Conservation Clips are a weekly collection of articles distributed by NACD that provides our members and partners with the latest news in what's driving conservation. If you have a relevant submission, please contact your NACD Communications Team.

NACD Blog: Wyoming partners pool resources with NWTF

In 2013, the National Wild Turkey Federation (NWTF), Natural Resources Conservation Services (NRCS), Wyoming State Forestry Department and Weston County Natural Resource District joined forces to combat the mountain pine beetle before it destroyed Black Hills Forest. Now, the partnership is reaching further into privately-owned forest land, providing a variety of forestry management options and opening doors to new funding.

NACD Blog: Districts Bring the Pieces Together

Several years ago, Doug Rushton had an idea. Some conservation districts in his home state of Washington had a forester on staff, but others did not. What if those without could borrow the neighboring district’s forester? What if Washington’s conservation districts could share resources to get more work done?

NACD Blog: Several South Dakota partners contribute to shared forester position

A shared position held and administered by the National Wild Turkey Federation (NWTF) in South Dakota is providing an extra set of hands to help Custer County Conservation District (CCCD) and other area conservation agencies implement forestry programs while also meeting NWTF habitat objectives.

Agri-Pulse: House spending bill repeals Obama WOTUS rule
By Philip Brasher
05/06/18

A draft fiscal 2019 spending bill for the Army Corps of Engineers would repeal the Obama-era waters of the United States rule, ensuring it can't take effect while the Trump administration finishes developing a replacement.

NewsOK: Preliminary ranching costs for April's wildfires tops $26 million
By Jack Money
05/08/18

Losses sustained by ranchers from April wildfires that burned through parts of Dewey and Woodward counties in west-central and northwest Oklahoma are estimated at more than $26 million.

Civil Eats: Farm Runoff in U.S. Waters Has Hit Crisis Levels. Are Farmers Ready to Change?
By Virginia Gewin
05/08/18

Across farm country, local and state governments, federal regulatory agencies and farm groups are searching for lasting strategies to keep farm nutrients out of waterways. But despite a robust combination of incentives or “carrots,” such as subsidies and cost-sharing programs, and increasingly, regulation, the problem remains dire.

Des Moines Register: Conservation and cover crops: a landowner’s view
By Lee S. Tesdell
05/07/18

(Opinion) Since more than 50 percent of Iowa farm ground is rented, both landowners and operators have to buy in to conservation to reach the goals of Iowa’s Nutrient Reduction Strategy — reducing nitrogen and phosphorus loads leaving our watersheds by 45 percent.

AP News: Outlook for vital Southwestern US river remains grim
By Dan Elliott
05/07/18

The outlook for the most important river in the Southwestern U.S. remains grim this summer after April storms failed to produce much snow in the mountains that feed the waterway. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said the Colorado River is expected to carry only 43 percent of the average amount of water into Lake Powell, one of two huge reservoirs that store and distribute the river.

Circle Ranch: The Last Cowboy at Pine Creek Ranch
By Chris Gill
05/07/18

(Opinion) The public should insist that the full complement of wild animals including predators be returned to the public lands, and that grazing practices be implemented to improve wildlife habitat.

Press Herald: Vermont joins quarantine to fight spread of emerald ash borer
05/08/18

Vermont is the latest state to join a 31-state quarantine put in place to prevent the spread of the non-native emerald ash borer. Under the quarantine, ash wood may not be transported from Vermont to Rhode Island, Maine or seven counties in New Hampshire.

Agri-Pulse: Lawmakers briefed on potentially record-breaking 2018 wildfire season
By Daniel Enoch
05/10/18

USDA chief Sonny Perdue and Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke on Thursday told a score of lawmakers, mostly from Western states, to prepare for what could be another record-setting wildfire season. While the lawmakers present at the meeting generally were in favor of the funding fix, many expressed concerns about the lack of progress in government efforts to remove the dead and dying timber that is fueling most of the wildfires.

Popular Science: Invasive treefrogs have snuck into Louisiana and they are not good neighbors
By Kate Baggaley
05/03/18

Cuban treefrogs have been displacing the native treefrogs in Florida and are likely to do the same in Louisiana.

OPB: Study: Wildfires Burn More Severely On Private Timber Plantations Than Public Forests
By Jes Burns
05/05/18

“Management and forest age were really important, but oddly enough how much biomass was there before the fire was not important,” Zald said. In fact, he found that the private timberland in the Douglas Complex burned 30 percent more severely than the public lands.

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