NRCS Alaska News

January 28, 2008

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In This Issue

Work Underway on Yukon Flats Soil Survey

The Fairbanks soils staff has begun the preparation necessary for the first season of field work in the Yukon Flats Soil Survey. The proposed boundary for the survey coincides with the Yukon Flats Resource Conservation & Development Area (RC&D) and covers 35 million acres, an area approximately the same size as the state of New York.

This winter soils and ecology staff will be collecting spatial and other reference material, creating preliminary maps using an array of data, and logistical planning.  

Summer 2008 will see the kick off of the field work. Teams of Soil scientists and seasonal plant ecologists will collect, and interpret information about the natural resources in the area. 

A Soil Survey is sponsored by cooperative agreements between land owners and managers, community organizations and the NRCS. For the Yukon Flats cooperators are largely tribal and village governments, native corporations and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Communities within the survey area include: Arctic Village, Beaver, Birch Creek, Canyon Village, Chalkyitsik, Circle, Fort Yukon, Rampart, Stevens Village and Venetie. Early cooperators to the survey are the village of Rampart and Stevens Village, where field work will begin this summer. A two mile corridor along the Yukon River between these two communities will also be mapped.

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For Inquiring Minds: the Accrual of Compensatory Time for Travel

The Memorandum for Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies, dated January 27, 2005, from the US Office of Personnel Management provides guidance to NRCS employees relative to compensatory time off for travel. This guidance is provided in a question and answer format and hopefully clears up any confusion about this issue. It can be accessed online at http://www.opm.gov/oca/compmemo/2005/2005-03.asp.

Section 203 of the Federal Workforce Flexibility Act of 2004 authorized compensatory time off for time spent by an employee in travel status away from their official duty station when such time is not otherwise compensable. The regulations implementing compensatory time off for employees while in travel status were effective on January 28, 2005. The regulations relative to compensatory time off for travel are separate and distinct from those regarding regular compensatory time off.

Travel status is defined as travel away from the duty station and includes only the time actually spent traveling between the official duty station and a temporary duty station, or between two temporary duty stations, and the usual waiting time that precedes or interrupts such travel. A meeting site and/or another office/facility visited while in travel status is considered a temporary duty station.

Compensatory time for travel applies to all employees without regard to whether the employee is exempt from or covered by the overtime pay provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, as amended.  Time credited as compensatory time for travel and compensatory time for travel that is used are coded separately from other forms of compensatory time in WebTCAS.

 The guidance document provides several examples of creditable travel time. If there are any questions, please call Kristi Hicks at 761-7743.

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NRCS Staff to Participate in Alaska Forum

This year’s Alaska Forum on the Environment takes place February 11 – 15 and features several NRCS staff (and many of our partners) in workshops and breakout sessions.

On Monday, at 10:30 a.m. the “Tribal Conservation Districts in Alaska” will feature State Conservationist Bob Jones as a panelist and Assistant State Conservationist for Operations Phil Naegele as a moderator.  At 2 p.m., RC&D Coordinator Ryan Maroney will participate on a panel about the Hooper Bay Trail project: and at 3:30 p.m. District Conservationist Mark Kinney will moderate a presentation about the Karluk River Trail Project.

Wednesday at 2 p.m. Assistant State Conservationist for Programs Tom Hedt will participate in a panel presentation on the Topic “Opportunities for Grants and Cost-Sharing for Coastal Projects in Alaska.”

On Friday, NRCS is helping organize and implement two full-day training events. “Tribal Conservation District Workshop” will be moderated by District Conservationist Crystal Leonetti and will feature presentations from Hedt, District Conservationist Chet Fitzgerald, Research Soil Scientist Mark Clark, and Snow Survey Project Leader Rick McClure. 

“How to Build All Terrain Vehicle Infrastructure in Your Community will feature Maroney, Hedt, and Design Engineer Aimee Rohner. Public Affairs Specialist Cassandra Stalzer will be helping to organize a panel featuring public and private funders.

More information about the Alaska Forum and the latest agenda can be found at www.akforum.com.

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Tribal Outreach Specialist Prepares Curriculum for Willow Cutting Project

Tribal Outreach Specialist Deborah Baines has completed a curriculum for students in Tyonek that will provide conservation knowledge and prepare them for a dormant willow cutting project scheduled to take place in early March. The objectives of the curriculum are to teach students about wildlife conservation issues and methods, about plants that affect wildlife habitat, about wildlife conservation through the collection of oral history from local elders. NRCS Wildlife Biologist Bill Wood helped Baines pull together materials to develop the curriculum.

The Tyonek Tribal Conservation District – with support from the Tyonek Native Corporation - has provided $1,000 in travel stipends for student-shareholders living outside of Tyonek to participate in the event. The students will participate by signing up in the Earth Team volunteer program.

The willows cut by the students will be replanted in the Spring to improve moose browse in the area. The project is supported by a Wildlife Habitat Incentives cost-share contract.

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First Lady Talks NRCS to Fox News

A briefing paper prepared by Public Affairs Specialist Sylvia Rainford has resulted in a piece featuring First Lady Laura Bush that aired on Fox News Friday. “Executive Communications and the Science and Technology Deputy Area worked together to pull this off,” Rainford wrote in an email. “We knew we wanted to focus on Plant Materials, Soils and Conservation Technical Assistance, a foundation of our conservation work.”

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