NRCS Alaska News

August 1, 2006

In this Issue:

Outreach Results in Diverse Dispersal of FY06 Financial Assistance

Outreach activities at all levels of Alaska NRCS has resulted in many applications for cost share assistance from traditionally underserved applicants. A total of 54 percent of all EQIP and WHIP financial assistance in FY06 will aid women and Alaska Native landowners.

Alaska Native landowners will receive 35 percent of the nearly $5 million awarded this year in EQIP contracts, and 65 percent of the nearly $1.5 million awarded in WHIP contracts.  In 2006, EQIP and WHIP are addressing conservation concerns on 3.74 million acres of land owned and/or operated by Alaska Native producers and corporations.

Women applicants will receive two percent of the state’s WHIP funds, and 15 percent of the state’s EQIP funds.

NRCS is committed to ensuring that its programs and services are accessible to all our customers, fairly and equitably, with emphasis on reaching the underserved and socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers.

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Senate Ag Committee Holds Hearing on Knight Nomination

Chief Knight’s nomination hearing before the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee was held at 9:30 am on July 26th.  Knight has been nominated to USDA under secretary for marketing and regulatory programs. As of Friday, his nomination has not been voted through committee; most likely the vote will occur after the August recess. If confirmed, Knight will oversee the following USDA agencies: Grain Inspection and Packers and Stockyards Administration, the Agricultural Marketing Service and the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service.

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World Congress of Soil Science Comes to Alaska

The 18th World Congress of Soil Science was held in Philadelphia July 9-15, 2006.  One of the post-conference tours, “Cryosols and Arctic Tundra Ecosystems,” was sponsored by the University of Alaska Fairbanks, Alaska NRCS, and the Soil Science Society of America. Pre- and post congress tours are held to allow interested participants opportunities to learn about soils and related land use management in various locations across the host country. 

Twenty participants, including researchers, consultants, and government agencies representing the United States, Europe, and Japan, gathered in Fairbanks July 15 to learn about sub-arctic and arctic soils soils.  Discussions and field work focused on the dynamic properties of permafrost soils, current research activities, impacts of climate change, and local use and management.  The group then left for a weeklong journey to Prudhoe Bay via the Dalton Highway.  Along the way they examined various ecosystems and related soil types as they traversed from the Tanana Lowlands of Interior Alaska to the Arctic Coastal Plain.  Representative soils types, vegetation and landforms were examined in the field.  Considerable discussion focused on current research activities as well as the need to address anticipated environmental changes that will result both from increased development and climate change.

 Dr. Chien Lu Ping, University of Alaska Fairbanks, was tour leader.  State Soil Scientist Joe Moore and Regional Soil Specialist Mark Clark joined university staff in leading field discussions and providing logistical support throughout the tour.  Despite eight days of near continuous rain, mud, and mosquitoes, the tour participants were an enthusiastic motivated group who left with a much more comprehensive understanding of arctic and sub-arctic environments and related issues.

The World Congress of Soil Science is held in a different city every four years and the United States last hosted the weeklong event in 1960. Nearly 2,000 soil scientists representing 110 countries gathered at this year’s Congress.

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Sharing Stories – A Sublime St. Lawrence Experience

Twenty miles from Russia, 100 back to the United States.  St. Lawrence Island is a remnant of Behrengia sticking up out of the vast Bering Sea.  I have the good fortune to be here for a week to complete a Rangeland Utilization Survey.  Our crew has been welcomed with smiles and a warmth I have not before experienced.  The people are quick with a witty comment, often followed by a hearty laugh.  Many are artists, whose intricate carvings of ivory and baleen rival any in the state for their quality and craftsmanship.   

We are fortunate to have as our guide an elder of the island, a past reindeer herder who has seen every inch of this 1.4 million acre island, much of it from his whaling boat; a small skiff dwarfed by the 50 foot Gray whale he killed last week.  Raymond Toolie is a well known and deeply respected whaler in this part of the world.  I sit down on the boulders of an ancient lava flow now covered with the yellow of reindeer lichens, next to this big man who is small in stature.  As he smokes a cigarette, I ask him about the reindeer that once roamed the island, because even though it is so large, I can see the signs that tell me it was once very heavily grazed.  “When I was 9 or 10,” he tells me slowly, “we corralled 10,000 reindeer.”  He continues to explain to me, with long pauses between, that there was a large reindeer die-off shortly after.  The people thought the whole herd was lost, until they found 14 had survived.  The current herd of 1,500 grew from these 14 reindeer. 

Raymond Toolie continues to tell me about Siberians who once came to the island in a 12 foot skin boat when he was younger, landing not far from where we sit.  I quietly listen, and take in the magnificent view as waves crash on the rocky shore.  Conversing with him is more than an exchange of information; it is an experience that I will not soon forget. 

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Delta Producers Explore Use of Anaerobic Digesters

NRCS engineers Jeff Oatley and Brett Nelson joined West National Technology Support Center Environmental Engineer Charles Zuller in the Delta Junction area last week to visit with producers about anaerobic digester technology.  The group came together at the request of District Conservationist Catherine Hadley.

Anaerobic digesters are not new, but technological advancements during the past decade have made digesters more realistic for medium-sized farm operations.  A digester processes manure to produce biogas, of which methane is the primary component.  The methane is collected and burned to produce heat or electricity thereby reducing fuel and/or electric bills on the farm. 

Burning the methane in a boiler for use in heating or cooling (yes cooling can be accomplished by burning gas) is the preferred method of biogas utilization.  Gas fired boilers can be up to 90 percent efficient while biogas-fired motors designed to produce electricity typically run at 18-25 percent efficiency rates. 

 The resource benefit from a digester system is improved air quality.  Utilizing a digester to process the manure and using the biogas significantly reduces greenhouse gas emissions to the atmosphere.

An anaerobic digester uses bacteria to process volatile solids in the manure into biogas.  Contrary to common misperception, this process does not completely “digest” the manure inputs and eliminate the need to land apply manure.  In fact, the volume of manure exiting the digester is approximately 80% of the volume input into the system so there is only a very modest decrease in volume of manure for a producer to manage. The anaerobic digestion process does not significantly reduce the N, P, or K levels in the manure product exiting the digester.  The nutrient value of the effluent is maintained and approximately the same number of acres on which to apply the material after digesting is required.

The farm operation analyzed in Delta Junction runs 100 milking cows and 100 dry dairy cows on their operation.  This approximately equates to 200,000 pounds of animals on the farm capable of producing 7,700,000 BTU’s of energy in the form of biogas per day.  Approximately 1/3 of this energy is needed to preheat the manure inputs and to maintain the digester at a constant temperature of 100 degrees Fahrenheit.  This leaves a bit over 5 million BTU’s of energy available for other heating and/or cooling uses which equates to a savings of approximately 41 gallons of #1 diesel fuel each day.

 A basic economic analysis was run on the proposed digester based on the following criteria:  installation cost of $600,000, $300,000 cost-shared by NRCS, 7 percent discount rate, 15 year finance period, and $2,000 in annual O&M on the system, resulting in an equivalent cost of $2.30 for each gallon of diesel fuel saved over the useful life of the project.  Considering the producer currently pays $2.55 per gallon for diesel this digester is financially viable, but only marginally, and further analysis is necessary to confirm some of the estimated data.

As a minimum, a producer must have 200,000 pounds of dairy animals, 500,000 pounds of beef animals, or 1,000,000 pounds of hogs on the farm in order to make a digester even marginally feasible.  The difference in animal units required is due to the variation in volatile solids in the manure of the different species.  Fixed costs are essentially similar for small or large operations, which is why digesters are typically only found on large-scale farm operations.  Rough installation costs can be estimated as $500,000 to $750,000 for heating use and $750,000 to $1,000,000 for power generation uses.

In conclusion, this is a very interesting technology with limited potential uses in Alaska, but more and more producers will be looking into digester technology if fuel prices continue to rise.  I would like to thank Charles Zuller for traveling to Alaska and assisting us with this digester analysis and providing a wealth of technical information on these systems.  If you have any questions about manure digesters, please contact Brett Nelson or your local engineer.

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Plant-Herbivore Class Features New Thinking in Plant, Animal Behavior

I had the good fortune of attending the NEDC class “Plant-Herbivore Interactions” in Utah this past June and wanted to spread the word on what was covered.  This was a class in behavior including both plants and animals. 

Scientists are learning that plants interact with their environment.  They are able to respond to feedback from the environment, and modify themselves.  Darwin, as you all know, theorized that plants were well adapted to their environment because those that didn’t “have it” died out, and those that did survived and thrived.  However, we now know that individual plants are able to modify themselves to better fit their environment.  Plants make all kinds of secondary compounds that once were thought of as by-products of photosynthesis; just garbage that was unneeded by the plant.  Actually, all of these secondary compounds have a purpose.  For example, a plant growing in alpine areas where the sun’s rays are intense will produce a high amount of sunscreen.  That same plant will produce much less sunscreen when growing at a lower elevation where the sun is much less intense.  Plants can also make higher amounts of tannins and terpenes that give animals nausea, making them less likely to be eaten.  Plants make ibuprofen when damaged, and can put their resources into defense (physical or chemical) or growth, depending on the environment and resources available. 

 Now, on to the animal behavior…  Our class broke into groups of 5 or 6, and each group was assigned an experiment to carry out over the two-week class.  Our group was assigned four ewes and their lambs.  Two of our ewes were trained to not eat Poplar, and the other two were trained to not eat Russian Olive.  The lambs ate alongside their moms, and on the last day we turned the lambs out together without their moms, with each kind of food set out for them to select from.  The lambs whose moms ate the Russian Olive and avoided the Poplar ate the Russian Olive and avoided the Poplar, and the other lambs did just the opposite, as their moms had taught them.          

Studies are now showing that experiences in-utero and early in life have a huge impact on the behaviors and food preferences of animals (including humans) that will last a lifetime, and will carry on for four generations.  If a pregnant or nursing mom eats a lot of spicy foods, then that child will favor spicy foods.  If the mom eats a lot of sweet foods, then that child will prefer sweet foods, and this will carry on throughout their lives. 

 What this all means from a management standpoint is that animals raised on a certain feed are going to prefer that feed and will do the best on that feed.  Animals born and raised on Alaska forage/range, are going to do the best on Alaska forage/range.  Sometimes it’s a popular idea to bring in stock from the lower 48, but chances are good that those animals are not going to gain and perform as well as other animals born and raised here. 

 Other topics covered include the importance of low stress techniques for handling animals, and positive consequences rather than negative ones, the benefits of moving animals back to their natural breeding cycles so they calve in the spring when the nutritional quality of forage is at its highest (matching the highest needs of the cows), the ability of animals to self-medicate, experience in feeding and how that shapes foraging preferences, and on and on. 

 It was a very good class with concepts that are all applicable to Alaska.  If you have questions, give me a call. 

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First Engineering Field Office Training Session Complete

The first of a series of Field Office specific engineering training sessions was held in Wasilla July 12-14th.  The courses are intended to address needs determined by the field offices. The Wasilla session covered engineering policy, basic surveying, pipeline and well designs, waste facility planning, and irrigation water management.

Each day began with presentations of the basic concepts, followed by a field visit to apply and expand upon the ideas.  The actual field visits facilitated existing contracts. 

While the agenda turned out to be overly optimistic, much ground was covered.  Discussions of scenarios and contract applicability were lively and informative.  Those in attendance are already applying the concepts taught.

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Earth Team Brings Many Benefits for Conservation Volunteers

Summer is a time when many field offices, RC&Ds and districts host or participate in large volunteer-driven projects such as weed pulls, creek clean-ups and educational demonstrations.  Enrolling these volunteers in NRCS’ Earth Team program has many benefits for volunteers and the staff orchestrating these events.

Once an Earth Team volunteer application is complete and a volunteer assignment has been made:

• NRCS assumes all responsibility for the volunteer including Workers’ Compensation and Tort Claims Act coverage
• Volunteers can operate government vehicles (some additional requirements must be met)
• Field Offices can provide incidental expenses when volunteers are engaged in the work of NRCS including transportation, telephone, parking, meals and child care costs
• Volunteers can be authorized to travel and be reimbursed accordingly as part of their work for NRCS.
• NRCS and district staff can serve as volunteers as long as their activities are clearly voluntary and beyond the scope of what they were hired or appointed to do.

Call Cassandra Stalzer, the Alaska Earth Team coordinator, if you have any questions or need more information to get your local volunteers on-board with the Earth Team.

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Mat River Acquisition Project Update

Matanuska River Terrace Erosion Area Acquisition Pilot Project has generated 40 applications from landowners interested in the voluntary acquisition of their properties.  Eight applications have been selected for further study. The eligible properties will be appraised then offers made to the highest ranked applications until all funds are exhausted.  Staff are hoping that offers are made in September.

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OPM Says No Cost-Of-Living Adjustment This Year

The Office of Personnel Management announced yesterday that Alaska federal employees will not get an extra cost-of-living adjustment because of housing expenses.

In a Federal Register notice, OPM said the results of a new housing survey in Alaska and other areas show no need for an adjustment to cost-of-living calculations based on housing costs. The report on the survey can be read at http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/01jan20061800/edocket.access.gpo.gov/2006/06-6568.htm.  Comments on the report must be received on or before September 29, 2006.

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New Soil Posters Available

The following two posters are now available through the LANDCARE Web Page (http://landcare.sc.egov.usda.gov/):

Global Soil Regions Poster - This poster is a world map showing the distribution of the 12 Orders of Soil Taxonomy.  The map legend includes photos of soil profiles and a description of each soil order.  Poster size is 55" X 36".  (2006)

A History of Science for Soil Survey in the United States Poster – In conjunction with the 2006 World Congress of Soil Science in Philadelphia, PA, this poster reviews the history of selected scientific endeavors associated with soil survey activities in the U.S.  The format is a timeline with generalized decadal summaries and specific events and years for each decade.  The poster contains historical photographs, graphics, and tables to illustrate spatial and temporal trends.  Poster size is 56" X 45".

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