NRCS Alaska News

August 28, 2006

Arlen Lancaster New NRCS Chief

Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns this week announced the selection of Arlen Lancaster as Chief of NRCS.  Lancaster is the agency’s thirteenth chief, and the first Asian American to serve in the position.

Lancaster has served as deputy assistant secretary of congressional relations at USDA since April 2005. Prior to his service at USDA, Lancaster served in various senior staff positions in Congress, having worked since 1999 for Senator Mike Crapo, as a senior policy advisor and as the staff director for the Senate Subcommittee on Forestry, Conservation, and Rural Revitalization since 2001, he played a key role in crafting the conservation title of the 2002 Farm Bill. He also worked for Senator Robert Bennett from 1998 to 1999. 

Lancaster is a graduate of the University of Utah with a Bachelor of Science and an avid fly fisherman and outdoor recreationist.

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RC&D Project Draws National Attention at Today’s Ground Breaking

Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns, Under Secretary for Natural Resources and the Environment Mark Rey, Special Assistant to the Chief Gerald Willis, State Conservationist Bob Jones and other state and local dignitaries are in Craig today for the ground-breaking of the Craig Wood Waste Project that aims convert sawmill wood waste into energy to heat the local school and swimming pool. When complete, the project is expected to save in excess of $60,000 per year in heating costs.

Project construction is estimated to cost $1.4 million and should be ready for operation by the beginning of the next school year. The project is being funded through a combination of grants and loans from NRCS, the Alaska Energy Authority, the Denali Commission, the US Forest Service, and the City of Craig.

Southeast Conference RC&D Coordinator Paul Coffey helped escort Governor Frank Murkowski and Senators Lisa Murkowski Ted Stevens on a tour of the Craig Wood Waste Project earlier this month. The project was initiated as a RC&D project through the combined efforts of Karen Petersen of the University of Alaska Cooperative Extension Service, Larry Wilkinson, a semi-retired Consulting Chemical Engineer, and Paul Coffey, RC&D Coordinator for the Southeast Conference RC&D.

The Southeast Council RC&D was made aware of the Fuels for Schools pilot project in Darby, Montana which is a joint effort among five State Forestry agencies, the USDA Forest Service, and the communities of Darby and Victor, Montana.  The project’s goals are to reduce reliance on fossil fuels while reducing the amount of wood waste in the forest that contributes to the intensity of forest fires. 

The USDA Forest Service Thorne Bay Ranger District has contracted Larry Wilkinson to study the opportunity for converting most of the District's facility to wood heat.

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NRCS Alaska Staff Shares Expertise At Boot Camp Engineering Week

I had the privilege of being a week five (Engineering Week) instructor at the Boot Camp held in Oregon earlier this month. Conservation Boot Camp was established to provide new employees basic awareness of each discipline’s role in performing the agency’s mission.  During engineering week, employees are instructed in the broader points of unified soil classification, hydrology, hydraulics, mathematical tools, irrigation, surveying, and construction safety.  The final outcome of the week is to design a waterway for one of the local producers. 

My area of responsibility was basic surveying.  Boot Camp students learned their pace factor, how to measure distances by pacing, pulling a tape, and stadia. The also learned what differential, profile, and cross sections surveys are and how to perform them.  The students alternated between short classroom sessions and field time where they put their new-found talents to use.  I came away from Boot Camp impressed with the quality of people NRCS is hiring; many of my students had advanced degrees and quite a bit of life experience. 

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Mapping Begun for Nushagak-Mulchtna Soil Survey

Homer Soil Scientists Stephanie Schmit and Mike Mungoven were assisted by state office staff, Database Specialist Finn Gottschalk and Manuscript Editor Pam Taber, in conducting a soil survey of the Village of Ekwok in early August.   Ekwok is located on the Nushagak River about 90 miles up river from Dillingham. The work is the first mapping done on the 8.3 million acre Nushagak-Mulchatna soil survey.   Soil survey is evolving, with more and more use made of complex GIS and database tools.  Working in this multidisciplinary team provided a great opportunity, in a real setting, for us to exchange views on how to use these new tools to improve data collection and management.  The area itself proved to be very interesting with a mix of landforms and materials that provided plenty of discussion as we developed a working description of the soil landscape.  It rained pretty hard all week and since the creek was full of salmon there were brown bears just about everywhere.  The survey is scheduled for completion in 2012.

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Training Adults Requires Meaningful Engagement

Having taught undergrad botany courses at Iowa State, I am all too familiar with the "brook trout" look of unengaged students: blank stares from glazed over eyes and immobile bodies ready to dash away given the least reason.  People generally are not born ready to be teachers, it is a skill that is learned and then sharpened through practice.  The Training Adults NEDC course held in Anchorage this August taught that there is a big difference in a presentation and a lesson.

In lesson planning, it is all about planning to maximize participant retention of the conveyed information or skill.  That was the primary message from the course.   Meaningful engagement in learning by participants can lead to as much as 90% retention of information, whereas a typical lecture-type lesson results in 5% retention of information presented. 

Every lesson must contain four distinct and clearly presented parts.  A RATIONALE must be stated in the introductory material - Why is it valuable for a participant to spend his or her time?  How will his or her life be better, safer, more efficient...?  Lesson OBJECTIVES must be identified and must include action verbs that the participant will be able to accomplish.  An ACTIVITY must be performed by the participants.  It is the participant's opportunity to safely test-drive the newly acquired knowledge and skill.  Finally, EVALUATION and feedback are given to ensure the participant that he or she knows how to do the task correctly and hopefully independently. 

This Training Adults course is a proto-type course that the teaching cadre are hoping develop into a Training Adults Level 1 course where lesson planning material is the primary curriculum and a Training Adults Level 2 course that incorporates more aspects of "platform" or public speaking skills.

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DOI Offers Training in ANCSA, ANILCA, Retirement Planning

The U.S. Department of the Interior University is offering training to federal employees on the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act and the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act in Anchorage.  The ANCSA training will take place October 17; the ANILCA training will take place October 18-19. The registration deadline is September 8, and each training event has a small registration fee. 

A free two-day retirement planning course will be offered October 27 – 28.

Learn more about the Anchorage campus DOI University offerings at http://www.doiu.nbc.gov/matrix.cfm?type=l&id=Anchorage.

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Personnel Actions:

New employees:

• Chet Fitzgerald, Soil Conservationist, Anchorage FO from Utah NRCS
• Meghan Lene, Soil Conservationist, Delta Junction FO from MN NRCS
• Mani Gomez, Budget Officer, State Office from HI NRCS
• Cassidee Hall, Soil Conservation Tech, Fairbanks FO

Promotion:

• Kristi Hicks, HR Officer, to GS 09

Resignation:

• Tom Lance, District Conservationist, Kodiak

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