Most people do not realize that more than half the water in the United States comes from watersheds managed on forests. Used in homes, on ranches, in industry and for energy production, water resources in forests provide important services to people, as well as habitat for a wide variety of aquatic life. Our rapidly changing climate, however, is challenging our watersheds with both wet and dry extremes – more severe droughts, more frequent and larger floods, more soil moisture stress and lower stream flows during the dry season, less of a snowpack reservoir, and other effects. In a unique pilot project, 11 national forests around the country are assessing the vulnerability of their water resources and watersheds to such changes. Read more »

The 2010 annual orientation tour group stops for a picture at ORIgen beef genetics facility in Huntley, Mont.”

Want to know how the U.S. does agriculture? Go straight to the source. That’s what I’m doing in Montana, Wyoming and Idaho this week with 24 international officials from 23 countries.

Members of our group, who serve at their countries’ embassies and consulates here in the U.S., hail from Angola, Australia, Austria, Brazil, Canada, Costa Rica, Egypt, Delegation of the European Union (UK), France, Germany, Hungary, India, Iraq, Israel, Malaysia, Mexico, Morocco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, South Africa, Spain, and Vietnam. All participants pay their own travel, lodging and tour expenses. Read more »

Cross-posted from the Missoulian.com article, with guest columnist, Tom Vilsack.

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This past April, President Barack Obama launched the America’s Great Outdoors conservation initiative in an effort to confront the serious challenges our natural resources face today. This initiative recognizes that while we’ve made significant progress in protecting natural resources in America, we still face significant challenges. Our public and private working lands face threats from fragmentation and development. I’m particularly concerned about the loss of prime agricultural and forests lands that provide a wealth of benefits to Americans including clean water, wildlife habitat, food and fiber, and others. Through America’s Great Outdoors, the President has tasked us with developing conservation agenda worthy of the 21st century and to reconnect Americans with our great outdoors.

In an attempt to address these issues, Obama has instructed the U.S. Department of Agriculture and our federal partners to host a series of listening sessions to learn about what’s working and what’s not in land conservation, in getting Americans outside, and to learn how the federal government can be a better partner in these efforts. Our first listening session was held in early June in Ovando.

There, I joined Sens. Max Baucus and Jon Tester, Gov. Brian Schweitzer, as well as Director of the National Park Service John Jarvis and Chairwoman of the White House Council for Environmental Quality Nancy Sutley for an event on Jim Stone’s ranch. We were not there to give speeches, but to listen to a thoughtful conversation with Montanans about the work they are doing to preserve their natural treasures.

We learned about the innovative partnerships along the Blackfoot River Corridor, the Rocky Mountain Front, and in the Seeley-Swan Valley where ranchers, conservation groups, outfitters, forest industry, and others are working to conserve Montana’s natural resources and preserve its environmental heritage. In Montana, every rancher, landowner and farmer we met with emphasized the importance of getting federal employees involved at the ground level, stressing that decisions that are made with local input will lead to the most promising solutions. We also learned about the importance of voluntary incentive programs and a number of other ideas that could help Montanans protect their natural heritage and strengthen the connection between Americans and the great outdoors.

Following the forum in Ovando, the America’s Great Outdoors’ initiative held three other listening sessions in Bozeman, Helena and Missoula, giving over 500 Montanans the opportunity to share their ideas. Men and women across the state suggested successful conservation strategies, ways to engage youth in the outdoors, and discussed the appropriate role for the federal government in fostering community-led conservation efforts.

On my visit to Montana, I was reminded why we cannot wait any longer to get Americans back outdoors. Too many Americans have lost touch with their outdoor heritage that is present everywhere in Big Sky country. Too many Americans have never enjoyed the fishing, hunting, hiking or camping that are not only to America’s rural heritage, but also have a major economic impact on small communities. Outdoor recreation is worth $730 billion to the American economy each year. And the truth is that these activities not only yield a strong economic impact, they also promote good physical health. And I would remind folks that there’s no better time than June, Great Outdoors Month, to get involved in this project and reconnect with our country’s plentiful outdoors.

Over the next few months, representatives from the Obama administration will continue what began in Montana with listening sessions across the country to craft a national conservation plan. Other states will have their opportunity to let Washington know what great work is being done on the local level, and how we can partner in our efforts to reach conservation plans that best serve your communities – but also the nation.

If you weren’t able to attend an America’s Great Outdoors listening session, we still want to hear from you. You can visit www.doi.gov/AmericasGreatOutdoors to share your ideas and learn more about our path to America’s Great Outdoors.

With input from this initiative, USDA will continue to work every day to conserve the nation’s natural heritage. I know that with participation from local leaders like the ones I met in Ovando, we will be successful in preserving our nation’s treasures while still taking advantage of their potential for economic development, so that we hand them over to the next generation better than we found them.

Tom Vilsack is the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture.

By Phil Sammon

While many of their contemporaries across the country may have had their hands on game controllers this week, 1,700 junior high school students from Great Falls, Montana public schools had their hands on caddisfly and mayfly larvae, crayfish, snails, clams, plus a wide range of plants, seeds, and soil types – all in the name of conservation education and science.

These students all took part in a series of scientific experimentation and exploration stations at the Lewis & Clark National Forest’s Interpretive Center adjacent to Great Falls, along the Lewis & Clark National Trail and the banks of the Missouri River. The 12-day program puts students in touch with nature at six different field investigation sites, all supporting science-based curriculum and classroom preparation.

The program is a partnership with the public school system, which along with the Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center staff received a grant from the Department of the Interior. The Center’s location makes it an ideal local setting for students to study, observe, experiment and make scientific conclusions based upon their findings at the six different stations. Forest Service staff, Center volunteers and teachers from the public school system, all pitch in to conduct, monitor and assist the student in their field work.

This exceptional example of conservation education in the Forest Service is a direct reflection on the national program efforts to get more kids outdoors, put more kids in the woods, and inspire students to know, experience, and want to work with the natural resources as part of their lives, to meet the needs of present and future generations.

The students rotated through each of the six stations: water, fire, botany, hydrology, ornithology, and macroinvertebrates. Special demonstrations as well as necessary scientific equipment and supplies at each gave students the right equipment for their work. At the water station, for example, students would assess water quality by testing acidity, dissolved oxygen, and phosphate/nitrate levels. At the ornithology stations, they discovered and noted that migratory birds return at different times, and learned the variance between cavity and woven nest builders.

The students, many of whom had likely never spent more than a couple hours at a time in the outdoors, spent upwards of six hours a day going from station to station. Their enthusiasm and excitement was proof to the educators and Forest Service staff that this Field Investigations Partnership was worth the effort and investment.

Jane Weber, Director of the Interpretive Center explained, “We are excited to have the students experience place-based science within their community.  It’s surprising how few have spent an entire day outdoors in their young lives. As an added benefit, the children monitor our environmental conditions over time.” Tom Moore, Assistant Superintendent of Secondary Education for Great Falls Public Schools agreed, “I have seen citizen science implemented successfully in other school districts and am pleased to see our educators build this experience into our science curriculum.

Jay Russell, Executive Director of the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center Foundation, whose organization wrote and received the grant summed the program up this way: “These children will act as our modern-day explorers. Who knows, this experience may inspire a child to explore a future academic pursuit in natural sciences.”

On December 18, USDA Rural Development hosted a Jobs and Economy Roundtable discussion in Livingston, Montana in Park County.  About 7,000 people live in Livingston, which has an unemployment rate of 7.9 percent.  The local economy was once dominated by the railroad and agriculture, but in recent years, because Yellowstone National Park is less than an hour away, tourism has become a growing business segment. Read more »