Conservation

What do wild Alaskan salmon and Sitka black-tailed deer have in common? Other than playing starring roles on many Alaskans’ favorite dinner menus, they also both thrive in forests with large open canopies of hardwood and conifers with thick plant undergrowth. Such characteristics exist in mature...

A new DVD is helping to deliver conservation messages designed to encourage Hmong Americans to enjoy public lands and be mindful of the responsibilities associated with enjoying the America’s great outdoors. Conservation professionals have lacked culturally-appropriate tools for reaching the Hmong...

When young people set out to find a job, they usually don’t think, “What am I going to do for the next 50 years?” Instead, they tend to ask themselves, “What is something I would enjoy doing right now?”

Every year a low-oxygen, or hypoxic, area forms in the northern Gulf of Mexico, just below the mouth of the Mississippi River. Fish and other wildlife often avoid hypoxic zones, which can be deadly to marine organisms. Known contributors to the Gulf’s hypoxic zone include runoff from urban areas...

With an increased demand for locally grown food, many farmers are finding new markets for their products that are closer to home. But what some New Jersey farmers are doing to expand their market base is strictly for the birds!

At Monty Collins' cattle operation near Pleasantville, a rotational grazing system helps protect soil and water quality. A few miles away near Prairie City, Gordon Wassenaar has used no-till farming and a precision sprayer for years to minimize pesticide use and runoff from his soybean fields. We...

On Friday. U.S. Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell presented a $6,000 check to Barnard Elementary School during Earth Day festivities that included building raised bed gardens, planting vegetables and showcasing the school’s outdoor classroom in Washington, D.C. “Earth Day reminds us that we need kids...

At USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), we subscribe to the “Every day is Earth Day” way of thinking. Celebrating Earth Day provides us with the opportunity to underscore the significance of the work being done every day by our agency, through conservation planning and producer...

Mike and Jill Viafore are crafty. This past summer, the couple designed and built a portable demonstration house to educate the public about the benefits of rain barrels and rain gardens at exhibits and fairs.

I recently had the pleasure of spending a day with Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson as we toured rural Iowa seeing first-hand the ways farmers are helping protect our nation’s air and water resources.