conservation

Working in partnership with USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), farmers are using proven conservation practices to help improve water quality downstream. Our customers are stewards of our nation’s farmland, voluntarily stepping up to the plate to make an impact. They are improving the natural resources in their communities while at the same time boosting the health of their operations for the future.

It’s the time of year to do your fall garden cleanup. Rather than the tedious task of raking and bagging leaves and taking them to the landfill, the best way to reduce greenhouse gases and benefit your garden is to leave the leaves!

Abraham Lincoln described the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) as “The People’s Department” and it’s fitting that our garden is named the People’s Garden. The garden was created by Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack on February 12, 2009 – Lincoln’s 200th birthday. The initiative was renewed in May 2022.

USDA just launched a new research and visualization tool that summarizes published scientific research on bird species-vegetation relationships in the Eastern and Boreal Forests of North America. The tool, Literature Gateway: A Systematic Map of Bird-Vegetation Relationships in Eastern and Boreal Forests, can be used to identify science-need gaps and guide habitat restoration and forest management practices on the ground.

This year marks the 133^rd anniversary of the dam breach that took the lives of more than 2,200 people and galvanized the nation to ensure such a tragic event could not happen again. On May 31, 1889, torrential rain and subsequent flooding caused the South Fork Dam to fail near Johnstown, Pennsylvania. Changes in ownership, lack of oversight, and unsound improvements increased the probability of a dam failure rather than prevent one. When the dam gave way, over 20 million tons of water caused a catastrophic torrent downstream. A 40-foot wave traveling 40 miles per hour crashed into Johnstown demolishing the town.

As we celebrate this Earth Day, we want to share a few examples of USDA’s commitment to climate-smart research and scientific investments.

USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) provides extensive data on the Nation’s conservation program activities through its RCA Data Viewer. And now, data visualizations have been added to the tool, making the data easier to interpret, sort, and download.

Recently, the Snow Survey and Water Supply Forecasting (SSWSF) Program published new 30-year hydroclimatic normal values or “normals” for snowpack and precipitation at western U.S. monitoring stations. This information serves as a benchmark for assessing water supply conditions and is used by producers, natural resource managers and the research community.

Through a unique collaboration with USDA’s Office of Urban Agriculture and Innovative Production, food leftovers from six district schools in Prince William County, Virginia, are now being sorted, bagged, and collected before being mixed with organic yard waste and processed into compost at the county’s recycling center. In the first six weeks of the program, almost eight tons of food scraps have been recycled rather than buried in the county landfill.

Refugee and immigrant farmers newly arrived in Vermont are getting help from USDA to continue their agrarian traditions and learn about Vermont soils and growing conditions.