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

March 2010
Volume XIX, Issue 4
| PDF version | Archive of Previous Issues |

  1. A Growing Partnership
  2. Highlights from the NACD Annual Meeting
  3. BCAP Temporarily Suspended
  4. Forests on the Edge Reports Available
  5. Forestry Briefs

1. A Growing Partnership
Ohio district discovers a multitude of ways to work with NWTF

Dick Sorg has worn a number of hats over the years, but in recent years the Eastern Ohio conservationist has done some of his best work wearing more than one of those hats at the same time.

Sorg is approaching 40 years of service for the Muskingum Soil and Water Conservation District, and for the better part of the last decade he’s played a leading role in his local National Wild Turkey Federation (NWTF) chapter, the Y-Bridge Longbeards. Sorg also has a state presence within both organizations.

Six years ago, Muskingum SWCD’s education specialist was looking to change the focus of the youth camp the District assists with each year to something dealing with wildlife issues. It gave Sorg a reason to connect the two organizations, and the partnership that has evolved helped to earn Muskingum SWCD the 2009 NWTF Conservation District of the Year award at the 2010 NACD Annual Meeting in Orlando.

“It’s amazing the people we’ve been able to reach through NWTF that didn’t know the Soil and Water District existed, and vice versa,” said Sorg. “NWTF has brought money to the table to help the District carry out programs we’ve wanted to, and at the same time we feel like we’re providing them an in-kind service by making our staff available to them.”

Thanks to the District’s new education specialist, Nicole Hafer, the youth outreach partnership with NWTF has continued to grow. The district reaches more than 9,000 school children in its county through classroom education programs that cover 18 conservation-related topics, including the wild turkey. Hafer was named the 2008 NWTF Educator of the Year, and this past year District staff was asked to participate in the local and statewide JAKES Day events (Juniors Acquiring Knowledge, Ethics and Sportsmanship).

“As a district, everybody’s budget gets smaller and smaller,” said Hafer. “We all have to look for the partnerships that allow us to share resources. The relationship we have with NWTF, both at the local and national level, has been excellent and has helped both groups to reach more people.”

A partnership that grew through youth educational events has also blossomed into other ways for the two to work together.

Operation Heartland brought Muskingum SWCD, the Y-Bridge Longbeards and a local 4-H club together for a re-forestation project on public lands a few years ago. Hardwood trees were planted to improve the riparian corridor within the Shawnee Run Watershed. Much of the 16,000 acres had been mined previously, and had become over-run with pine and open grasslands; now it acts as prime public hunting land and home to a diverse population of wildlife.

The Y-Bridge Longbeards provided trees for the re-planting, and Muskingum SWCD had leftover trees from its tree sale and worked with state wildlife agency on planting of the trees for wildlife benefit. When the 4-H club chose to step away from the project later on, the District and NWTF located a Boy Scout troop interested to step in to satisfy its need for a community service project.

Around the same time its partnership with NWTF began, Muskingum SWCD started working with forest landowners on building strategic management plans. According to Sorg, the county of 75,000 people is 50 percent forested, so the District began asking what it needed to do to help landowners and farmers manage that forestland.

Recently, the District hired a forest resource specialist to talk to landowners about timber management and how to control invasive species – things that have helped to enhance the District’s partnership with NWTF. Said Sorg, “A good forest management program can do as much or more for wildlife management than wildlife management programs can.”

Sorg believes districts all across the country have reason to partner with their state and local NWTF chapter. The proof, he said, is in NWTF’s slogan: Conserve. Hunt. Share.

“If you look at those words it promotes a lot of what conservation districts are about, too,” said Sorg.

“Conservation districts are grassroots groups,” said Sorg, “and these local NWTF chapters are about grassroots efforts, too.”
NWTF has also served as a conduit for the district to locate other potential partners. Often, said Sorg, he has connected with new partners through NWTF functions that share the same goals the district and NWTF share.

It’s all about the power of networking and the strength of a good partnership, he said. “At this year’s NACD Annual Meeting they talked about developing partnerships that can grow programs,” said Sorg. “To me, that’s what our relationship with NWTF has been all about.”

For more information on the partnership between the Muskingum Soil and Water Conservation District and its local NWTF chapter, visit the district’s Web site at http://www.muskingumswcd.org or contact Dick Sorg at 740-454-2027 ext. 106 or via email at richard.sorg@muskingumswcd.org.



2. Highlights from the NACD Annual Meeting
District leaders and partners show their commitment to conservation in Orlando

Orlando served as the host of the 2010 NACD Annual Meeting, and while temperatures were uncommonly cool for Florida the general climate at the four-day conference was warm.

The need to grow and nurture partnerships was spread through many of the conference’s featured speeches and breakout sessions.

A number of those sessions touched on forestry topics, including a speech given by Ken Arney of the U.S. Forest Service on the American Longleaf Restoration Initiative and Steve Koehn of the National Association of State Foresters.

In his speech Arney credited Longleaf with having helped to build our towns and the country, but illustrated the urgency of the Initiative by pointing out that only three percent of the original 90 million acres of Longleaf remain. The longleaf pine forest type is one of the four major yellow-pine forests in the South.

Koehn focused his message on two forest-related topics: USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack’s all-lands approach and the state forest resource assessments and strategies that are currently being developed. Said Koehn, “Forestry is certainly changing in ways that we couldn’t have predicted 10 years ago.”

During Monday’s opening ceremony, NACD President Steve Robinson also touched on the Joint Forestry Team, referring to it as an example for how partnerships can work well at the national level.

Members and partners of the NACD Forest Resources Policy Group (RPG) met on Monday morning. Forest RPG chair Charles Holmes gave resolution updates and spoke on NACD’s increased involvement in the Joint Forestry Team. Said Holmes of the four-agency partnership, “It’s one of the most dynamic groups of people I’ve sat with. Their thinking is not abstract, it’s down to what we ought to be doing.” The U.S. Forest Service, NRCS, NASF and NACD recently voted to extend the agreement another four years; Holmes was chosen to serve as its chair for 2010.

Other partners provided program updates, including Paul Ries of the Forest Service who offered some encouraging news about Stewardship and Legacy funding but said urban forestry has room for growth. “Our urban areas are home to the hardest working trees in the nation,” said Ries. “The Urban & Community Forestry program has been at the same funding level for a long time … we’re seeing a lot more interest and better understanding of urban ecosystems and how to take care of them.”

Arney and John Dondero of the Forest Service gave RPG members a more detailed briefing of America’s Longleaf Restoration Initiative (Forestry Notes will feature this subject in the April 2010 newsletter).

The NACD Board of Directors accepted two resolutions to the Policy Book offered by the Forest RPG.  The first one provides support for coordination of cross-boundary projects and authorities like the Good Neighbor Authority now practiced in some Western states. The second provides recognition and support for the Forest Stewardship Program as a principle umbrella Forest Service technical and financial assistance program to forest landowners.

At Tuesday evening’s Appreciation Banquet, the National Wild Turkey Federation received the Friend of Conservation Award. The group was nominated by the Forest RPG.

Said Holmes, “The National Wild Turkey Federation has been a fantastic working partner for districts all across the country. The Forest RPG considers NWTF a close friend, and our group was thrilled to learn they were chosen to win this year’s NACD award.”

The Cayuga County Soil and Water Conservation District received an AEM/NACD Equipment Award for its use of the Big Red Wood chipper on biomass utilization projects in central New York.

The conference concluded following a number of breakout sessions on Wednesday. Next year’s NACD Annual Meeting will take place in Nashville, Tenn. at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel and Convention Center. The summer meeting of the Forest RPG is being planned for the first week in August at the Forest Products Laboratory in Madison, Wis.



3. BCAP Temporarily Suspended

For the past several months, forest landowners and producers anxiously awaited the release of the rules that will govern the Biomass Crop Assistance Program (BCAP).

In early February, the U.S. Department of Agriculture released a 104-page draft of the new proposed changes, beginning a 60-day discussion period that will last through March. Until that discussion concludes, all Farm Service Agency offices have been asked to stop accepting applications for collection, harvest, storage and transportation matching payments. After March, the USDA is expected to present a more finalized set of standards for the program. For applications received prior to the suspension of the program, payments will continue through March 31.

Of the proposed changes, the most significant relates to the amount of the payments themselves. In the original rule, suppliers to any facility that produced electricity either for sale to the grid or for its own use were eligible for a dollar for dollar matching payment, up to $45 for every dry ton of delivered eligible material.

The new rule offers three options for structuring payments.

Some other changes that were part of the latest release:

It is also believed that the Composite Panel Association has successfully encouraged the elimination of mill residue from the list of eligible materials for the program.

BCAP has two primary goals: (a) to offer assistance with collection, harvest, storage, and transport, and (b) assistance with establishment of biomass crops.

The product of the 2008 Farm Bill, the program had earned early favor by some; perhaps too much favor. Originally expected to demand a budget of $70 million over its first five years, BCAP funding was approved at $517 million for the programs first four months (December 2009 through March 2010) due to what some believe to be unclear restrictions on program eligibility and a greater demand for the program than what was originally projected. The budget created a stir, leaving BCAP’s future in the air for a few months while the rules were being reviewed by the White House’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB).

Discussion regarding the first quarter funding level also brought a couple of other concerns to the forefront: (a) The government will not be able to meet the financial demands of the program over the long-term, and (b) More traditional users of biomass materials, particularly users of chips and sawdust, will be closed out of the marketplace, leading to economic pitfalls and massive job loss.

Said Anna Austin, an associate editor for Biomass Magazine, “There are a lot of people that are surprised by the funding level. People are worried about whether it’s not enough and whether they’ll be able to give as much as promised.” Mostly, though, Austin said the people she has spoken to are generally positive and excited about BCAP’s potential. “…I was just in Sacramento (visiting a facility) and they basically told me they wouldn’t be in operation had they not gotten the funding.”

The American Forest & Paper Association has stated its support for renewable energy initiatives, but has voiced its concerns about BCAP. In a statement made following the release of the new program rules, the AF&PA urged the Department of Agriculture to “minimize BCAP’s distortions to existing markets for biomass; expedite BCAP’s provisions intended to increase the supply of biomass; and implement the program in a fair and transparent way that guarantees all stakeholders’ concerns are given fair consideration.”

For more information about the Biomass Crop Assistance Program, visit the Farm Service Agency Web site at http://www.fsa.usda.gov and search ‘BCAP’.



4. Forests on the Edge Reports Available

Two new Forests on the Edge related reports were recently released by the U.S. Forest Service. The first is titled “A Sensitivity Analysis of Forests on the Edge: Housing Development on America’s Private Forests.” This study examines the sensitivity of the results of the first Forests on the Edge report to four factors: (1) use of updated private land and forest cover spatial data and a revised model of housing density change, (2) projection of residential development on woodland identified as shrub/scrub land cover, (3) inclusion of very-low-density residential development in the housing density change categories, and (4) inclusion of additional watersheds in the analysis by changing the screening criteria. This report can be downloaded at http://www.fs.fed.us/openspace/fote/sensitivity.html.

The second report, titled “Forestland Conversion, Ecosystem Services, and Economic Issues for Policy: A Review,” aims to use the ecosystem service conceptual framework as a basis for understanding the ecological effects of forest land conversion, and as a basis for understanding the economic issues that arise in designing policies to conserve forest ecosystems. Ecosystems services are generally comprised of two distinct attributes: (1) the direct products produced by ecosystems, and (2) the processes that produces the products. This report can be downloaded at http://www.fs.fed.us/openspace/fote/literature.html.

For more information about these reports, contact Susan Stein at sstein@fs.fed.us, or Sara Comas at scomas@fs.fed.us.



5. Forestry Briefs

NASF releases 2009 Communities At Risk Report
NASF continually surveys all states to determine progress in identifying communities at risk and developing Community Wildfire Protection Plans (CWPPs). The Communities at Risk Report helps provide a national snapshot of wildland fire risk, preparedness and capacity.
Survey results for 2009 indicate a significant number of communities at risk (CAR) that have been identified by State Foresters as being at reduced risk. The number of communities reported at reduced risk in 2009 is 10,293. The number of CARs covered by a CWPP (5,567) shows an increase of 938 since last year’s report. For more information on NASF’s findings, visit http://stateforesters.org/blog/nasf_
communities_risk_report_fy2009.

Timber tax tips webinar
The National Timber Tax Web site is offering a webinar on March 17 for foresters, landowners, agency staff, extension agents, and tax professionals. The webinar will offer tax filing tips for timber transactions for the 2010 tax season, new tax form and incentives and the latest IRS regulation on timber. For more information on how to participate, visit http://www.timbertax.org/Email%20InvitationJan2010.pdf.

Farm Bill Brochure Available
A digital version of “USDA Farm Bill: What is in it for Woodland Owners?” can now be viewed on the NACD Web site, http://www.nacdnet.org/news/publications/forestrynotes/reports/farm_bill_for_woodland_owners.pdf.
Those organizations or agencies interested in printing larger quantities of the brochure can email Caroline Kuebler at ckuebler@forestfoundation.org to receive a high-resolution version of the document. A box on the back of the brochure has been left open so you can add your organization’s logo to your printing.