that recognize that the health of people and populations are linked to the health of animals and environments. For example, antibiotics are used in food-producing animals to prevent illness, limit the spread of infections in a herd or flock, and treat diseases.  Because antibiotics are administered to animals, food products derived from them can serve as a vehicle for the movement of resistant bacteria to humans, just as antibiotics administered to people can affect the environment, including the environment of animals. The One Health approach brings together the expertise of physicians, veterinarians, environmental scientists, and other public health professionals so that problems can be identified and actionable solutions are developed that can minimize the emergence and spread of AMR.

World Antibiotics Awareness Week

USDA is uniquely positioned to contribute to the body of knowledge about resistant bacteria through the collaboration and ongoing work of experts both within and outside of the Department. For the last 20 years, ARS and FSIS have partnered alongside FDA and CDC to collect and define AMR bacteria in meat and poultry products. Through the NARMS program, ARS and FSIS continually monitor changes in AMR bacteria from animal meat through the FSIS regulatory testing program and from animals through the new cecal sampling surveillance program.  The sampling results from these two programs help to identify new or changing resistant bacterial patterns and show comparisons between bacteria found in animals used for food and bacteria important in human medicine. This information is critically essential for scientists to understand how resistant bacteria emerge and spread.

In 2016, USDA in collaboration with its public health partners began using whole genome sequencing (WGS) to further characterize AMR bacteria in real-time. WGS is a process that can determine the DNA sequence of bacteria collected from food animal samples. This method allows scientists to understand similarities and differences between bacteria with greater detail than ever before. The information gained from WGS helps USDA and NARMS monitor AMR bacteria with more accuracy and to identify more specifically the types of bacteria that cause foodborne illness.

Despite USDA’s long history of significant activities and investments in AMR, including its strong twenty years of NARMS collaboration as well as USDAs’ own AMR Action Plan; a considerable amount of work remains to be done to address knowledge gaps in AMR and for further strengthen the current programs. To achieve the greatest public health impact, USDA must continue to coordinate and leverage expertise across many areas. And to ensure that effectiveness of antibiotics is preserved for treating both people and animals and that it is extended to future generations, USDA, other federal agencies, industry, and academic partners are working together to better understand the role of animal production environments in the development and spread of AMR bacteria.  More information about USDA’s AMR work is found at http://www.usda.gov/antimicrobial.html.

U.S. Army Veteran and Virginia Farmer Anita Roberson

Every month, USDA shares the story of a woman in agriculture who is leading the industry and helping other women succeed along the way. In honor of Veterans Day, we hear from Anita Roberson, a U.S. Army Veteran who started a post service career in agriculture. Her and her husband Thomas, also a U.S. Army veteran, both proudly own a ten-acre farm in Spotsylvania County, Virginia, where they produce vegetables, fruit, flowers, and honey.

1. First off, thank you for your service. Tell us about your background and how you got into agriculture. 

You are welcome!  I grew up in a military family, but some of my fondest memories were of life on the farm with my paternal grandparents. They had an amazing flower and vegetable garden, working dogs, laying chickens, and Jersey cattle. Those magnificent impressions helped me to realize that I was destined to work in the sciences.  As an undergraduate, I majored in biology and later joined the Army and served as a Medical Service Corps officer. Later I married a Physician Assistant who grew up on a farm. While serving in Germany, we purchased my aunt’s ten-acre farm so she could retire, thinking it would be an awesome opportunity to help us in our eventual retirement. It was one of the best decisions we made.  After we returned to Virginia, we met an Extension Agent who invited us to attend a Small Farm Outreach Program and the rest is history.

2. What does a typical day look like for you?

Our farm specializes in naturally grown vegetables, cut flowers, fruits, and honey.  During spring and summer months, I normally am up by 5:30 a.m. to cut flowers and tend to the bee hives while the temperatures are milder. Later I assess which vegetables and fruits require harvesting and start that process. Whenever available, I also attend agricultural training offered by the extension agents, Virginia State University’s Small Farm Outreach program, Virginia Tech, or the local beekeeping association to remain abreast of new agricultural techniques and information. 

3. What does agriculture have to offer to military veterans?

Agriculture has a wealth of opportunities to offer military veterans.  The USDA has special programs designed to introduce (or reintroduce) veterans to agricultural opportunities and training. 

We are members of the Farmer Veteran Coalition, which aims to cultivate a new generation of farmers and food leaders, and develop viable employment and meaningful careers through the collaboration of the farming and military communities. Additionally, agriculture requires skills similar to what is required of military service members. The field is a challenging, evolving, it requires discipline, organization, hard work, and offers fellowship with like-minded souls.  Every day on the farm presents a new set of circumstances to defeat, adapt, or overcome. Furthermore, farmers are a very helpful community and are willing to share both successes as well as stories of how to learn from their mistakes.

4. What USDA programs have you and your family utilized for your farm?

We have availed ourselves to the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) that allowed us to purchase a high tunnel to extend our growing season. NRCS provided subsidies for cover crops and FSA assisted with crop insurance for the farm. We are also the recipients of a Value-Added Producer’s Planning Grant and presently are working with a contractor on a feasibility study to examine the potential to transform beeswax into value-added products.

5. Who are your role models?

Since both of our grandparents were farmers, my husband I both have great respect for these farmers who were one generation removed from slavery, yet despite the odds, provided loving homes and cared for their families.  They were proud people who were remarkably educated, determined to succeed no matter the odds.

6. Any words of advice you’d offer to a veteran looking to start a post-service career in agriculture?

Like in the military:  “If you fail to plan, then you plan to fail.” Do your research, seek opportunities and avail yourself to everything that applies. Find a good mentor. We had wonderful mentors and still look to them.  Whenever we need advice, they are readily available to assist and help us to succeed.

7. Is there anything else you’d like to share?

If we can do it you can too.  There is nothing like growing your own food and flowers!

Anita Roberson and her family share their story in the video “Veterans in Virginia Agriculture: A New Way to Serve,” on the Virginia NRCS YouTube channel

The long awaited, easy to use, Adaptation Resources for Agriculture: Responding to Climate Variability and Change in the Midwest and Northeast is now available at the National Climate Hubs website under the Adaptation Assistance menu.

Add this new USDA report to your education and outreach action plans for helping producers prepare for, cope with, and recover from extreme weather and uncertain climate conditions. Read it to gain perspective on climate adaptation in agriculture and understand the general effects of climate change on agriculture and natural resources in the region. More importantly, use the resources to put climate change information into action: (Chapter 3) Adaptation Strategies and Approaches, a synthesis of peer-reviewed climate change adaptation responses, (Chapter 4)Adaptation Workbook, an adaptive management driven process for adapting agriculture to climate change, and (Chapter 5)Adaptation Workbook examples, four real-world examples that demonstrate how to use the workbook on typical farms in the region.  While the Adaptation Workbook is designed primarily for use by individual famers, the rest of the report is designed for use by extension agents, ag advisors, and conservationists to enhance their climate education and training programs. Open Report

Adam Boge shows the height of the elevated ridges on his cropland and corn residue, key elements in his ridge till system to manage soil erosion and improve soil health.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is helping Iraq War veteran Adam Boge improve technology and other efficiencies in his new farming operation, allowing the Ventura farmer to prepare for long-term success in the first full year on his own.

Boge enlisted in the Army directly out of high school. After his initial military service, he attended Iowa State University for Ag Systems Technology and Mechanical Engineering. College was interrupted, however, by his Iraq deployment. Boge represented the Army National Guard’s 1133^rd Transportation Company out of Mason City for 15 months throughout 2003 and 2004 in Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Upon his return to the United States, he continued his education and also began taking “hired hand” positions on farms near Ames. “That’s when I started to think more seriously about developing a business plan to someday take over a farm,” he said. “Unless you’re born into it, though, it is really difficult to capture farming ground.”

NRCS District Conservationist Tony Moore, right, helped Cerro Gordo County farmer Adam Boge through the Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) process. Boge is improving nutrient management efficiencies using new enhancement practices through CSP.

A Return to Iowa
Back in Iowa and still yearning to farm, Boge learned that his respected neighbor Dave Rosendahl could soon be retiring from farming. He quickly put together a proposal and approached Rosendahl about it. “That’s when things started to come together for me,” said Boge.

While Rosendahl discussed the proposal with his family, Boge took an opportunity to learn more about Rosendahl’s management system. He helped a neighbor through the 2012 crop season, farming corn and soybeans in the Prairie Pothole region of Cerro Gordo County.

Prior to the 2013 planting season, Boge and Rosendahl formed a handshake agreement to crop share for three to five years, eventually handing over all day-to-day farming activities to Boge. However, that timeframe was quickly moved up. Boge said, “During the 2013 harvest Dave and I passed through the last bit of corn and Dave looked at me and said, ‘Here are the reigns. I’m complete. I’m satisfied.’”

Boge says his plan was to take over a couple hundred acres, but Rosendahl was ready to give up all 980 acres covering nine farms and five landlords.

Filter strips, like the one NRCS District Conservationist Tony Moore (left) and Ventura farmer Adam Boge are standing in, helped Boge become eligible for the Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP).

Conservation
As primary operator of the ground, Boge was eligible to apply for local, state and federal conservation programs. Coincidentally, the 2014 Farm Bill provides benefits for veterans like Boge who are beginning farmers.

Boge visited the USDA Service Center in Mason City and spoke with Tony Moore, district conservationist with USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), about conservation planning and programs for his new operation. Moore recommended Boge apply for the Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP).

When beginning veteran farmers apply and receive eligibility for CSP, they are given priority status by NRCS to receive funding. Boge became CSP eligible on all 980 acres.

He credits Rosendahl for his CSP eligibility, considering Rosendahl implemented many conservation practices on the land throughout the years, including filter strips along drainage ways, natural wetlands for wildlife habitat, and years of soil saving with ridge till.

“I want to continue what Dave was doing,” said Boge. “The way Dave farmed and took care of his land, I see no reason to change it. There is ground here that hasn’t been ripped in 30 years. There is an unbelievable amount of soil tilth out there created by earthworm activity.”

Moving forward, Boge is implementing an enhancement bundle he chose through CSP, which include widening stream buffers, and improving nutrient and pesticide application techniques. “A lot of it is updating the technology and making the operation more efficient,” he said. “Updated GPS will ensure I don’t over-apply nutrients and pesticides. CSP is allowing me to take the operation to another level.”

– Following the 2014 soybean harvest, Boge knifes nutrients directly into raised ridges that are the signature of his farmland.

Boge says he’s appreciative of USDA support for veterans trying to get a start in agriculture. “You spend time in a combat environment and come back, you think there isn’t much you shouldn’t be able to achieve, but you hit roadblocks and it gets discouraging after a while,” he said. “As veterans, we don’t ask for much from our country. I wanted to achieve everything on my own, but when you sit down and look at the bottom dollar, maybe I needed a little help. If CSP is the way to get it, then that’s OK.”

For more information about conservation plans and programs, visit your local USDA Service Center, or go online to www.nrcs.usda.gov.

Download a printed copy of this story, here.

In this demonstration at the Great Lakes Intertribal Food Summit in September 2016, wild rice is hand parched over a wood fire, a key step in the traditional processing of wild rice.

Autumn is a time to reflect on all that we have to be thankful for, as we enjoy the harvest of nature’s bounty during gatherings with family and friends. In Indian Country, culture and tradition are sustained through shared meals with family and the community. Traditional foods are a powerful way for each new generation to connect with and honor its history and its ancestors, and participants in USDA’s Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations (FDPIR) have access to more traditional foods than ever this year. November, Native American Heritage Month, is an especially fitting time to celebrate the addition to FDPIR of bison, blue cornmeal, wild rice, and wild salmon – foods that not only nourish a body but sustain a culture.

In collaboration with the FDPIR community, USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service and Food and Nutrition Service have been working to identify culturally relevant foods to procure and offer through FDPIR, a program that provides healthy food and nutrition education to an average of 92,500 income-eligible individuals living on or near reservations across the United States each month. The food package offers more than 100 domestically sourced, nutritious foods, including a variety of meat, poultry, fish, dairy, grains, and fruits and vegetables. In both fiscal year 2015 and 2016, USDA received an additional allocation of $5 million dedicated to traditional and locally-grown foods. This fund, authorized under the 2014 Farm Bill and subject to the availability of appropriations, has allowed the exploration of new culinary opportunities for FDPIR.

In late 2015, bison and blue cornmeal became the first traditional foods delivered through FDPIR. More than half a million pounds of frozen, lean ground bison meat have reached program participants throughout the country, with an additional one million pounds already on contract to be distributed over the next year. Two of the three bison vendors are Native American-owned small businesses. Tribes received whole-grain blue cornmeal during the 2015 holiday season, and beginning in mid-2016, have been able to receive this nutrient-rich product year-round.

In August 2016, USDA awarded contracts for two new traditional foods, traditionally-harvested wild rice and wild frozen sockeye salmon fillets. Deliveries of both products are anticipated to begin later this year. The wild rice comes from the White Earth Band of Chippewa and Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe in Minnesota. Both of these tribes administer FDPIR in their communities. The tribes employ the traditional wild rice harvesting practices of hand harvesting and wood parching, and USDA is delighted to have these new USDA Foods vendors on board to provide this specialized product to FDPIR participants. Watch this video to learn more about wild rice harvesting and processing.

This new quartet of traditional foods seeks to meet the cultural preferences of tribes in various regions of the country. The addition of these wholesome foods to FDPIR not only benefits the program participants who receive them but also the Native American vendors who provide them, and USDA is proud to support both ends of the food chain in Indian Country.

November 11th, 2016|Tags: Forest Digest|0 Comments

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

Credit: Alistair Nicol via Flickr.

• Breathtaking Photos of Ancient Trees Against Starry Skies — Atlas Obscura
  Nature photographer Beth Moon went on a quest to capture the world’s oldest trees backlit by the universe. To do this, she traveled the world, journeying to places such as South Africa, England and California. See some examples from her work here!

• MARRAKECH: New initiatives on forest protection give boost to climate action agenda — United Nations
  The United Nations Climate Conference (COP 22) is under way, and in the last few days forests and their protection were a big topic of discussion. Read about the progress world leaders are making and what they are discussing in this article.

• Forests: A Parallax View in Music — National Geographic
  Concept albums are in themselves not a new concept. But, has anyone so thoroughly captured the effects of climate change through music? Composer Paul Miller writes about his composition process and how he captures the nature of trees in this experimental soundscape.

• How Conservation Is Getting a 21st-Century Overhaul — Water Deeply
  The Freshwater Trust is updating its approach to conservation, bringing in new tools and technology to measure its impact. They are changing their focus to be more about outcome than procedure. Read about the latest techniques in conservation innovation.

The post Forest Digest — Week of November 7, 2016 appeared first on American Forests.