April 2018

Even before the Dust Bowl days of the 1930s, agricultural producers have recognized the economic and emotional devastation that drought can cause. Recently, the focus has shifted from dealing with drought as an unexpected hazard, to more proactive planning for the inevitability of drought. One of the tools available to producers is the U.S. Drought Monitor (USDM), a weekly map of drought conditions produced jointly by the USDA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the National Drought Mitigation Center (NDMC) at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

More and more communities are now near or within forests. In fact the area where unoccupied land and human development meet has a name and it’s called the Wildland Urban Interface, or WUI.

Sometimes, to make a difference, you just have to take matters into your own hands. That’s exactly what 4-H’er Mackenzie Hinson did in Mount Olive, North Carolina. As a result, thousands of area residents worry less about finding healthy food to eat.

Havasu National Wildlife Refuge was established by Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1941, as a refuge and breeding ground for migratory birds and other wildlife. The refuge encompasses 37,515 acres of riverine, riparian, wetland, and desert upland habitats protecting one of the last remaining natural stretches of the lower Colorado River along the Arizona and California borders. The refuge is an important breeding ground and migratory flyway stopover for over 300 species of birds.

This was a speech originally read by USDA’s Assistant to the Secretary for Rural Development Anne Hazlett at the National Rx Abuse and Heroin Summit in Atlanta, Georgia.

White Mountain Apache tribal member Gregg Henry hiked along the southwest landscape of the Tonto National Forest in Arizona with the specific intention to identify and record sacred places.

Planning the perfect bridal shower can be stressful. Endless days and nights searching for the perfect games, favors and food can cause some things to fall through the cracks. Safe food handling shouldn’t be one of those things. Good planning always helps ease the mind, so follow our food safety advice to compliment your bridal shower food station and mark this item as done on your to-do list.

When a disaster strikes, farmers and ranchers don’t want a process, they want help.

With a name like Fhb1, this particular gene is unlikely to ever become a household name.

But it has the potential to combat a fungal disease that has been plaguing wheat farmers for years. Wheat scab can cripple a farmer’s yield and cost millions of dollars in crop losses.

April may be Invasive Plant Pest and Disease Awareness Month, but I live it year-round. I spend my days with a team of fellow tree climbers, looking for signs of Asian Longhorned Beetle (ALB) damage in the treetops of Bethel, Ohio. This is where ALB damage is most evident – oftentimes not visible from the ground level. ALB damages and kills maple and other hardwood trees.