Arkansas Conservation News -- Fall 2006

Conservation Corner

Kalven L. Trice
State Conservationist

Hello Arkansas NRCS Staff,

Congratulations on a fantastic job of wrapping-up fiscal year 2006! We faced many challenges but in the end we were very successful. This year’s budget looks like it will be tight too, we are currently operating under a continuing resolution. I know I can count on each of you to make prudent decisions while serving Arkansas’ landowners.

Field and state office staff have been busy this fall helping conservation district employees with a Conservation Security Program (CSP) marketing effort and pulling together information for the Activity Based Costing (ABC) activities (replaced Workload Analysis). CSP has great potential for rewarding Arkansas’ farmers and ranchers for their outstanding stewardship. National Headquarters will use ABC to determine the budget allocation for Arkansas over the next five years. Both endeavors will prove rewarding in the long-term even though they may seem tedious. I appreciate your commitment to completing these activities. It will pay off for Arkansas landowners and NRCS.

I look forward to seeing everyone at Employee Appreciation Day on Tuesday, November 7, 2006, at Sherwood Forest. It is one of the few times that the entire Arkansas NRCS employee family gets together and recognizes the efforts of fellow employees. It is not just a time to receive awards, but to catch up with old friends and meet colleagues from across the state, relax, sit together, and build rapport. The Employee Appreciation Day planning committee is planning an excellent program and I am grateful for the extra effort the committee members are taking to make the day enjoyable.

Chief Arlen Lancaster and Central Region Assistant Chief Merlin Bartz are invited to join us at our Employee Appreciation Day. If you have not read about our new chief, the article about him is at http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/about/leadership/chief.html.

While it is still fall, field season is slowing down and the holidays are right around the corner. Let me be the first to wish you a happy and healthy fall, winter, and holiday season. Please take your annual and credit leave and enjoy time with your family because this is going to be another busy and exciting year.
 

Restoration project improves quail population, habitat

After purchasing 1,200 acres in Fulton County for hunting and recreational use, Al Heringer started clearing fence rows and mowing pastures to clean up the property. But, the work had a detrimental impact on the quail population.

“I’ve always been interested in conservation and wildlife,” said Heringer, who is an avid upland bird hunter. “When the quail went from a huntable population to very few birds, I decided to seek technical assistance from NRCS.”

Through the Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program, Heringer has implemented a conservation plan on 640 acres.

Using prescribed burning once every three years to set back the vegetative succession, fire lanes with clover and cool-season grasses, and edge development with an annual plant community, quail and other wildlife are increasing on the property.

“Quail numbers have probably quadrupled as result of the work,” said James Baker, a Biologist on the Ecological Sciences staff at the NRCS state office. “The number of turkeys followed suit.”

The plan includes forest stand improvement measures to reduce the canopy coverage. “Reducing the canopy coverage lets more sunlight reach the forest floor and promotes the growth of native grasses that wildlife use for food sources,” Baker said.

“We have also planted big and little blue stem, switch grass and Indian grass, along with native perennial forbs,” Baker said.

“In the past, we have focused on individual parcels creating a patchwork of habitat. A focal area allows us to install practices over a broader area – increasing the amount of quality habitat for quail in the area,” Baker said.

Heringer’s property lies within Fulton County’s 40,000 acre NRCS Quail Habitat Restoration Focal Area.

The restoration project gives Arkansas an additional $150,000 to study the response of northern bobwhite quail populations to large-scale habitat restoration using NRCS conservation practices. Searcy County also has a 17,000 acre focal area.
 

Macedonia

Weeks assists government with watershed planning

David Weeks, resource conservationist at the state office, spent five weeks in Macedonia as a U.S. Embassy Science Fellow to provide technical advice on the Republic of Macedonia’s efforts in watershed and biodiversity conservation. Macedonia is a biodiversity “hot spot” and has three unique lakes it shares with other countries.

Wetlands near Lake Ohrid in Macedonia had hydrology disrupted and areas have been filled. Increased tourism lead to increased construction on the shoreline. The creation of beaches destroyed natural vegetation and habitat for fish and other organisms. The Lake Ohrid Conservation Project was successful in developing a watershed plan across international and cultural boundaries for environmental management of the lake.
 

Poultry Litter Energy Conservation Project

“Noah” units create fuel from agricultural waste

By Pat H. Hoeffken
Visual Information Specialist

More than 70 people, including media, federal, state, and local legislators and others gathered in Lewisville, Ark., to tour technology that is 500 percent more efficient than normal combustion at extracting high quality energy from biomass.

Power Reclamation, Inc., invented, developed, manufactured and tested a patent-pending device they call a “Noah” unit that accepts virtually any biomass or agricultural waste as input and converts it to a medium-BTU hydrocarbon fuel gas. The fuel gas produced by “Noah” units is suitable for use as a source of energy in almost any application that currently uses natural gas.

Eight years in development, the “Noah” unit is unique in world history. “Noah” units are the only devices that reliably extract several times the energy of simple combustion out of ordinary biomass and provide it as clean-burning medium-BTU hydrocarbon fuel gas. They produce no significant solid, liquid, or gaseous waste when properly used.

The only other output of “Noah” units is a mineral ash equivalent to a non-toxic, 3-3-5 to 7 fertilizer, suitable for vegetables, pasture and other crops.

This mineral ash will have a phosphorus leach rate of less that 10 percent of the leach rate of the original biomass.

Agricultural waste and other biomass used as input to “Noah” units are reduced by more than 90 percent by weight. Four “Noah” units will be tested throughout Arkansas, converting biomass and agricultural waste to a medium BTU hydrocarbon fuel gas similar to natural gas. The units demonstrate a practical, efficient, low cost, non-polluting, thermo-chemical conversion of chicken litter into high quality hydrocarbon fuel and mineral ash.

They are the only existing devices that can reliably meet these performance standards, making this a uniquely innovative project.

RC&D presents “Noah” to the public

The Noah unit was introduced to the Southwest Arkansas Resource Conservation and Development Council to identify funding needed to demonstrate the unit’s ability to convert practically any biomass material into a usable fuel gas.

After acceptance of the project the council identified the Natural Resources Conservation Service Environmental Quality Incentives Program as a potential source of funding to build the units and demonstrate in multiple areas of Arkansas.

Partnerships were developed with the Arkansas River Valley, Northwest Arkansas, and Ozark Foothills RC&D Areas to assist with broad area demonstrations having environmental concerns with chicken litter in order to meet EQIP eligibility requirements.

Trice announces grant

RC&D councils gained assistance from the NRCS Conservation Innovation Grant, allowing the councils to obtain $500,000 in federal funds to complete the project, according to Kalven L. Trice, NRCS state conservationist.

Under the grant agreement, one complete “Noah” unit will be provided to four EQIP eligible agricultural producers in Arkansas to demonstrate and document its actual use under real conditions and to show the direct and indirect economic and environmental value to users. NRCS will study the unit for two years and evaluate the system.

“I really appreciate the USDA and NRCS,” said Mike Rogers of Power Reclamation, Inc, “because they truly help entrepreneurs get information out to the public. We never received public participation until we contacted RC&D. RC&D helped us get the public recognition we needed.”

“That is what RC&D is supposed to do for USDA,” said Charlie Williams, RC&D coordinator, “RC&D was formed to utilize government programs to satisfy local needs.”
 

Farmers market opens in eastern Arkansas

Tara Robertson
Administrative Assistant
East Arkansas RC&D

What can RC&D do for the citizens of eastern Arkansas that will improve their standard of living?

This was the question Bob Young, the East Arkansas RC&D coordinator located in Jonesboro, asked himself and others when he started his new position in January.

He received many answers to this question and although many projects were started, one of them really stands out as a success story -- a farmers market in Jonesboro. Some have tried to get it off of the ground before but were not successful.

Young knew from past experiences that projects of this magnitude can’t be done alone. The help of the right people with the right mix of experiences could make it happen. So Young started inquiring.

First, he contacted the ASU College of Agriculture and found that the associate dean of agriculture wanted to start a farmers market but was struggling on where to begin. A partnership started there but Young knew this was going to still take others that could bring different ideas and expertise to the table.

He included the Craighead County Cooperative Extension Service, the Jonesboro Regional Chamber of Commerce, the East Arkansas Planning and Development District and a local citizen with farm management experience. This mix on the advisory committee has proven to be the success of getting the market started.

“We are working to make Richard Bell’s dream come true,” said Craighead County Agent Eric Grant. Bell, the former chief executive officer of Riceland Foods and the new Arkansas Secretary of Agriculture, is an advocate for farmers markets. In an address in recent months at a soybean meeting, he said one of his goals is to see an increase in the number of local markets in the state and the existing ones improved.
“One thing we want to try and do is provide a good way for limited-resource farmers to market their products,” Young said. “We want to give them an opportunity to come to a central location that draws a lot of people.”

This central location is at the ASU Farm, across from the main entrance to the university. The land is owned by the College of Agriculture and they have agreed to lease this site to the East Arkansas RC&D Council for the market site.

The market opened June 24. The success has been overwhelming. About 1,500 people attended the market the first day. More than 1,000 have attended every Saturday since. The market started with 11 vendors and has expanded to about 20 every Saturday in just a few weeks.

The goal was to provide fresh nutritious food to the citizens of northeast Arkansas while providing a good place for small and limited resource farmers to market their products. “We are reaching this goal every Saturday and are hoping that next year we will continue to grow where we can be open multiple days,” Young said.

Although, for now tents are used to shade vendors and customers, the plan is to constructed a building by May or June. The building will likely be an open-air market, a pole barn type structure with an enclosed area for offices and restrooms. The open air area would hold about 34 vendors.

One issue to be addressed is funding. Costs will be minimal this summer, but for the building to be constructed organizers will seek corporate sponsorship. In addition, Young has written a grant to furnish amenities such as a walk-in cooler, office furnishings and equipment, benches and picnic tables. The grant also would furnish a parking lot, advertising and other items.. “We’re trying to bring a good source of fresh produce to northeast Arkansas because of the heath problems in the state,” Young added.

The committee plans to hold special events during the year to promote products and education to the public.

“We will host nutritious food tasting and cooking demonstrations. Public health officials and representatives from the medical community will perform health screenings,” Young said. “The NEA Medical Clinic has already started offering health screenings free to the public each Saturday.”

With the success of the ASU Regional Farmers Market the citizens of eastern Arkansas can realize an improvement in their standard of living.

Editor’s Note: Some information for this story was taken from the Jonesboro Sun.
 

RC&D constructs sweet potato storage facility

The Central Arkansas Resource Conservation and Development Council, Inc. (CARCDC) and the Arkansas Delta Produce Marketing Association, Inc. is in the process of constructing a Sweet Potato Storage Facility in Phillips County.

The council plans to construct, own and operate the facility. Arkansas Delta Produce Marketing Association, Inc., working under the guidance of Winrock International, has formed a for-profit organization, which will lease storage space from the CARCDC for the storage of sweet potatoes.

“The concept is to create a new generation business model, where RC&D uses its expertise in infrastructure projects, raises capital, constructs, and operates infrastructure needed to help provide meaningful assistance to the under served public in the delta,” said Cindy Neal, Central Arkansas RC&D coordinator.

“Because of the high cost of building this facility, other start-up costs and the demands of training a qualified staff to operate the facility, the fledging for-profit could never raise enough capital to build the facility and produce the crop,” she said.

Currently producers are limited to 24 days to market their sweet potatoes following harvest. Harvest is typically when demand is lowest and supply is highest, thus resulting in low prices. The storage facility will allow growers up to 12 months to market their crops and receive a higher price. The newly formed for-profit will focus on qualifying growers, getting production volumes and quality up, and focus on marketing the sweet potatoes.

Central Arkansas RC&D will also lease the for-profit office space and help them maintain their marketing records.

This close relationship will provide both the non-profit and the for-profit with a good understanding of what it takes to survive and remain in business over time.

The first phase of the facility will have capacity to store 112,000 bushels of sweet potatoes. The facility will have shipping and receiving capability.

The facility will have the equipment necessary to grade, wash and package the potatoes. The facility will employ three full-time people, and approximately 27 people during shipping and receiving.

“We anticipate potatoes will be shipped weekly throughout the year,” Neal said. “We plan to expand this facility to reach the maximum of 500,000 bushels within five years.”
 

Get to Know ... RC&D

The Resource Conservation and Development program is a unique combination of private enterprise and federal assistance that encourages the blending of natural resource use with local economic and social values. Our program is known locally as “RC&D.”

Each RC&D Area responds to the needs of their local communities, both for conservation issues and for economic development through volunteer boards called “Councils.”

Each RC&D Council in Arkansas is a 501 C (3) non-profit organization under the IRS code and is chartered as a non-profit corporation by the State of Arkansas. The RC&D program is authorized by Public Law 97-98 and basic support is provided to each RC&D Council through the Natural Resources Conservation Service. Support includes a full-time RC&D coordinator, office space, grant funding, and a vehicle for the coordinator. This basic assistance allows the RC&D Council to focus their efforts on program growth and project implementation rather than on fundraising for base operations.

RC&D Councils direct their activities through a long range area plan and an annual plan of work. The area plan guides programs and activities over a five year time span whereas the plan of work is simply the action plan for the current year. The area plan identifies major concerns of the community and presents goals, objectives, and strategies to address those concerns.

RC&D projects are the primary tool for implementing the goals and objectives of the plan of work and area plan. A project is a concentrated effort resulting in a defined product or service that provides public benefits and project plans are often developed into funding proposals.

There are seven RC&D Councils designated in Arkansas and these seven councils form the Arkansas Association of RC&D. The state association is comprised of the president from each council area and they meet quarterly during the year. Otto Cowling is the current state president.

For more information regarding RC&D activities and assistance contact the RC&D coordinator located in your area.

RC&D Coordinators

Arkansas River Valley RC&D
Fred Stringer (479) 646-2569, ext. 139

Central Arkansas RC&D
Cindy Neal (501) 505-8395

East Arkansas RC&D
Bob Young (870) 972-4725

Northwest Arkansas RC&D
Richard Drewry (870) 741-7475, ext. 117

Ozark Foothills RC&D
Lori Barker (870) 523-8986, ext. 120

Southeast Arkansas RC&D
Stephanie Priest (870) 367-8400, ext. 133

Southwest Arkansas RC&D
Charlie Williams (870) 863-5678
 

Way to Go!

Arkansas exceeds FY 2006 national performance goals

Arkansas field office staffs exceeded the FY 2006 national goals in every catagory of the Performance Results System.
The system provides web-based detailed performance accomplishment data, updated daily. It tracks and monitors agency-wide performance goals and progress toward achieving those goals. Reports are available on a national, regional, state or county basis.

Goals are drawn from Toolkit.
 

Typical Arkansas NRCS volunteer worked about 70 hours in FY-06

NRCS Earth Team state reports* reveal that Arkansas had 131 volunteers who worked a total of 8,955 hours in fiscal year 2006.

Each volunteer worked an average of 69.4 hours during the year. Thirty eight offices participated. Thanks to all of you who demonstrated the “spirit of volunteerism” by participating in the program.

*Reports were taken Friday, Sept. 29. Volunteer data entered after then is not shown.

Arkansas Volunteer Coordinators

Northwest Area: Amanda Mathis, Paris
Northeast Area: Dawn Fox, Jonesboro
South Area: Doug Hunter or Sandy White, Camden
State Office: Holly Anderson, Little Rock
State Volunteer Coordinator: Pat Hoeffken, Little Rock state office
 

Calendar

November

7 -- Employee Appreciation Day, Sherwood Forest
10 -- Veterans Day
23 -- Thanksgiving Day

December

4-8 -- NOPBNRCSE Training Conference, Indianapolis, Ind.
10-13 -- National Grazing Lands Conference, St. Louis
11 -- RC&D Annual Meeting, Wyndham Riverfront, North Little Rock
12 -- ANRC Meeting, Little Rock
12-14 -- AACD Annual Meeting, Wyndham Riverfront
25 -- Christmas Day

January

1 -- New Year’s Day
15 -- Martin Luther King Jr. Day
29-31 -- Management Team Strategic Planning Session
 

Comings & Goings

Tim Beard is the new assistant state conservationist for operations in the state office, Nov. 26.
Chris Bove is the new district conservationist at the Melbourne Field Service Center.
Ron Brown, outreach coordinator, is moving to North Carolina Nov. 12.
Roy Crutchfield, geologist at the state office, retires Dec. 31.
Lisa Delk is the new fiscal technician in the state office.
Russell Fleharty is the new district conservationist at the Malvern FSC.
Bob Fooks, civil engineer at the state office, retires Nov. 3.
Terry Franks, contract specialist at the state office, retires Jan. 3.
Stan Garner, district conservationist at the Danville FSC, retired Sept. 30.
LaShawn Hunt is the new human resources manager at the state office, Nov. 12.
Jude Jardine, soil conservation technician at Hamburg, is relocating to West Virginia Nov. 12.
Ray Linder, Northeast Area ASTC for field operations, retires Nov. 3.
Jena Moore is the new soil conservationist at the Clarendon FSC.
Kristin Raper is the new soil conservationist at the Forest City FSC.
James Reynolds is the new district conservationist at the Monticello FSC.
Tony Stevenson, state conservation engineer, is transfering to the water managment center Nov. 12.
Glen Sutton is the new district conservationist at Arkadelphia, Nov. 12.
Burthel Thomas is the new South Area ASTC for field operations, Nov. 12.
Doris Washington, ASTC for operations, transferred to the water managment center.
Tiffany Wood is the new district conservationist at the Ashdown FSC, Nov. 26.
Earniece Young is the new soil conservationist at the Fayetteville FSC.
Nancy Young is the new state resource conservationist at the state office.

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