NRCS Alaska News

October 5, 2007

Photo: New Acting Secretary of Agriculture Chuck Connor talks with Omar Stratman
about the challenges of farming in Alaska during Connor's visit to Alaska to conduct
the state's Farm Bill Forum in 2005. 

In This Issue

Fieldwork Complete for the Greater Delta Soil Survey

Fieldwork for the Greater Delta Soil Survey came to an end in September.  The beautiful and productive summer season marked the fourth and final year of fieldwork. 

The Greater Delta Survey is a 326,000 acre survey.  It extends from the Gerstle River, north along the Richardson Highway to Eielson Air Force Base. Crew members this year included Chris Savastio, NRCS soil scientist in Fairbanks;  Lindsey Moritz, a masters degree student from University of WI-Madison; and BJ Haggard an undergraduate from Tarrelton University in Stephenville, TX.  Lorene Lynn, a graduate student from UAF worked with the crew for a few days to see the mapping side of soil science.

Mark Clark joined the crew for a few days.  As a follow up to last year’s lab sampling, Mark ran a small sample of field tests involving permeability and infiltration rates at each of the lab sample sites.

Data entry for the survey will commence this fall.  The survey is scheduled for completion in spring.  A final product will probably be available in the fall of 2008.

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Three New SNOTEL Sites Installed During Summer Field Season

Three SNOTEL (SNOw TELemetry) sites were installed in the summer of 2007 by the Snow Survey staff. The first was Sugarloaf Mountain near Valdez above the Solomon Gulch Hydro-electric project.  This site prior to SNOTEL had a precipitation gauge and a snow course.  The site was installed in July in cooperation with the Prince William Sound Science Center/ Alaska Ocean Observing System (AOOS) and the Copper Valley Electric Association.  The site reports hourly current air temperature along with daily maximum, minimum, and average air temperatures.  It also reports hourly precipitation (storage), wind speed and direction, barometric pressure, and solar radiation. 

The second site installed in July was at May Creek in Wrangle-St. Elias National Park ten miles southeast of McCarthy. The site was installed in cooperation with the Denali National Park Service, Central Alaska Network (CAKN). The site is reporting current, maximum, minimum and average air temperature as well as snow water content, snow depth, precipitation (storage and tipping bucket), and solar radiation.

The third site, Mt. Alyeska was installed the last week of September.  This site was upgraded from an on-site recorder to telemetry. The site was installed in cooperation with the Alyeska Ski Resort and Alaska DOT&PF. The site reports hourly current air temperature along with daily maximum, minimum, and average air temperatures, precipitation (storage), snow water content, and solar radiation.

The sites are sending hourly data to http://www.ak.nrcs.usda.gov/Snow/ and to the National Water and Climate Center (NWCC).  The daily data is edited for quality-control and stored.

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Nushagak Mulchatna Soil Survey Field Season Ends

The field season came to an end this week for those still working on the Nushagak Mulchatna Watershed Soil Survey.  Thanks to the help from the fulltime and seasonal staff at the Homer soil survey office, and Chris Savastio and Denis Mulligan from the Fairbanks soil survey office, soil and vegetation data was collected for over 2.4 million acres of the Nushagak Mulchatna Watershed this summer and fall. Crews spent the month of September collecting data around Dillingham and mapping approximately two thirds of the city area. Also in September the crew traveled to the villages of Ekuk and Clarks Point to complete data collection for the detailed soil survey in those areas.     

Stephanie Schmit, project leader, finished off the season in Ekwok, presenting the results of the soil survey work that was done there in the summer of 2006 to a joint meeting of Ekwok Natives Limited, Ekwok Village Council, and the City of Ekwok.  After the meeting she stayed to talk with a group of 5^th through 8^th grade students.  They dug a soil pit behind the school and discussed soil mapping, soil horizons, and soil properties.  The rain then forced them indoors where they had a lively discussion about why soil scientists record the soil properties they do, the nature of the local parent materials, and jobs in soils. 

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Help Local Community Benefit from CFC

Charity begins at home. All politics are local. Think globally, act locally. All are statements that cause us to think about our neighborhoods and communities. The recent distribution of the Combined Federal Campaign (CFC) materials include an incredible list of organizations the meet the requirements of the federal government’s only authorized charitable giving process. CFC is the only fundraising that can be conducted during the federal work day and at a federal work space.

If you flip to the back of the CFC book, you will find local organizations listed as approved recipients.  If your favorite local charity isn’t listed, you can take steps to encourage them through a simple process - and the end result could be increased funding for something important to you and your community.

I recently met with the Kenai Peninsula Boys and Girls Club, a CFC charity for the past three years, and asked about the process of getting listed and the impact it’s had on their organization. The Club initially contacted the Anchorage CFC office for application materials and guidelines. To apply to CFC, a charity must provide description of its programs and financial need, and financial information that substantiates the organization’s claim as a charity and calculates overhead expenses as a percentage of its total operational cost. CFC also requires that charity board members and employees not hold partisan political office. 

The Boys and Girls Club reported that their initial paperwork took one and a half hours to complete and resulted $1950 in donations from five donors. When the second year rolled around, CFC mailed the Club an application packet and the paperwork took one-half hour to complete and resulted in $3000 in donations from 10 donors. This year maybe $4000 from 20 donors will arrive later in the year.

If you don’t see your favorite charity list in the CFC, contact them directly and discuss participation with CFC and have them contact the CFC office in Anchorage. This information is found in the packet you received.  Your favorite local charity could find themselves listed in next year’s CFC booklet and you could find yourself thinking, “Hey, here’s and organization that I know and trust that could use $20 a pay-period and I know that this money will be used in my community.” At that point, your favorite charity is half-way to a much needed $1000 and possibly more.

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State Office Holds CFC Kick-Off Breakfast

On Wednesday the employees of the state office and Mat-Su Field Office were invited to a kick-off event to launch this year’s Combined Federal Campaign (CFC).  NRCS in Alaska has established a goal of raising $5,000 for CFC this year – or approximately $6 per employee per pay period.

State Conservationist Bob Jones talked about how his relationship with CFC evolved from being an employee in a rural field office with not much knowledge about the workplace campaign and its effects, to now giving careful consideration each year to the charities in the booklet for his contribution. Bob discussed the fact that giving was a very personal act, and that he chooses to give to CFC because it is an effective channel for him to support organizations that he would not otherwise have an opportunity to.

Dave Gomez, former Coast Guard and recently retired from the Armed Services YMCA, discussed his relationship to CFC as a donor, a key campaign worker, and later in his career a recipient of CFC support.  Dave reminded the group that the CFC application process guarantees the legitimacy of the charities listed in the booklet so federal employees can give with the confidence that their donations are being used effectively.

Bob treated staff to bagels and yogurt. Dee Covalt provided a selection of bagel toppers. Cassandra Stalzer provided freshly baked scones.

The Alaska NRCS CFC Campaign officially began October 1 and will end November 9. For more information and sign-up forms, contact the key worker in your office or state coordinator Jim Hazlett at 373-6492 ext. 105.

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Strategic Plan Screen Saver Available

A new screen saver option is available for NRCS employees featuring imagery from the Strategic Plan as well as the Agency goals and mission statement. The installation instructions and images file are accessible on my.NRCS at the top center column of the NRCS Today tab.  The instructions give step-by-step guidance for extracting and saving the images, as well as adjusting the settings and other effects of the screen saver. 

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FedRooms Service Available to Travelers

FedRooms is the official government-wide, government-approved lodging program created to make federal travel easier. Rooms at the FedRooms Rate can be found at leading hotels, and meet all per diem and FEMA requirements. Plus, the program ensures protection from hidden fees frequently attached to unmanaged rates. But travelers have to ask for the FedRooms Rate by name—the hotel’s “government” rate doesn’t give the same guarantees. The FedRooms Rate and the “government” rate are not the same.

Travelers can book online at www.fedrooms.gov, through their TMCs, or by calling the hotel directly and asking for the FedRooms Rate.

Contact Yvonne Magnuson at 761-7745 for questions about FedRooms or other travel related issues.

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Pulling Together 2008 Request for Proposals

The new RFP for the 2008 PTI grants has been posted to the National Fish and Wildlife Federation web site. ..."to solicit proposals from non-profit organizations and government agencies interested in managing invasive and noxious plant species. The grant awards range from $30,000-$75,000." If people are interested in applying they can go to http://www.nfwf.org/pti for more information.

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Wildlife Center Offers Summer Internships

The Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center offers eight summer internships for college students studying veterinary science, wildlife, outdoor education, agriculture or other affiliated disciplines. Interns receive a stipend and housing. Intern duties include planting and caring for the Alaskan Grown Garden, assisting the veterinarian, orphan care-taking, unloading hay and feed, moving animals, assisting with filming projects, step-on tour bus guiding, weekly public presentations with live animals, guiding walking tours and all-round help running the facility.

In addition to participating in a college-accredited internship, interns can also work at the center on their days off at the normal employee hourly rate.  Interested applicants should contact the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center at 907-783-2025.

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Adobe 8.0 Reader

The recent upgrade to Adobe Reader 8.0 has made the many users default application for opening pdf documents become Adobe Reader 8.0. Adobe Reader 8.0 is just that, only a reader and does not allow you to manipulate or to save changes made to the file. You still have Adobe 6.0 Standard (or Professional, as the case may be) on your machine and available for your use. If you tend to mostly just read pdf files then you'd want to leave the default application as is.

The next time you find you need to save the pdf files then you'd want to:

1. Open Adobe 6.0 Standard/Professional

2. Use File >> Open >> and choose the document you wish to edit and save.

If you wish to make Adobe 6.0 Standard/Prof the default application with which to open all pdf files automatically you would want to:

1. Locate any pdf document on your computer

2. Right-click on the document >> Open With >> Choose Program

3. Find Adobe 6.0 Standard/Prof in the list and highlight it

4. Make sure to put a checkmark in the box "Always use the selected program to open this kind of file"

5. Click OK.

If at Step 2 you jumped the gun by selecting Adobe 6.0 instead of Choose Program you will find that it will open it this one time but not from here on out.

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Personnel Actions 

Selection/ACES Employees

• Doug Vollman, Technical Support, Kenny Lake

• Rick Pierson, Technical Support, Kenai

• Kathy Potter, Administrative Support, Anchorage

Promotions

• Chet Fitzgerald – District Conservationist – Mat Su, to GS12

• Mike Odegard, to GS13, State Resource Conservationist, Nevada, reports November 11 

• Ronnie Maurer, to GS11, District Conservationist, Whitehall Field Office, Montana, reports November 13

Job Announcement

• Contract Specialist 09/11 (Re-advertisement) – 10/04-25

Extra Effort Awards

• Teresa Cortes

• Chet Fitzgerald

• Mani Gomez

• Kristi Hicks

• Mark Kinney

• Yvonne Magnuson

• Rick McClure

• Phil Naegele

• Mike Odegard

• Heather Oleson

 New Arrivals

• Aliera Jeanne Oleson was born at 10:16 pm on Friday, September 28, to Nome District Conservationist Heather Oleson.

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