Author: Site Owner

Root disease tree failure resulted in the loss of this car.

The old proverb: “You can’t see the forest for the trees” should have continued with a line saying that it’s even harder to see below the trees. Because seeing under trees, their root system to be exact, is how scientists understand and appreciate the things that will determine what we all see in our future forests. A new publication just released by the US Forest Service seeks to help forest managers recognize important root diseases and provide the best management strategies.

Ordinarily, we depend on decay organisms to break down wood to recycle enormous amounts of above ground materials such as leaves, limbs, and tree trunks. Without these subterranean decomposers, we would find ourselves buried in forest debris. But what makes beneficial decay organisms go bad and attack the root systems of living trees?  In a word, disease.

Tree disease is any harmful deviation, caused by a persistent agent (like a fungus), impacting the normal function of the tree. Root diseases occur when trees respond to the lingering effects of these persistent agents as they prevent key root functions such as water uptake or alter structural integrity of the tree.

Boxelder in park that has succumbed to root disease crushing two picnic tables.

Even after the tree dies, these fungi can live on, waiting for new trees to emerge, re-infecting generations over and over. In fact, today’s forests likely reflect millennia of influence and damage by root disease. Disease pockets may first go unnoticed, but as time marches on their impacts can be seen as slow and reduced growth.

Urban communities look to landscape trees for their ability to reduce air and noise pollution, provide energy-saving shade, furnish habitat for wildlife, improve aesthetics, add property value, and contribute to community wellness. Root disease damage becomes increasingly more important where people live because gravity works. Eventually infected trees die becoming hazards where people live and recreate, ultimately becoming a danger to the community and leaving us with less resilient forests.

Tree failure due to root disease on a golf course.

While we may not be able to entirely remove undesirable diseases, it is possible to utilize integrated treatments to minimize their impact and keep the future of our forests safe and healthy. The recent report is a useful tool to do just that.

Root disease pocket mortality in a forest.

Environmental trading markets are springing up across the nation.

Environmental trading markets are springing up across the nation with goals of facilitating the buying and selling of ecosystem services and helping more private landowners get conservation on the ground.

USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack and EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy joined Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe in December 2014 to announce the state’s first trade under its nutrient trading program for stormwater.

Through the transaction, the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT) purchased phosphorous credits generated on farms to offset phosphorous runoff from a road construction project. By purchasing the credits, VDOT saved approximately 50 percent of the cost of installing traditional engineered structures and paved the way for similar transactions.

Since then, Virginia’s stormwater trading program has blossomed—the state has approved almost 30 nutrient banks that can sell credits.

Recently, the National Network on Water Quality Trading—a forum for advancing the policy and practice of water quality trading—met to set the stage for development of a road map for innovative approaches to stormwater mitigation. Through these new approaches, cities and rural communities across the Nation would have access to online tools and models to help address stormwater challenges through market-based approaches and green infrastructure incentives.

“We want to make sure that our rural communities and agricultural producers are part of the stormwater conversation,” said USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service Chief Jason Weller.

The Willamette Partnership administers the National Network on Water Quality Trading through a Conservation Innovation Grant from USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). Conservation Innovation Grants are funded through the NRCS’ Environmental Quality Incentives Program, which is part of the Farm Bill. “I like to call the Farm Bill the Nation’s largest green infrastructure program,” said Weller.

USDA is seeking new proposals for cutting-edge projects, like environmental markets, that will provide new conservation opportunities through its Conservation Innovation Grants (CIG) program. Through USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), the department will invest up to $25 million for projects that spark the development and adoption of innovative conservation technologies and approaches in areas like conservation finance, data analytics, and precision conservation to benefit producers on private agricultural and forest lands.

The next National Network on Water Quality Trading meeting is tentatively scheduled for the spring of 2017, and will focus on water quality trading challenges and opportunities for agricultural producers. Producers or organizations interested in participating in this meeting, should contact Kari Cohen, the National Leader for Environmental Markets and Conservation Finance at NRCS.

With a new view from above, diverse teams of researchers help deliver information to farmers using useful, inexpensive unmanned aerial systems (UAS).

This post is part of the Science Tuesday feature series on the USDA blog. Check back each week as we showcase stories and news from USDA’s rich science and research portfolio.

Just like a smart phone helps users learn, communicate and make important decisions, smart technology—known as precision agriculture—helps farmers know and apply critical information about the right investments in fertilizer, seed, pesticide and water needed to produce their crops. Through new technologies, farmers produce more efficiently and see an increase in profits while improving stewardship of ecosystems and local communities.

To talk about precision agriculture is to talk about mapping the amount of a crop grown per acre (yield) or the types of soils in a given area. It also includes the technology that automatically guides farm machines and controls variables like the rates of seeds, fertilizers or chemicals.

Known as “VRT,” variable rate technology is one of the most important components of precision agriculture simply because fertilizer or chemicals are applied only where and in the amount they are needed. Without VRT, a farmer fertilizes at an average rate across a field, so some areas of the field get too little fertilizer reducing yield, while other parts of the field get too much fertilizer, wasting money and potentially polluting nearby waterways.

While soil and yield mapping have been a standard method for determining the amount of fertilizer needed, new sensing systems are providing an alternative and more flexible method for determining inputs. Back in the 1990’s, USDA-funded researchers at Oklahoma State University studied the problem of how to measure the amount of the common fertilizer nitrogen needed in a field.

The scientists knew that the answer depended on crop biomass – or the vegetation within the crop area– and that could vary throughout a field. So they developed light sensors to measure certain reflections and recognize the “greenness” of the crop, indicating the amount of biomass. The resulting data was then used to calculate the amount of nitrogen needed. This success led to widely-used commercial systems and a significant reduction in over application of nitrogen that could contaminate local environments and waterways.

The Unmanned Aerial System (UAS) is one of the newest technologies being studied for improvements in agricultural precision. Though the potential value of using UAS in agriculture has received a lot of attention and systems are available at a reasonable cost, there are few examples of farmers actually using a UAS to make key decisions and take direct action. The technology can be more complicated than expected and it takes time extract usable information.  Substantial research still needs to be done.

One recent project by USDA-funded researchers at the University of Minnesota is using UAS to locate pests and diseases that reduce soybean yield. Like the nitrogen fertilizer VRT, UAS could allow producers to reduce pesticide use, spraying only the areas within each field showing the disease. Because it can more quickly and thoroughly scan a field than a person can scout it, UAS could provide more timely detection with less labor costs.

In recognition of the many challenges to using UAS in agriculture, a USDA multi-state project committee recently began to coordinate this work. The project includes objectives for research and objectives for providing extension information, helping farmers evaluate the various UAS technologies and offer strategies to make it profitable.

November 8th, 2016|Tags: urban forests|0 Comments

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By Doyle Irvin, American Forests

Dogwood. Credit: Dale McNeill via Flickr.

The movement to convert pre-existing houses into more sustainable versions of themselves is gaining steam. Most of the focus is on what kind of windows, doors or solar panels to choose, or what kind of laundry apparatus you should install, and not enough people realize that you can have a large impact on your house’s sustainability with trees and plants! That being said, there is still a huge amount of information out there, so American Forests is here to give you the quick take.

Shading is more complex than it seems

Where you want to produce shade for your house is reliant on where you happen to live. The U.S. Department of Energy helpfully split the United States into five distinct areas: marine, hot-dry, hot-humid, mixed-humid and cold.

Credit: Energy.gov.

For the cold, hot-humid and mixed-humid regions, you will want to plant deciduous trees that block the summer heat yet allow light through during the winter, after the leaves have fallen. Trees can also be used as wind breaks or funnels — you will want to plant a wind break north of your house, to block south-headed winter winds, and you’ll want to plant a funnel south of your house, to channel cool breezes during the summer. If over-heating during the summer is over-working your air conditioning unit, you will want to shade the roof, all windows, the walls that face east and west and anything darkly-colored that attracts and absorbs sunlight.

People who live in hot areas will want to provide shade for their air conditioning units, especially. The roof and the windows are of equal importance. If you don’t have enough time to wait for an entire tree to grow (who does?), you can use vines grown along a lattice to cover important areas. The more you plant, the cooler your area will be: the evapotranspiration of plants and trees reduces temperatures considerably.

For more information about strategic shading and windbreaks, reference this amazing guide by Landscape For Life. You can also use this free i-Tree Design tool to calculate energy savings on real or hypothetical trees and buildings.

Make sure to avoid invasive species

Whether it’s the Kudzu in the south or the Eucalyptus in the West, invasive species are wreaking havoc across the United States. Seeds travel! Carefully selecting which species to plant on your property is an important contribution to preserving your local area’s sustainability for future generations. Native species are also adapted to the climate of your region, so they will cut down watering costs.

To find out what species are native to your region, consult eNature.

Purify the air in your neighborhood

It’s widely reported that indoor house plants can help you keep your air clean and toxin-free. Ferns, palms, lilies and orchids are some of the best air scrubbers around, removing such toxins as formaldehyde, xylene, carbon monoxide, benzene and ammonia, among many other pollutants. These plants also release lots of oxygen for a double-bonus! For more information about indoor plants, you can access a helpfully organized report on the NASA Guide to Air-Filtering Houseplants.

What’s less recognized is the work that trees do to clean the air in our neighborhoods. American Forests is working hard to spread the word. Here are the important things to know:

• Trees filter particulate matter from the atmosphere, keeping it out of our lungs.
• Air pollution causes more deaths per year than AIDS and Malaria combined.
• Forty-two percent of Americans live in areas with dangerous pollution levels.
• The evapotranspiration and shading of trees cools surrounding neighborhoods, reducing air conditioner use.
• Over the course of its lifetime, one average tree provides $62,000 of pollution control.
• Trees have been shown to increase property value and reduce crime.

Some of the trees that are best at purifying the air around you are the oak, horse chestnut, yellow poplar, red mulberry, silver maple, London plane, dogwood and pine trees. A tree’s effectiveness varies depending on your region, so make sure to research which species are native to your region.

Hungry? Grow your own food!

Credit: Kelly Garbato via Flickr.

One of the easiest ways to live more sustainably is to eat locally grown food; you cut out all the energy costs involved in transporting the food to your doorstep. There’s nothing more local than your own home! Fruits, nuts, berries and vegetables can all come from your backyard. The scope of your project here can vary from one simple apple tree to an entire ecosystem. Carefully planned horticulture can sometimes be left entirely on its own as a self-managing system.

The best place to start is your local nursery, but we have collected some guides here for you to peruse:

• For information about how to properly plan, plant and maintain fruit trees, read this EarthEasy article on fruit trees.
• To consult a list of consistently-tasty fruits, browse the Dave Wilson Nursery’s index.
• To explore the wide world of permaculture gardening, start at Deep Green Permaculture.
• To find your state’s local master gardener program, refer to the American Horticultural Society’s map.

The post How to Use Plants and Trees to Make Your Home Sustainable appeared first on American Forests.

Under Secretary Michael Scuse, North Carolina FSA State Executive Director Bob Etheridge, and FSA County Executive Director Kenny Johnson stand with farmer Kent Smith to assess flood damage to his sweet potato crop in Tarboro, North Carolina.

When Hurricane Matthew hit last month, disaster struck as high flood waters devastated communities up and down the East Coast. Agricultural producers in Eastern North Carolina were hit especially hard and suffered devastating losses to crops, livestock, and property.

Secretary Vilsack recently designated 39 counties in North Carolina as primary natural disaster areas, in addition to 15 contiguous counties. This week, I traveled to the state to visit some of the communities that were affected. I saw a peanut farm littered with uprooted plants and cracked shells. I met with an organic tobacco producer whose top soil had completely washed away. I visited a sweet potato and soybean farm that suffered hundreds of thousands of dollars in losses. We drove by washed out roads and gutted homes with waterlogged furniture piled high on the side of the road.

It was heartbreaking to see the impact of the damage and the destruction of people’s lives. Now, three weeks after the storm, communities are starting to rebuild – and I want them to know that we are here to help. USDA has a wide range of programs available to those affected by natural disasters.

All qualified farm operators in disaster declared counties are eligible for low interest emergency loans. There are also many safety-net programs to help producers recover from eligible losses, including the Livestock Indemnity Program, the Emergency Assistance for Livestock, Honeybees, and Farm-Raised Fish Program, Emergency Forest Restoration Program and the Tree Assistance Program.

Producers with crops insured under the Federal crop insurance program should immediately contact their local crop insurance agent to report any damage to insured crops. Compensation also is available to producers who purchased coverage through the Noninsured Crop Disaster Assistance Program, which protects non-insurable crops against natural disasters.

Additionally, USDA helps communities rebuild through rural housing programs, distributing food safety information, and ensuring food security by distributing food and administering the Disaster Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. There are USDA Service Centers located all across the state to help producers with agricultural damage and support communities as they recover.

As a farmer myself, I know weather poses significant risks to our family and livelihood. What Eastern North Carolina has experienced is any farmer’s worst nightmare. I empathize with what they’ve been through and sincerely want them to know that USDA is here to help them recover and thrive once again.

Under Secretary Michael Scuse visits a washout on an organic farm caused by Hurricane Matthew.

November 4th, 2016|Tags: Forest Digest|0 Comments

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

Credit: Peter Prehn.

• As beetles ravage Western forests, the ancient bristlecone remains unscathed — The Salt Lake Tribune
  Intrigued by the survival of the world’s longest-living organisms, this article investigates why some pine species are left alone, while others are decimated by mountain pine beetles.
• 11 facts about North America’s temperate rain forests — Mother Nature Network
  Normally when we think of rainforests, we think of the tropics. There are many rainforests to be found in the Pacific Northwest and Alaska, however. These ecosystems are fascinating; read about all the interplays between their flora and fauna here.
• Biggest threat to forests, beef lags in push to cut supply chain deforestation — Trust.org
  Since the Paris climate change deal in December 2015, a number of companies have climbed on board with efforts to reduce deforestation worldwide. Still, not nearly enough have agreed to the deal, and this article examines the biggest deforestation threats still not with the program.
• New bond aims to unlock private investment to protect forests — Conservation International
  Interested in the finances involved behind conservation efforts? This article looks into a new type of bond created to finally attract private investors into the carbon credit market, something the market both struggles with and desperately needs.

The post Forest Digest — Week of October 31, 2016 appeared first on American Forests.

Dr. Woteki works with 4-H members.

The past eight years have been an extraordinary time for agricultural science, and for the application of new insights from other fields to enhance agricultural productivity and the overall agricultural economy. As the final days of this administration are approaching, it gives me a great deal of pride to look back at what USDA has accomplished in the areas of research and innovation.

Scientific research is a fundamental part of our mission at USDA. But, ultimately, what’s behind all the science is people – people who do the research and people who are affected by it. As USDA’s Chief Scientist and Under Secretary for Research, Education and Economics, I’ve met and worked with both as I’ve traveled across the country and around the world.

I’ve seen the dedication and innovation of researchers at a USDA laboratory in California as they developed uses for drones and laser-guided sprayers as part of a “precision agriculture” movement. Their work allows the wise, efficient application of water and chemicals – as well as increased crop yields – in drought-ridden areas.

I’ve seen the confident, solitary efforts of a Cornell University professor in the field of urban aquaponics who, with USDA funding, proved that he can not only raise 10,000 tilapia in fish tanks housed in the unlikely location of a high school basement in midtown Manhattan, but could then recirculate the fish tank water to nourish a thriving edible garden a few floors up in the school building.

And I’ve seen the eagerness reflected in the faces of two young girls taking part in 4-H National Science Day activities in the nation’s capital, applying science and technology skills and equipping themselves to possibly become part of the next generation of leaders in agricultural science.

These people, and so many before them, embody the commitment to scientific innovation that is a major reason why Americans have not had to worry about food security since the Dust Bowl days of the 1930s. To learn more about USDA’s important scientific work, I invite you to take a few minutes to take a look at our results over the past eight years in our USDA Medium Chapter 11: Food and Ag Science Will Shape Our Future.

The 21^st Century has been referred to as the “Century for Biology,” and we are witnessing the applications of our heightened understanding of genes and gene traits to enhance crops and livestock. These applications, in turn, have been integral to USDA efforts like the transfer of germplasm and new plant varieties to the private sector here in the U.S.

We are helping, through USDA’s partnership with the Agency for International Development and the “Feed the Future” initiative, in delivering UG99-resistant wheat varieties and improving the nutritional content of legumes—two examples of how our research and innovation are being applied to help improve food security around the world.

Our work has been informed by projections that our global population will reach over 9.5 billion people by the year 2050. To adequately feed that number of people would require an almost doubling of the world’s current level of agricultural production and a reduction in food loss and waste, at the same time the amount of farmable land is decreasing. As we continue to learn about the effects of a changing climate, our focus is on sustainably intensifying agricultural production to deliver the array of foods to provide for good health and foods that are free of disease-causing pathogens and toxins.

We have developed a vision of a bioeconomy that by the year 2030 will produce a billion tons of biomass – agricultural residues, grasses, energy crops, forestry trimmings, algae and other sources – that will provide alternative sources of fuel, energy and other bioproducts. We have also focused research on developing agricultural systems that will be able to provide all of these services and be resilient in the face of climate change.

Over the last eight years. We have faced numerous challenges and the results have been remarkable. There is still much to do, but we have left a solid foundation for continuing USDA’s work to support the American agricultural economy, to strengthen rural communities, to protect and conserve our natural resources, and to provide a safe, sufficient, and nutritious food supply for the American people.