Update: Federal appropriations for Interior Dept., Forest Service, EPA

With summer recess rapidly approaching, members of Congress are working diligently to advance several Fiscal Year (FY) 2017 appropriations bills during a tough political climate in Washington, D.C. This week, the House is scheduled to consider a spending bill that would fund the Interior Department, the USDA Forest Service, and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

The House moved a spending bill out of committee last month that would allocate $244 million to the Forest Service’s State and Private Forestry Program – $7 million more than NACD’s appropriations request – including $933.4 million for the agency’s wildfire suppression activities – a $122.4 million increase above the FY 2016 level. The House bill also includes $164.9 million for EPA’s 319 Nonpoint Source Grant program, matching last year’s funding levels as well as NACD’s budget request. Click here to download NACD’s budget request sent to House subcommittee members.

Once on the House floor, the amendment process could change these funding levels or, in the case of several amendments, improve or weaken the bill. For instance, NACD has endorsed an amendment offered by Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., that would revoke funding for implementation or enforcement of a draft EPA-USGS technical report entitled “Protecting Aquatic Life from Effects of Hydrologic Alteration.” NACD submitted comments on this technical report in mid-June – accessible here – expressing our concern that the report intends to expand the Clean Water Act beyond Congress’ original intent.

Additionally, NACD opposed an amendment from Rep. Jared Polis, D-Colo., which would prevent the BLM from conducting any study on the surgical sterilization of wild horses and burros, effectively shutting down the BLM’s Burns District sterilization study and further hampering the BLM’s ability to successfully manage the wild horse and burro populations as stipulated under the Wild Horse and Burro Act of 1971. Click here to view NACD’s letter supporting the Burns study.

NACD will continue to monitor progress on this appropriations bill as well as other spending bills that affect local conservation districts. You can track our policy team’s work by reading eResource and keeping tabs on these amendments that NACD is closely watching.

Harford CD takes NACD out to the ballgame

Last Tuesday, NACD CEO Jeremy Peters and Director of Development Melisa Augusto headed to Harford County, Maryland, to watch the Aberdeen Ironbirds take on the West Virginia Black Bears. As guests of the Harford Soil Conservation District Board, Peters and Augusto enjoyed a doubleheader (the Ironbirds swept!) at Ripken Stadium, in addition to attending the Harford County Agriculture Night exposition, which featured booths manned by local agricultural groups. In the photo at left, you’ll recognize NACD President Lee McDaniel, a Maryland native and chairman of the Harford SCD, and Bill Tharpe, Harford SCD’s district manager.

Special NACD soil health session this Saturday

NACD is honored and pleased that Joe Magner, renowned research professor with the University of Minnesota, will be joining us for this summer’s Conservation Leadership Forum and Tour. Dr. Magner will be making a special presentation to NACD’s Soil Health Champions on Saturday morning from 9:00 am to 10:00 am in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on his latest tillage and cover crop research.

Dr. Magner, who also works closely with NACD Soil Health Champion Darwin Roberts, is a licensed professional hydrologist in Wisconsin, a licensed professional soil scientist in Minnesota, and an American Institute of Hydrology registered professional hydrogeologist.

Tune in: EPA offering webinars on brownfields

The EPA Office of Brownfields and Land Revitalization is offering the first in a series of webinars for communities interested in revitalizing brownfields on July 26 from 1:00pm to 2:30pm EDT. This webinar will detail the resources and tools that are available to communities for brownfield clean-up and will highlight one particular project in Dubuque, Iowa, where the community used its own resources to attract federal, state, public and private sources of funding and technical assistance. Registration and additional information are available here.

Congressional staffers talk wild horses, burros with NACD

Last week Wednesday, NACD and other members of the National Horse and Burro Rangeland Management Coalition held a briefing for a packed house of over 50 congressional staffers on BLM’s Wild Horse and Burro Program. NACD was represented at the briefing by Natural Resources Policy Specialist Chris Heck, who spoke on the impacts of wild horse and burro overpopulation on native wildlife, rangeland health, the federal budget, and the horses and burros themselves. For further information on the briefing click here to read NACD Policy Intern Emma Shumway’s post on our blog.

House Oversight Subcommittee holds hearing on BLM 2.0

The House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations held a hearing last Thursday to elicit feedback from states on the BLM’s proposed planning 2.0 rule. You can watch an archived video of the hearing here.

NACD submitted comments during the BLM’s Planning 2.0 Rule comment period that can be accessed here. NACD remains concerned that the proposed planning rules would make changes to responsibilities and protest procedures that would ultimately reduce the requirements to ensure federal consistency with local policies and diminish BLM’s ability to assess the local impacts of management decisions.

NRCS, NFWF team up to offer Conservation Partners Program grants

The Conservation Partners Program is a partnership led by NRCS and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation that provides grants to raise technical assistance capacity for conservation program implementation.

CPP will award approximately $2.7 million in NRCS funds, leveraged by an additional $4 million in NFWF funding, to selected projects in 2016. Pre-proposals are due July 25 and full proposals are due September 19. For more information about this funding opportunity click here.

Only 11 days till the North American Envirothon competition kicks off!

The international Envirothon competition starts in Ontario, Canada on July 24. Click here to view the competition agenda, which includes a schedule for teaching and testing days, oral presentations, and social events.

Smithfield Foods, the world’s largest producer of pork products, will once again be sponsoring a total of $30,000 in cash prizes that will be given to the top three winning teams. These awards will be presented to the students by a Smithfield Foods executive at the closing banquet.