From June 22-28, 2020, we're celebrating the incredibly vital role pollinators play in our ecosystems with National Pollinator Week! Each year, NACD celebrates this important week, facilitated by
Pollinator Partnership (P2)
.
Pollinators play a crucial role in plant reproduction and in the production of most fruits and vegetables.
Bees, beetles, bats, butterflies, hummingbirds and other insects help pollinate more than 75 percent of our flowering plants, and nearly 75 percent of our crops, according to the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
. While these pollinators often go unnoticed as they carry pollen from one plant to another, their work is essential to
our daily food supply.
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Even though many events and classroom activities have been canceled due to the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic, you can still celebrate by holding virtual outreach events to raise awareness. We also encourage you to download and share NACD's Pollinator Field Day Curriculum Guide, which is available for all conservation districts to download for free in both English and Spanish on
NACD's Marketplace and through the
Conservation Education Hub.
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NCF AND NARD ANNOUNCE NEBRASKA AS HOST OF 2021 NCF-ENVIROTHON
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On June 11, the National Conservation Foundation (NCF) and the Nebraska Association of Resources Districts (NARD) announced that Nebraska will be the host of the 2021 NCF-Envirothon, slated for July 25-31, 2021.
Nebraska was slated to host the 2020 NCF-Envirothon competition, but due to the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic, the 2020 competition was canceled to protect the health and safety of the general public and participants and to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
The 2021 event will be held at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln campus and feature the same resource topic and learning objectives as was planned for the 2020 competition, with the current topic of ”Water Resource Management: Local Control and Local Solutions.”
“It was a natural choice to allow Nebraska the opportunity to host the 2021 competition,"
NCF Chairman Steve Robinson said
. “We recognize and value the hundreds of hours of planning the Nebraska host team and their volunteers have dedicated to the 2020 event, and it felt only right to honor that by giving them the opportunity to put their plan in action in 2021 instead.”
“Although the pandemic delayed our hosting, it hasn’t curbed our excitement,”
said NARD President Jim Eschliman
. “We look forward to welcoming attendees to Nebraska in 2021 and sharing more about the unique ways we manage natural resources in the Cornhusker State.”
The top priority for the organizers remains the health and safety of students, advisors, volunteers, sponsors and education partners. NCF and the NARD will be working closely with the University of Nebraska-Lincoln over the next year to ensure that any recommended guidelines from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are met when the group gathers together in July 2021.
“As always, we thank the participants and volunteers for their ongoing dedication to the program, and we wish them and their families good health through these difficult times,”
Robinson said
.
To learn more about the NCF-Envirothon or the Nebraska Association of Resources Districts, visit:
www.envirothon.org
or
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RCD, AFF PARTNERSHIP HELPING TO REMAKE POST-FIRE FORESTLANDS
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The
Butte County Resource Conservation District (RCD) has partnered with American Forest Foundation (AFF) to replant nonindustrial, small privately-owned timberland areas within the Camp Fire burn scar in California.
Although the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic shortened the number of volunteer outings for the project, the conservation district was able to get a volunteer planting in during March, as well as a large-scale planting in with AFF and the Arbor Day Foundation, with nearly 135,000 seedlings planted to help restore the burned landscape.
While plantings are also planned for 2021, there will be areas that will not be restored, in some cases deliberately, Butte County RCD
Forest Health Watershed Coordinator Wolfy Rougle said.
“There’s not enough money, and not a lot of landowners are willing to put in the work needed to manage their lands to do this,"
she said. "And that’s okay. In many places, natural regeneration is okay.”
Already, some plants have taken root and are beginning to grow from regeneration after the fire, largely oak species. In the high-severity portions of the Camp Fire mosaic, conifers have not been able to regenerate. That means area forestland will have a different makeup than before the fire. Along with replacing some conifers that burned, the district is planting hardwoods, like oaks and redbuds, that are more fire-resilient and heat-tolerant and are important in reestablishing and increasing wildlife habitat.
“Healthy forests need to burn out here,”
Rougle said. “When we’re planting trees, we know we’re planting future fires, so the species we choose, the spacing we choose, the management we choose, is all part of choosing the future fires we’re going to experience."
“We don’t need to replace every tree,”
she said. “Our biggest challenge is to make sure we don’t plant too many trees.”
Rougle estimates another 300,000 trees would bring the area back toward a healthy forest. Managing the areas that revert back to shrubland to ensure future fires are lower-intensity and maintaining the health of the trees that did survive is crucial to rebuilding the forest.
Ponderosa pine, sugar pine, incense cedar and Douglas fir will be among the mix, but those plantings will be done at higher elevations. Lower areas will be covered with oak and other woodlands. Different pockets of land all have their own microclimates with slope and other aspects that will partially dictate the species that will be planted,
Rougle said.
“This last century has been really an anomaly at how successful we’ve been at fire suppression,”
she said. “The forests that folks remember from childhood are not the future. The future will be more hardwood-dominated, and that’s okay. These trees are really important for wildlife, and they’re more heat-tolerant, so they’re really important for building the resilience of our forests.”
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In Memoriam:
NACD Remembers
Hugh Hammond
Bennett, III
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On June 8,
Hugh Hammond Bennett, III from Greensboro, N.C., passed away at the age of 70.
Bennett was born Feb. 14, 1950 in Washington, D.C., and lived most of his adult life in North Carolina, after graduating from the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill.
NACD remembers and honors the life of Bennett, III.
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We Love to Hear
How Districts
Conserve Coasts
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To celebrate National Ocean Month, NACD invites districts to share their coastal and Great Lakes conservation activities. Please keep those social media posts coming with the hashtag #DistrictsConserveCoasts for a chance to win a pair of
Yeti mugs.
Shares or retweets of older posts about districts’ coastal conservation activities are welcome too!
In Washington State, the
Pierce Conservation District
’s
Shore Friendly program helps marine shoreline landowners keep trees and vegetation on their shorelines to reduce erosion, keep their shoreline natural, and protect the health of the Puget Sound and the Salish Sea.
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Celebrate Father's Day with Special
Carhartt Accessories
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This Sunday, thank your dad for all that he's done for you with special Carhartt accessories on NACD's Marketplace.
In celebration of Father's Day, NACD is extending its promotional sales offer for the Carhartt lunch coolers and work packs. These are the perfect gifts for dads who love to travel and spend countless hours outdoors. Heavy duty and water repellent, these accessories will keep food cold and personal items safe for a long time.
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Sand County Foundation Releases Water
Quality Report
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Recently, the Sand County Foundation released the report "Prioritizing Resources to Meet Water Quality Goals."
Working with 30 national agriculture and water quality experts, the foundation produced this report to explore five key priority areas that must be addressed and promoted to advance conservation adoption on agricultural land.
This report provides important background and direction forward for local, state and federal agencies looking to prioritize efforts, initiatives and funding.
To view the report, click on the cover above or
click here.
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Ohio Professor Wins World Food Prize for Carbon Research
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Rattan Lal,
professor of soil science at Ohio State University and founding director of the university's Carbon Management and Sequestration Center, was named this year's recipient of the World Food Prize.
Lal's research has led to improved food production and a better understanding of how atmospheric carbon can be held in the ground to help combat climate change.
"Dr. Lal is a trailblazer in soil science with a prodigious passion for research that improves soil health, enhances agricultural production, improves the nutritional quality of food, restores the environment and mitigates climate change,"
World Food Prize Foundation President Barbara Stinson said
.
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Promote your conservation district or state association's tree sale, annual meeting, webinar, field day or more on NACD's
Calendar of Events
!
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