December 3, 2021
Newsletter for December 3, 2021
This Issue:
  • Nevada Board of Agriculture Meets December 8
  • Nevada Farm Bureau & Department of Ag Team Up To Host Meat Processing Roundtable
  • Digging Through The Details Of BLM Evaluation Of Plans For Sage Grouse Conservation
  • Farm Bureau Continues Engagement In Battle To  Keep EPA In Bounds With Water Definition…
  • Information Webinars Available From NRCS On Watersheds Either December 6 or 7
Nevada Board of Agriculture Meets December 8
The Nevada Board of Agriculture will hold their final meeting for the 2021 calendar year on Wednesday, December 8, starting at 9 a.m. This link will take you to the meeting agenda and details for connecting virtually (on Zoom) or what you’ll need to do in order to join in person at the Las Vegas office of the Nevada Department of Agriculture (2300 East St. Louis Avenue, Las Vegas, NV).

One of the more priority details for the meeting will include the hearing that will take place to finalize the remaining portions of the new brand regulations.  As we’ve shared before…The regulations that will be covered involve the portion of regulations NAC Chapter 565, section 2 which relate to the Board of Agriculture’s authority for this portion of the livestock brands regulation.

Members of the public will be able to share their input on fees charged for an annual horse movement permit as well as fees charged for a lifetime horse movement permit. This opportunity for input will also cover the new travel fee ($35) that will be charged for brand inspections for issuance of an annual or lifetime horse movement permit.

This link will take you to the website to review the proposed regulations.
Nevada Farm Bureau & Department of Ag Team Up To Host Meat Processing Roundtable
The impacts of government shut-downs for COVID-19 and the consequences of how this action destroyed marketing channels prompted Farm Bureau policy attention and urged the establishment of a state meat inspection program.  Adopting policy is one thing…implementing those ideas is something else.  With progress that is slowly moving forward, Nevada Farm Bureau is joining with the Nevada Department of Agriculture to host a morning session of discussion on Tuesday, December 14 (9 – Noon).

This session will offer an “in-person” participation at the Nevada Department of Agriculture Sparks Headquarters or the ability to join on Zoom Click Here for the December 14th meeting agenda

Ideally Nevada agricultural producers will be interested in joining the meeting and discussion to offer their perspectives and insights for what best serves your interest.  There will also be an update on the status of regulations which will be necessary for implementing a state program.

Those who wish to attend in person at the Department of Ag Sparks office are required to wear a mask.  You also need to send an email note to Samantha Bellwood of your plans to participate.  Her email address is sbellwood@agri.nv.gov  you can also reach her by phone at (775) 353-3619
Digging Through The Details Of BLM Evaluation Of Plans For Sage Grouse Conservation
As we reported last week, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has announced their starting steps of beginning the process to consider updates to the range-wide manage plans for sagebrush habitat they adopted in 2015 and then amended in 2019.  

Based on the Federal Register Notice there will be a scoping process for public input to be used in the planning initiative as well as public meetings to be held at locations to be announced.  The notice also indicates that BLM’s preliminary purpose is to amend the applicable land use plans to provide for land use decisions connected with Greater Sage Grouse and Sagebrush habitat land management.

Noted in the Federal Register Notice and also in the BLM news release possible withdrawal of public and Forest system lands in sagebrush focal areas from mineral location and entry is already underway.  While it isn’t certain how restricting use of larger areas of land might address the number 1 reason for loss of habitat (wildland fire) the process will advance to accomplish whatever desired ends those in charge wish to carry out.

The beginning stages of Nevada Farm Bureau’s work on this project has been attempting to understand the details that BLM has provided in the October 2021 publication of the of the “Greater Sage-Grouse Plan Implementation – Rangewide Monitoring Report for 2015-2020.”  

The 582-page document is not an easy read and requires some more extensive understanding than what we’ve got at this point.  The section “Appendix 11” zeros in on the findings of the monitoring for Nevada and Northeastern California.  Information provided in this section is supposed to offer implementation data and answers for these questions:

  1. Are the plans meeting the sage-grouse habitat objectives?
  2.  Are sage-rouse Habitat Management Areas (HMA’s) within the land use plan area meeting or making progress towards meeting, land health standards, including the Special Status Species/wildlife habitat standard?
  3. Is the plan meeting the disturbance objective(s) within sage-grouse areas?
  4.  Are the sage-grouse populations within this plan boundary and within the sage-grouse HMAs increasing, stable or declining?

Candidly, the section is going to take a lot more study to figure out what the information provides.  It was noteworthy to read in the Executive Summary for the overall report that wildfire accounted for 72 percent of the sagebrush loss in the entire area (two regions of the “Great Basin Region” and the “Rocky Mountain Region”) with the “Great Basin Region” having 87 percent of the loss of sagebrush as the result of wildfire.

This will be an on-going process and we plan to keep you posted on what unfolds or is scheduled for your participation. 
Farm Bureau Continues Engagement In Battle To  Keep EPA In Bounds With Water Definition…
In his recent column “The Zipline” American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) President Zippy Duvall expressed the attitude of most agricultural landowners regarding the Biden Administration’s Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) next round of attempting to define their regulatory control over water.  Based on past experiences with the definition that the Obama Administration attempted to impose, the EPA’s intentions go well beyond regulatory control over “water” and more on simply dictating all sorts of prohibitions on private land use.

The Trump Administration brought forward, going through the full process of legitimate regulation building, the Navigable Water Protection Rule, which reconnected “navigable waters” (like it says in the Clean Water Act) to where federal regulators should operate their authority.

In the theme of the Biden Administration’s philosophy of how government should operate – the EPA used the courts to throw out the Trump Administration’s regulation and they are now attempting to come up with their own rule of federal control.

A series of regional meetings are being organized with nominated panels to participate in a Roundtable discussion of where things ought to go from here.  Nevada and our fellow Western State Farm Bureaus have put forward our proposed panel of participants, in line with the process that EPA has outlined.  Those nominations, with 15-nominees from throughout the several states and representing all of the designated slots that EPA has requested to hear from, have been submitted for consideration.
If You Haven’t Shared Your Input For State Water Planning – Please Do!
We appreciate see the number of clicks indicating that Farm Bureau members are taking advantage of the opportunity to give input to the State Water Planning survey and we’ve also enjoyed having conversations with those who participate and had thoughts to share.  

The deadline for completing the survey is December 15th and we want to stress how important it will be to make the time in Clicking Here and sharing your thoughts on the questions. The survey will take about 10-20 minutes.

The only hint that we’re going to remind you…it will be helpful for you to look up in advance of going to the survey (if you don’t know it off the top of your head) the groundwater basin where you are located.
Information Webinars Available From NRCS On Watersheds Either December 6 or 7
The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) will receive $918 million in funding through the $1.2 trillion Infrastructure and Investment Jobs Act. A majority of this funding ($500 million) will be devoted to the agency's Watershed and Flood Prevention Operations Program. Another $118 million will be provided for the Watershed Rehabilitation Program and $300 million for the Emergency Watershed Protection Program.

NRCS's Watershed Programs help communities recover from the impacts of natural resources. Funding will be available for existing and new projects. To help prepare eligible sponsors, NRCS is holding the training webinars.

The Conservation Planning and Technical Assistance Division - Watershed Branch is offering training open to the public through a LIVE Microsoft Teams event (no registration required) on December 6 and 7, 2021.  The times for these 2-hour sessions are December 6 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Pacific Time or December 7 from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. Pacific Time.  The best way to connect with the date that is most convenient to you is to go to the NRSC Landscape Planning website and use the highlighted links that are provided for the date you determine.  (Please note the website shows the times on the basis of Eastern Times, but the times we’ve given you here are translated to “our” time.)

Questions will be answered via live chat during the open forum at the end of training. 
Nevada Farm Bureau 2022 Policy Book Available
While the policy book printer catches up with digital platform we have available, those interested in reviewing the work of the 2021 Nevada Farm Bureau voting delegates can visit the Nevada Farm Bureau website and reach this link to learn our policy positions for 2022.
Have a great weekend!