National Association of Conservation Districts

National Association of Conservation Districts

NACD's mission is to serve conservation districts by providing national leadership and a unified voice for natural resource conservation.

Forestry Notes

February 2011
Volume XX, Issue 3
| PDF version | Archive of Previous Issues |

  1. Helping friends in need
  2. Oregon State curriculum assists with transition
  3. Tax Tips available for download
  4. Agroforestry: The time is now
  5. Special Insert – Agroforestry: The Time is now | PDF |
  6. Forestry Briefs
  7. Conservation Calendar

1. Helping friends in need
An Illinois district steps up to help several area conservation sites following a wind storm

When a storm ripped through the Quad Cities area on a July morning in 2008, the 95 to 100 mile-per-hour winds it carried with it heavily damaged dozens of acres of forest land in Illinois’ Black Hawk State Historic Site and Nature Preserve, located in Rock Island County. The destruction was disheartening to Site officials. Black Hawk staff cleaned up around the facilities, but they didn’t have the crew, budget or expertise to manage the process in the forest.

The Collinson Ecological Preserve, a local forest owned by Augustana College, received similar damage from the storm. Fortunately, both Black Hawk and Augustana had already established a working relationship with Rock Island County Soil and Water Conservation District, which was equipped and willing to lend a hand.

On the surface, the project looked a bit daunting. The Black Hawk forest, in particular, was full of downed trees, and access to certain areas of the 200-acre forest was limited.

“The wind storm really did a number on the forest canopy in a number of parks and natural areas throughout the Quad Cities area,” says Matthew Schramm, Rock Island County SWCD’s Resource Conservationist. In some cases, the tops of mature oak trees had snapped. “Some of these trees were probably on the edge, anyway, from a stocking standpoint and forest health, but the storm precipitated major ecological changes and allowed invasive tree and shrub species to take off. We started to lose the oak-hickory component to the landscape.”

Schramm and other conservation leaders were not just worried about fighting off burning bush, buckthorn and bush honeysuckle; Rock Island County SWCD had conducted a number of prescribed burns in Black Hawk dating back to 2007. Says Schramm, “We realized that without doing something to treat the hazardous fuels, we wouldn’t be able to continue to do prescribed burning because of the fuel loading and smoke management concerns.”

The district looked into a number of federal grant options but failed to receive approval for funding. Then, during a wildand fire training session in November of 2009, district leaders struck up a conversation with Tom Wilson, the forest health manager for the Illinois’ Department of Natural Resources. Wilson suggested they seek funding available through the Healthy Forest Act. Says Schramm, most of the Act’s grant dollars had been used to assist wildland urban interface projects in the West, but a few Midwestern projects had also been rewarded. The district enlisted partners and outlined a plan of action.

“I think what helped with the submission was that we put together a coalition to do this rather than trying to tackle it ourselves,” says Schramm. “We held meetings with the site managers, Illinois DNR and our partners at the Scott County (Iowa) Conservation Board, and we worked extensively through Interstate Resource Conservation & Development, a multi-state RC&D which includes two counties in Iowa and three in Illinois. Mark Jackson, the RC&D project coordinator, was instrumental in helping us assemble our project team and facilitate development of the grant proposal. Through Interstate, we were also able to bring Scott County into the project to help address storm damage and significant wildland-urban interface issues at one of their forested sites in Davenport.”

Other partners in the coalition included representatives from the Black Hawk State Historic State, Augustana College, and the Quad City Natural Area Guardians (RISWCD’s volunteer stewards corps). Dr. Sean Jenkins, a fire ecology professor from Western Illinois University, also offered expertise. The group submitted its proposal in January 2010.

After several months of waiting the coalition was awarded a $120,500 grant. The grant is administered through the Northeastern Area of USFS State and Private Forestry, and goes through the Illinois DNR to Interstate RC&D, which has subcontracted the work to Rock Island County SWCD. Cleanup efforts began in fall 2010 and the coalition has until June 2012 to complete its work.

Says Schramm, “We tried to time it so we would have two complete burn seasons, realizing you can only safely put so much fire on the ground in any given year.” To start, the district did fuel load assessments for the existing timber stands and developed burn maps. Prescribed fires to reduce fuels (both pile and landscape burns) and mechanical treatments were initiated at the Collinson and Blackhawk sites in November 2010. Because of the amount of heavy fuels, and limited access within the ecological sensitive sites, the district has had to use chain saws, hand tools, and a chipper to reduce the size of the burn piles. In February, a student conservation association crew and a crew boss – both funded by the grant – will join the effort. Local volunteers from the Quad City Natural Area Guardians are also providing significant match resources for the grant to assist with fuel treatments and prescribed fires.

The coalition also plans to establish 15- to 30-foot wide fuel load breaks within high priority WUI areas in Scott County’s West Lake Park. As Dave Murcia, naturalist/director for the Wapsi River Environmental Education Center and Scott County Conservation Board explains, “Particular emphasis will be placed on reducing fuels at residential boundaries, communication facilities, and interstate corridors while creating appropriate site conditions for the safe applications and management of prescribed fire. The unique partnership between the Wapsi River Environmental Education Center, the Interstate RC&D and the Rock Island SWCD will also allow us to conduct educational opportunities for hazardous fuels management, wildfire suppression, and prescribed burning for a wide range of participants and local audiences.” Schramm says the chipped material from Black Hawk will be used as mulch in areas where there are erosion problems on trails. A portable sawmill will also be used so that some of the salvageable timber located outside of the nature preserves can be turned into lumber to help Black Hawk restore deteriorating park benches, picnic tables and signage.

For more information on the forest restoration work being done in the Quad Cities area, contact Matthew Schramm, Resource Conservationist for the Rock Island County Soil and Water Conservation District, at 309-764-1486 ext. 3, or via email at matthew.schramm@il.nacdnet.net.



2. Oregon State curriculum assists with transition

Oregon accountant and forest landowner Clint Bentz was tired of seeing families struggle to work through ownership issues during times of transition. Without a healthy dialogue and a connection to the land, he learned, siblings were unable to settle their differences, and often the property was parceled and sold off. Bentz and a colleague with the Austin Family Business Program began offering workshops to help Oregon families through these issues, but ultimately the demand for these workshops began to put a strain on Bentz’s career. In 2004, he began working with Oregon State University Forestry Extension to develop educational materials that natural resource educators without succession planning expertise could use to educate landowners. In 2008, with funding from the American Forest Foundation, the Ties to the Land Initiative was founded to establish partnerships and collaborations that make succession planning education available to landowners everywhere.

The Ties to the Land curriculum identifies the common problems forest and other types of landowners face in planning for intergenerational transitions and guides them through the necessary discussion and planning phases. For a minimal fee – set by the host organization in each state – landowners can attend a six-hour workshop (usually presented in two sessions). The workshop is presented on video by two highly qualified succession planning professionals who instruct on the relational, financial, and legal factors involved in succession planning.

So far, more than 1,500 families have attended the workshop. Based on follow up evaluations, Mary Sisock, the Initiative’s director, estimates the program has decreased the probability that up to 50,000 acres will be broken off and sold. She points out that estate planning is not enough. “Taxes are important,” she says, “but they shouldn’t drive the legacy. There has to be a shared vision.”

In 2009, the Initiative launched an updated website and plans are in place to add more interactive options online. Ties to the Land workshops are offered in 14 states through various conservation assistance offices. In addition, for $25 families in locations without workshops can order a workbook that helps them walk through the process. A DVD included in the workbook also features three case studies for what can happen if a family waits too long to build a plan. “People find those enlightening,” says Sisock.

“What’s really exciting is that two-thirds of the families going through this curriculum have already made progress on their plans. Making progress is important because succession planning is a process that takes time,” says Sisock. Succession planning professionals warn that it may take families with a large amount of forested acreage or in complicated situations three to 10 years to build a plan. One couple sent Sisock a note stating, ‘we are in our 80s and don’t expect to deal with this for some time.’ Sisock hoped they were right, but thought it was optimistic. She uses it to emphasize a key point: “People don’t want to face problems until they have to, and no one wants to think about their own mortality. They really need help to face and take action on succession planning.”

Women play a big role in helping to make for a smooth transition, Sisock believes. “Women are the chief emotional officers of families,” she says. “Since a big part of this is about communication, women are able to have those conversations and help people pull together.” Another reason that it is important for women to be involved is that they live longer than men. “The first transfer of property is actually to a surviving spouse which is generally the woman. Too often, wives inherit but have little knowledge about the value and management of the trees and land. This adds stress and makes them vulnerable. The conversations that are part of succession planning eliminate this problem,” says Sisock.

Ties to the Land was designed to keep landowning families ahead of the legal and emotional stresses that face those who fail to plan. For more information about Ties to the Land, visit http://tiestotheland.org, or contact Mary Sisock at 541-737-6014, or via email at mary.sisock@bus.oregonstate.edu.



3. Tax Tips available for download

With spring around the corner, forest landowners must begin to prepare for the tax season. This is sure to bring complex questions, especially for people who have recently inherited forested property. To add to this frustration, those landowners may find help is hard to come by. “A lot of CPAs are not familiar with these issues,” says Linda Wang, the U.S. Forest Service’s National Timber Tax Specialist. “It’s not their fault because most of them do not specialize in timber taxation.”

For the past five years, Wang has helped draft the Forest Service’s popular “Tax Tips for Forest Landowners.” Wang, and John L. Greene, a research forester at the Southern Research Station, co-authored this year’s guide.

The easy-to-follow, two-page document addresses several common topics, including: timber sales, timber management expenses, reforestation costs, and casualty losses. Each topic provides examples and directs CPAs and landowners to the proper tax form to use.

Tax Tips’ mission is simple – to assist landowners, foresters and tax professionals in finding timely solutions for timber tax-related questions. One common hurdle forest landowners face is determining the cost of their timber, which is key in reducing taxes when reporting timber sale or casualty losses.

“If you inherited the property years ago, like many people do, you really need to dig up records to see if someone established a value on the timber back then. If not, work with a forester to set it up,” says Wang. “Most people don’t realize the importance of the cost records until they have a timber sale or casualty. The best time to do it is when you acquire the timber. It’s just like when you buy or inherit a house – you know the value, the purchase price and other related costs the best at that time– only timber is a bit more complicated. It takes three people, really – the tax professional, forester and landowner – to work together to establish that cost.”

To view “Tax Tips for Forest Landowners for the 2010 Tax Year,” visit www.timbertax.org/developments/TimberTaxTips2010.pdf.



4. Agroforestry: The time is now

In this month’s Forestry Notes readers will find a four-page insert dedicated to agroforestry. There has been a lot of buzz about this subject over the past year, and in May I was honored to represent NACD as a member of the newly-formed Interagency Agroforestry Team.

Agroforestry practices have led to better crop yields, improved conservation on the land, and in some instances provided another source of income. But there remains a shortage of natural resource professionals equipped to answer landowner questions and assist in planning efforts. Conservation districts have the ability to help, and as you’ll see in this month’s insert there is a wealth of information and opportunity awaiting those districts willing to.

If your district is already working with a landowner on an agroforestry practice, use it as a demonstration site for other landowners who might benefit from one of the five agroforestry practices. For those districts not engaged in agroforestry, consider having a member of your staff attend a local workshop or gain advanced knowledge through an online program.

The time for agroforestry is now. I encourage you to get involved and assist those farmers and landowners interested in exploring all agroforestry has to offer. Enjoy the insert!

Tom Crowe
Regional director for the Indiana Association of Soil & Water
Conservation Districts, and a member of the Interagency Agroforestry Team and NACD Forest Resources Policy Group



5. Special Insert – Agroforestry: The Time is now

The general concept of agroforestry is to integrate trees and agriculture so as to create a more diversified landscape, while providing the producer with new environmental and/or economic benefits. While it sounds like an easy sell, leaders at the USDA National Agroforestry Center (NAC) in Lincoln, Nebraska admit that some landowners are reluctant to make the transition.

“One of the biggest barriers to agroforestry adoption we encounter among producers and landowners is ‘tradition,’” says NAC Director Andy Mason. “For example, annual row crops belong in that field and you manage only for trees in the woodland. I’m certainly not knocking tradition, but we need to recognize that agroforestry is a different way of thinking.”

For this reason, Mason believes conservation districts are well positioned to help educate landowners on the many benefits tied to the five common agroforestry practices: alley cropping, forest farming, riparian forest buffers, silvopasture and windbreaks. Districts have the local relationships to spread the word; problem is, like landowners, district leaders in a number of areas around the country are still just learning about agroforestry.

Says Mason, “What agroforestry needs is conservation professionals out there – districts being a big part of that population – open to the idea of agroforestry … professionals willing to learn about it and willing to find landowners – early adopters – that are doing it or have an interest in it. That’s what it’s going to take for us to break ground and expand agroforestry in many areas.” Adds Mason, “We also know that local agroforestry demonstration sites are important. Seeing is believing.” U.S. Forest Service Lead Agroforester Rich Straight says that an important step in helping to build lasting and effective agroforestry systems is for conservation professionals to take time during the planning phase to consider a variety of options. But this may be difficult because of the heavy workload that field staffs carry.

“Not all agroforestry practices are foreign to farmers or conservation districts, although maybe the word is,” says Straight. “Windbreaks and riparian forest buffers are two types of agroforestry that are familiar to conservation-minded folks. Where conservation districts might be able to work with landowners to take it up a notch is to make those conservation practices economically productive … To take a windbreak and include in the design a tree or shrub species to be utilized as another income source. Maybe there’s a local winery or a market for jellies and jams allowing a landowner to grow fruit-bearing shrubs to harvest for that market.”

Beyond education, landowners also require help with financial planning and technical assistance. NAC has identified almost 20 U.S. Department of Agriculture programs that offer assistance for agroforestry-related projects, many of which conservation district staff are already familiar with.

“You can have financial assistance, but the technical assistance is huge,” says Mason. “So having people in districts that are literate in agroforestry, or if they aren’t, knowing who to go to – who the professionals are in their state – is important.”

In addition to the USDA National Agroforestry Center, university Extension offices around the country have also taken an active role in assisting conservation professionals in helping to guide landowners through the process.

Adds Mason, “We’re going to need a critical mass of resource professionals who have at least a basic expertise in agroforestry and that are willing to reach out to other professionals that may have more expertise – perhaps someone in Extension or State forestry. We’ll need landowners open to it, sure, but if a landowner walks into a USDA Service Center and asks about agroforestry and the response is ‘we don’t do that here,’ the conversation isn’t going to go any further.”

District Success - Indiana

At an Indiana conservation gathering last summer, landowner Carl Diehls pulled forester Tom Crowe aside. Diehl shared that his 67-acre field, on which a tenant farmer alternates corn and beans, had experienced considerably higher yields in the areas closest to where a windbreak had been installed in 1994.

Crowe, a member of the Interagency Agroforestry Team and the NACD Forest Resources Policy Group, has planted millions of trees in Indiana but had never witnessed first-hand the impact one windbreak could have on crop yield. The quarter-mile-long stretch of Northern White Cedar sits on the western end of Diehl’s field, parallel to the road. The yield data shows a 25- to 35-bushel spike in production in the area stretching approximately 600 feet away from the windbreak. Says Crowe, “The increased production easily made up for the ground lost where the trees were planted. I would estimate a 10 to 15 percent net gain after allowing for the tree’s space.” Crowe says the soil in that spot is not among the field’s best (most of which consists of a sandy base), so the windbreak is the only logical explanation.

“I think more than anything it’s helped the plants from drying out - less stress results in higher crop yields,” says Crowe. “I’m sure the benefit has been there, to some extent, since the trees were five to seven years old. Windbreaks typically provide benefits for 10 to 15 times the height of the tree.”

Diehl is convinced it’s a result of the practice’s impact, as well. “The increase in yield absolutely paralleled the windbreak,” he says.

Diehl’s windbreak was one of around 50 windbreak installations done throughout north central Indiana during a three-year period thanks to grant funding. Kosciusko County Soil and Water Conservation District assisted in the plantings (Arrowhead Country Resource Conservation & Development facilitated the project). It’s one of many tree plantings Diehl has incorporated into his lands; the retired conservationist is active in the county’s forestry committee and is a loyal customer of Kosciusko County SWCD, says Crowe.

“He’s done a ton for forestry and agriculture in Indiana,” says Crowe. “He not only manages his woods, but has influenced many others to manage their woods.” Still active well into his retirement, Diehl welcomes more agroforestry and tree-planting opportunities. “The more I do, the more interesting it gets,” he says.

Agroforestry's five practices

Here is how the NAC website describes each of the five common practices:

Four things districts need to know ...

Agroforestry can be an overwhelming subject for a conservation district not familiar with it. It’s still a mystery to many conservation leaders, and there remain misconceptions about its five practices. But district leaders must know that there is an increasing demand for resource professionals trained in agroforestry, and that practices are often both flexible and beneficial.

Here are a few other things conservation district staff should know about agroforestry …

  1. Not an expert? No need to worry, expertise is easy to come by
    USDA National Agroforestry Center (NAC) leaders agree one reason some districts may not be engaged in agroforestry is because they feel they do not have the expertise or proper training to assist landowners. The good news is that, unlike some areas of conservation, agroforestry knowledge can be acquired rather easily. The NAC has a wealth of educational material available on its website and staff willing to answer questions. Says the U.S. Forest Service’s Lead Agroforester Rich Straight, “All of the information is available free. You can download a publication as a PDF or we can send hard copies to conservation districts at no cost to them. Some of those materials are technical in nature, and some are to be used as communication tools when talking to landowners.” There are also new educational opportunities that cater to working professionals.
  2. Agroforestry can help satisfy society’s increasing expectations
    When it comes to our natural resources and quality of life, society has a set of expectations, and producers are being pushed and stretched more and more each year. Agroforestry can help to meet those expectations. Practices provide environmental benefits to the soil and water, and evidence suggests they can help produce healthier and larger crop yields. Agroforestry can also serve as much needed habitat for wildlife.
  3. Practices work for farms, big and small
    The general consensus is that agroforestry is time intensive and designed only for small farmers, not large ones. This simply is not the case. “Although that may be true in some incidences, it is not universal,” says Straight. “Large-scale producers are also looking to develop efficiencies in their operation. Windbreaks may help reduce drift or increase yields. And agroforestry practices, by their nature, put permanent vegetation into the landscape to help control erosion, keep pesticides on site, and provide diversity for wildlife.”
  4. Income opportunities beyond traditional crops
    Agroforestry practices not only aid the environment, but they can provide a supplemental source of income. Says Doug Wallace, NRCS Lead Agroforester, it’s really open to the imagination of the planner and landowner. “For instance, for riparian forest buffers we could add plantings that would facilitate forest farming down the line,” says Wallace. “We could add extra rows of fast-growing crops that could be harvested for energy production. We could even add a row of fruit trees to produce fruit or allow for honey production. We can pretty much plan for any activity.” And agroforestry products are not tied to a commodity-priced cycle.

The future: Where agroforestry is headed

USDA National Agroforestry Center Director Andy Mason recalls being excited when he heard USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack’s “All Lands” speech in August 2009. It offered a new direction for conservation thinking, and even though it wasn’t in the transcript, agroforestry was clearly imbedded in Vilsacks’s message. Agroforestry leaders have built on that momentum in the past year and a half and have witnessed a wealth of new opportunities pop up all over. Agroforestry still has a long way to go, but Mason and other NAC leaders believe the future is bright.

Here are a few things on the horizon …

A new way to train
The Center realizes it needs to keep up with the times. People are looking for new ways to train and consume information. Because of this, NAC has begun to create agroforestry webinars for conservation professionals.

The biggest advantage is that the webinars offer the same level of training as traditional workshops, only using a cost-effective approach. “More and more state and local budgets are strained,” says NAC’s Rich Straight, “but people still want the information and training. It’s a way for folks to access it easily.” Straight says NAC finished a recent webinar on silvopasture and a number of attendees contacted him immediately afterward hoping to gain more information on the practice. Those interested in upcoming webinars can check the NAC website at http://www.unl.edu/nac.

More CIG opportunities
Conservation Innovation Grants (CIG) is an NRCS program that uses Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) funds in an attempt to ‘stimulate the development and adoption of innovative conservation approaches and technologies.’ Says NAC’s Doug Wallace, “It’s one of the nice federal programs that, as long as it meets the federal criteria, (the design) is really up to the group submitting the application.” In the latest call for CIG applications, agroforestry is mentioned in eight separate sections. For more information on CIG, visit http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/technical/cig.

Changes in the next Farm Bill?
With discussions only now beginning for the next Farm Bill, it would be unwise to speculate as to how agroforestry will fit in. NAC officials hope to see more opportunity, but others suggest changes to policy may be needed first. Mike Gold, a research professor at the University of Missouri’s Center for Agroforestry, says the current language treats agroforestry as a passive enterprise, making it vulnerable to be misused by producers. “You stick some practice in and you get a rental payment and you’re done. While that’s not in practice the case, that’s what most people think and it’s how I’ve perceived it.”

For agroforestry to grow, Gold believes perceptions must first change, and rewards should end after profits are realized.

“If the price of corn goes up they’ll rip it out. If you’re actually managing it and making income, you’re not going to take it out,” believes Gold. “To me, what would make more sense would be to see a program where you get a cost-share to help you install an actively managed agroforestry practice. When you start earning income – whether it’s the first, third or eighth year – once it equals your cost-share, you’re done.”

More discussion on how agroforestry will fit into the next Farm Bill is expected at this summer’s North American Agroforestry Conference (http://hosting.caes.uga.edu/2011NAAC).

Reaching out to Tropical and Tribal friends
NAC leaders acknowledge that one area that’s been neglected over the years has been to work with Tropical lands and Tribal entities, both of which have historical ties to agroforestry practices.

“Agroforestry by its nature – its history – is very much a tropical approach to land use,” points out Straight. “It’s only in the last 30 years that we’ve started to take a look at the benefits of agroforestry in more temperate climates and begun to modify it some. A number of island Territories and Federations still utilize agroforestry to some extent, but like some indigenous knowledge, it’s starting to get lost.” NAC has begun to document that local knowledge, and is working to help support local food production and improve nutrition.

Wallace says Tribal entities also have that history to draw from. “They didn’t call it agroforestry,” he says, “but the things they do and are interested in match up well with our practices … They have a strong land ethic. They traditionally multi-crop in a lot of areas.”

Working with both Tribal and tropical leaders has become an important priority for the Center moving forward.

It’s time to talk energy
One of the NAC’s most popular documents has been its “Working Trees” series, which covers topics such as livestock, water quality and agriculture. Now the NAC plans to introduce its latest installment in the series: “Working Trees for Energy.” It’s part of a movement within agroforestry to consider bioenergy in the designing phase. Straight believes bioenergy has the potential to fit into any of the five agroforestry practices. “For small producers, being able to harvest a portion of the practice to be used for on-site energy generation can suddenly be a benefit and still maintain the conservation benefits,” says Straight. “For large producers, it could generate a large quantity of woody fuel to be sold to a local market.”

Interest in bioenergy has grown considerably, but Straight admits that science and markets still need to catch up. “The technology is there,” says Straight, “but the cost is still a little on the high side.”

Educational opportunities
The University of Missouri has long been a leader in agroforestry education. Now, the school’s Center for Agroforestry is offering a two tracks that will allow working professionals to enhance their agroforestry knowledge without having to step foot on campus.

Anyone with a bachelor’s degree is eligible to enroll in one of two tracks: a four-course graduate certificate program or a 30-credit non-thesis master’s program. Says the Center’s Associate Director Mike Gold, “It doesn’t matter if you’re a landowner, a farmer or work for a conservation district, we’ve created a format so that you can get some in-depth training in agroforestry.”

Available courses include: Agroforestry Theory, Practice and Adoption; Ecological Principles of Agroforestry; Agroforestry Economics and Policy; and Agroforestry for Watershed Restoration.

The certificate track allows students to study both the biophysical and socioeconomic aspects of agroforestry while getting an overview of the big picture. The master’s program consists of a suite of 10 available courses. Gold says three to six of the required 30 credits will come from non-course work. Discussions for the online programs began in late 2009. Students can choose to take courses from nine instructors, including the Center’s four full-time professors. For more information on these educational opportunities, visit the University of Missouri’s Center for Agroforestry home page at http://www.centerforagroforestry.org.

Districts: NAC's best customers

The USDA National Agroforestry Center (NAC) in Lincoln, Nebraska acts as a warehouse for dozens of available agroforestry documents, such as the “Working Trees” series. The Center also lends out vertical agroforestry banners, 39-inches wide by 90-inches tall, just for the cost of return shipping.

A large number of those documents wind up in conservation district offices each year. “Year in and year out, conservation districts are the largest users of our publications and displays,” says Rich Straight, the Lead Agroforester for the U.S. Forest Service.

All of the NAC’s materials are available free of charge. Most of the documents can be downloaded online, but with advance notice conservation districts are also able to have print publications and brochures shipped to events. Districts are asked to pay the return postage for display units.

NAC is happy to provide conservation districts with the resources. As NRCS Lead Agroforester Doug Wallace puts it, “They know the folks who need the information.” To obtain materials, all users need to do is visit the NAC website and search for the practice of interest. The site will then provide a listing of every publication available.



6. Forestry Briefs

Annual Idaho conference slated for March
Forest landowners are invited to the 23rd annual Family Forest Landowners & Managers Conference & Exposition on March 21-23 at the University Inn-Best Western in Moscow, Idaho. This year’s conference theme is “International Year of the Forest: What Does That Mean on My Land?” Presentations will focus on four main topics: what we have learned from international forestry; small-scale operations and equipment; burning on your property: flames, fears and benefits; and bugs, cruds and trespass. Additionally, a special session of “Ties to the Land-Your Family Forest Heritage” will be offered on March 24 to help families with intergenerational planning for transitioning forestland to succeeding generations. This session is limited to 25 people. For registration information, contact University of Idaho Extension-Kootenai County, at 208-446-1680 or kootenai@uidaho.edu. For program information, contact 208-683-3168 or info@idahoforestowners.org.

Woody Biomass Utilization Grants available
The U.S. Forest Service is accepting applications for Woody Biomass Utilization Grants. The funding will help applicants complete the necessary design work needed to secure public and/or private investment for construction. Fifteen grants will be awarded, at a maximum of $250 each. The projects funded will use woody biomass material removed from forest restoration activities, such as wildfire hazardous fuel treatments, insect and disease mitigation, forest management due to catastrophic weather events or thinning overstocked stands. The grants are available through the Forest Service’s State and Private Forestry Technology Marketing Unit, located at the Forest Products Laboratory in Madison, Wis. For more information, visit http://www.grants.gov and search ‘woody biomass’.



7. Conservation Calendar