Yesterday, December 12, U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced an additional $325 Million for 71 projects funded through the Partnerships for Climate Smart Commodities program. This second pool of funding was focused on innovative projects that develop and expand market opportunities for small and historically underserved producers. USDA’s total investment in the Climate Smart Commodities program is over $3.1 billion for 141 selected projects.

The Michigan Association of Conservation Districts, the Arizona Association of Conservation Districts, and the Oklahoma Association of Conservation Districts were named as lead partners. The California Association of Resource Conservation Districts, the Southern California Resource Conservation District, Washtenaw County Conservation District, Monroe Conservation District, Lenawee Conservation District, Muscogee Creek Nation Conservation District, Choctaw Nation Conservation District, Prince George’s County Soil Conservation District, and Van Buren County Conservation District were included as major partners in other pilot projects.

“NACD, conservation districts, and their associations are thrilled to support USDA’s goals of advancing equity, inclusion, and access to growing climate-smart markets,” said NACD CEO Jeremy Peters. “We are pleased that the Climate Smart Commodities partnerships support local leadership, partnerships, and collaborations. This is a key strategy for empowering producers and developing innovative long-term climate solutions that work for the community.”

USDA’s latest investment will facilitate creation of meaningful market opportunities for small and underserved producers and play a significant role in bolstering local communities and economies. NACD applauds USDA for its historic investments in climate-smart agriculture, forestry, and ranching.

Read the full press release on NACD's website.

DEADLINE FOR

CONGRESSIONAL APPROPRIATIONS

This Friday, December 16, the continuing resolution that is currently funding the government at Fiscal Year (FY) 2022 levels will expire. To avoid a government shutdown, Congress must either pass appropriations bills to fund the government in FY 2023, or pass another continuing resolution. NACD strongly supports the appropriations bills that have been passed by the House of Representatives, which include strong funding for many conservation priorities, including $883 million for Conservation Technical Assistance and no cuts in mandatory spending for Farm Bill conservation programs. We urge Congress to pass an agreement that includes House-passed funding levels to avoid a government shutdown or the passage of an additional continuing resolution.

NACD EXECUTIVE

BOARD MEETS IN DC

On December 5-6, NACD’s Executive Board convened in Washington, DC and met with Congressional representatives and USDA leaders to discuss current conservation efforts and share priorities for the upcoming 2023 Farm Bill. Board members sat down in person with staff from Rep. Glenn “GT” Thompson’s office, who will serve as the Chair of the House Agriculture Committee; Senate Agriculture Committee Ranking Member Boozman’s staff; Dr. Homer Wilkes, USDA Under Secretary for Natural Resources and Environment; and NRCS Associate Chief Louis Aspey, among others. NACD appreciated the time spent with our partners in both branches of government and will continue working closely with them to advance conservation efforts across the country.

NACD ATTENDS RAE COASTAL AND ESTUARINE SUMMIT

Last week, Coastal Resource Policy Group (RPG) Chair Joe Lomax, Coastal RPG member Timothy Allen, and NACD Communications Specialist Mariah MacKenzie attended the Restore America’s Estuaries (RAE) 2022 Coastal and Estuarine Summit. The summit was held in New Orleans, Louisiana, where over 1,200 attendees, including agency staff from NOAA, EPA, USFWS and NRCS, as well as representatives from non-profits and private businesses convened to explore issues, solutions, lessons learned, and innovative projects in coastal conservation and management.

While in Louisiana, members of the NACD delegation were able to tour several coastal management sites. Learning about local natural resource concerns and needs showcased the importance of local input when making management decisions, as every area faces a unique set of challenges and opportunities to implementing coastal conservation. Specifically, Southeastern Louisiana faces saltwater intrusion, high rates of subsidence, as well as storm surges and flooding. The region is also home to remarkable wetlands, forests of Cypress trees, and agricultural land.

The agenda for the summit was packed with informative concurrent sessions that showcased ongoing projects in coastal revegetation, habitat reestablishment, stream restoration, flood mitigation, and more. Many speakers also discussed innovative approaches to marketing their conservation work and connecting with the communities they serve. The experience was a great opportunity to learn from other organizations and partnerships that have been successful in implementing conservation and natural resource management in coastal areas.

NACD presented a poster at the summit, which focused on four exemplary success stories of conservation districts across the country working on coastal natural resource conservation and management. It was a great opportunity to educate other summit attendees on the work that conservation districts are already doing in this space, and on their potential as local partners in the future. NACD looks forward to continuing the work of advocating for conservation districts and educating others on their expertise in voluntary technical assistance, outreach, education and beyond.

Learn more about NACD's coastal conservation efforts here and about our partner RAE here.

CARCD HOSTS 77TH ANNUAL CONFERENCE IN FOLSOM, CA

From November 30 - December 2, over 300 conservation district board officials, partners, district employees and others gathered in Folsom, CA for the California Association of Resource Conservation Districts’ (CARCD) annual conference.

The conference began on Wednesday with regional and committee meetings occurring while the “Spotlight on Sac. Valley Agriculture” and “Wildfire Resilience and the Caldor Fire” tours took place. On the Sacramento Valley tour, attendees had the opportunity to hear from Stephen Julian, the partnerships Watershed Coordinator for the Cosumnes Groundwater Authority managing a dry well groundwater recharge monitoring project. The group also visited with the father-daughter operators of Dry Creek Ranch, Dale and Oriana Bleecher, to hear about ongoing plans regarding vernal pool conservation, floodplain restoration, and grazing management. Following a lunch sponsored by the Sacramento County Farm Bureau, the tour finished with a visit to Westervelt’s Cosumnes Floodplain Mitigation Bank to hear from representative Lisa Williams on the company’s habitat and groundwater recharge goals achieved through mitigation banking.

After a land acknowledgement led by Albert Titman (Niseon/Miwok/Maidu/Pit River/Mexica), Thursday’s opening sessions were kicked off with a California Natural Resources Agency (CNRA)-led plenary session hosted by Secretary Wade Crowfoot, followed by a keynote speech from Madeline Drake, CNRA’s Assistant Secretary for Biodiversity and Habitat, on California conservation partnerships. A panel discussion was led by Intertribal Agriculture Council’s Technical Assistance Specialist (CA Region), Natalie Solares on district-tribe relationships, featuring conservation district success stories and lessons learned. Another partnership panel focused on technical assistance resource sharing between California Department of Food and Agriculture’s (CDFA) Karen Ross, Natural Resources Conservation Service’s (NRCS) Carlos Suarez, and University of California Cooperative Extension’s (UCCE) Glenda Humiston, was hosted by CARCD before participants jumped into the wide variety of breakout sessions.

Breakout sessions on district management, partnerships, diversity/equity/inclusion, grants, permitting, and a slew of other technical topics filled the conference center through the end of the event, featuring numerous districts from around the state as well as partners including CAL FIRE, US Forest Service, CA Dept. of Fish & Wildlife, The Xerces Society, Audubon California, Center for Ecosystem Climate Solutions, to name just a few. Other highlights included conservation planning awards, a speak-off contest, Friday’s keynote speech on regional planning from David Shabazian, CA Department of Conservation’s Director, and an overview of conservation funding opportunities accessible through the Wildlife Conservation Board, hosted by Senior Environmental Scientist Scott McFarlin and staff. The conference ended on Friday December 2nd, with a virtual business session scheduled the following week and an extended virtual conference to occur in spring of 2023.

More can be found on this event as well as the virtual conference scheduled for March of 2023 at CARCD’s website.

EXTENDING LONGEVITY IN URBAN AG EDUCATION:

COMMUNITY DRIVEN URBAN AGRICULTURE AND POLLINATOR GARDENS TO ADDRESS LOCAL FOOD INSECURITY

Hubbard County, Minnesota is a rural area dominated by glacial lakes, streams and sandy soils where forestland and big potato agriculture lands intersect. Our communities are mostly rural and centered in this place with incredible natural resources and yet a large percentage of our local youth take backpacks of food home from school on the weekend to try to ensure that they have something to eat; in this way, many of the rural community members within the boundaries of Hubbard County Soil and Water Conservation District (HCSWCD) face similar issues of food insecurity expected in urban landscapes.

The district thus applied for a 2021 grant through the joint NACD and NRCS urban agriculture conservation (UAC) grant initiative to address these food security issues while also creating habitat for pollinators, improving soils, and managing the flow of stormwater into the many streams and lakes. HCSWCD also sought to build community networks around gardening that would serve to make people safer, happier and more connected with each other.

Throughout the course of the project, HCSWCD created 5 different types of community demonstration gardens spread across 4 locations and 2 school gardens. These gardens include mixed flower, herb and food plots, rain gardens, native fruiting shrub gardens and native dry soils pollinator gardens. All total, they worked with 28+ volunteers including adult and youth, 474 students at local public and charter schools, 133 adults who were interested in starting home or community gardens of their own, reached the readership of Hubbard County COLA, the HCSWCD Newsletter and 3 local papers (1,000’s of readers), and received 400 unique hits on their virtual lab online resource pages.

The district’s next steps are to work with our volunteers and school classrooms to get the community and school gardens growing for additional summer seasons. They have several requests to work on planning additional gardens and existing partnerships to pursue resources, funding and support for those projects. HCSWCD will continue to support the outreach and maintenance efforts with local capacity funds while we work with partners on pending proposals.

Learn more about all grantees through the UAC program online.