USDA to spend $300 million to measure farm emissions
and waters,” Ali Zaidi, a White House cli- mate advisor, said in a statement. Zaidi said the effort will “unlock the full economic opportunity for our country by improving national greenhouse gas esti- mates in the agriculture and forestry sectors and making these climate solutions more investment-ready for the private sector.” USDA said it has identified focus areas for tracking carbon sequestration and greenhouse gas emissions and gathering field-based data to evaluate the effective- ness of climate-smart mitigation practices.
They include establishing soil-car- bon monitoring and greenhouse gas research networks, expanding data management and capacity, improv- ing conservation practice standards and data for the Natural Resource Conservation Service and strengthen- ing the USDA Greenhouse Gas Inventory and Assessment Program. USDA released a draft document on the effort for public input. It may be found at www.regulations.gov/docket/ USDA-2023-0009.
New panel named to offer advice on Northwest forests The U.S. Department of Agriculture has established and appointed members to a new federal advisory committee that will provide advice on modernizing land- scape management across national for- ests in Northern California, Washington and Oregon. The committee will make recommenda- tions focused on a climate amendment for the Northwest Forest Plan to update pol- icies for sustainable forest management and wildfire resilience while addressing needs of local communities. “Establishing this committee is another way for us to embrace climate-smart sci- ence, ensure we hear from diverse voices and get a range of perspectives on how to best confront the wildfire crisis and climate change,” U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said in a statement. He said the pan- el will work to “reshape ways we engage with communities and deepen our connections with tribes as we go through the Northwest Forest Plan amendment process.” USDA said the committee mission is to incorporate traditional ecological knowl- edge with the latest science in providing planning advice for managing 17 national forests in the Northwest Forest Plan area. The committee will offer input on how management plans can complement the U.S. Forest Service’s wildfire crisis strategy and help the agency with more proactive measures to reduce wildfire risks and pro- mote fire recovery. California members appointed to the committee include: Daniel Reid Sarna- Wojcicki, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California, Berkeley; Jarred Patton, deputy director of the California Conservation Corps; Nicholas Goulette, executive director of the Watershed Research and Training Center; and Ryan Reed, co-founder and executive director of FireGeneration Collaborative. The U.S. Department of Agriculture will spend $300 million for monitoring and data collection to measure green- house gas emissions from farming and forestry practices. The effort, announced last week by Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, is in- tended to gauge how much carbon cli- mate-smart agricultural approaches can capture in the soil. “We have to improve the scientific back- bone of our programs,” Vilsack said in a statement on the project. He said USDA’s investment “is unmatched in its scope and potential to increase accuracy, reduce un- certainty and enhance overall confidence in these estimates” of greenhouse gas emissions and the amount of carbon that can be captured.
The money comes from the Inflation Reduction Act, which provided nearly $20 billion in funding to advance climate-smart agricultural and forestry practices. “Farmers and ranchers are on the front- lines of the climate crisis and are more committed than ever to delivering solu- tions that protect and enhance our lands
yf&r farmpac Trap shoot Fundraiser
Benefiting the Fund to Protect the Family Farm ( FarmPAC ® )
Saturday October 14 2023 Redlands Shooting Park 2125 Orange Street Redlands, California 92374
Registration Open $100 per person $450 for a team of 5 includes traps, ammo and lunch Limited to 100 shooters
sponsorship opportunities available
For more information and to register, visit www.cfbf.com/farmpac. Contributions or gifts to FarmPAC are not tax-deductible. Paid for by California Farm Bureau Federation Fund to Protect the Family Farm (FarmPAC ® ).
July 19, 2023 Ag Alert 21
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