In response to a drastic decline in the population of western monarchs, California's resource conservation districts (RCDs) are working with land managers and communities to protect and enhance habitat for monarchs.

Earlier this month, the California Association of Resource Conservation Districts (CARCD) announced the recent award of grants to 11 resource conservation districts (RCDs) located throughout California to fund monarch conservation projects.  

The western monarch butterfly population has declined more than 99 percent in the past 20 years. Researchers have determined that the most important strategies to bolster the western monarch population include protecting and restoring overwintering sites, providing nectar resources along the migratory flyway, and increasing the availability of early-season native milkweed. They have determined that the next several years will be a critical time to bring back the butterflies from a path to extinction.

In 2019, the Wildlife Conservation Board awarded CARCD a block grant in order to provide sub-grants to RCDs through a competitive process. RCDs will use the grants to enhance up to 11 monarch overwintering sites, develop nine habitat restoration projects, and conduct outreach and education to continue expanding conservation efforts.

“RCDs already work directly with state, federal and local agencies, landowners, communities and other stakeholders, so they are perfectly situated to create monarch habitat throughout the butterfly’s range in California,” said Karen Buhr , executive director of CARCD. “Even though COVID-19 has kept staff sheltering in place and away from the field, RCDs are continuing to work during these challenging times to conserve the iconic monarch for future generations.”

The RCD recipients of the grant are the Alameda County RCD , the Coastal San Luis RCD , the Gold Ridge RCD , the Grasslands RCD , the RCD of Greater San Diego County , the Mariposa County RCD , the Riverside-Corona RCD , the RCD of Santa Cruz County , the Solano County RCD , the Yolo County RCD , and the Ventura County RCD . 

“CARCD is collaborating with the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, Monarch Joint Venture, Environmental Defense Fund and other partners to strengthen the impact of the RCDs’ programs," said Dr. Hillary Sardiñas , CARCD’s monarch specialist, who was hired with funding from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation to build RCD capacity around monarch-specific projects.

“Together, CARCD, the RCD network and our partners are helping land managers adopt conservation practices that will protect and enhance monarch habitat on public and working lands," she said .

To learn more, visit CARCD's website .

FORESTRY SUPPORT IN SONOMA COUNTY WITH AN NACD TA GRANT

Thanks to an NACD Technical Assistance (TA) Grant , the Sonoma Resource Conservation District (RCD) in California has their first ever professional forester. The district had wanted to bring someone on for a while, but they didn’t have the funds until 2018, when they were awarded their first TA grant. The grant allowed them to bring on Jason Wells as their registered professional forester.

According to Wells, interest in forest management was spurred by two fires in 2017, one of which burned through the city of Santa Rosa.

“The RCD started being bombarded with questions about forest management, and they didn’t have anyone on staff that was capable of doing that,” said Wells . Thankfully, now they do.

“Without this grant, I wouldn’t have been hired,” he said .

Wells works closely with their neighbor, Gold Ridge Resource Conservation District , to address forest health issues throughout Sonoma County. The county spans approximately one million acres, about 500,000 of which are forested.

“We consider forests anything that has a tree canopy cover about 10 percent or more,” Wells said .

Wells spends most of his time working with landowners to develop Forest Management Plans using a California Cooperative Forest Management Plan template, which will allow landowners to access cost-share funds. These plans work to meet the goals and objectives set by the landowner, which Wells also often helps create.

“I think one of the biggest things about my position is that because forest management really hasn’t been something that people think about very much in this area, a lot of what I’m doing is providing general knowledge to people about forest management,” Wells said. “’Why should you do this? Why is this a beneficial thing? How is this working to create a working, better ecosystem?’ All of those kinds of things.”

Wells has spent time helping various partners in the county develop a Prescribed Burn Association (PBA), which helps bring people together to prevent wildfires.

“A PBA is landowners helping landowners bring fire onto their property,” Wells said. He also offers insight into community wildfire protection plans, which identify fire-prone areas and recommend treatment methods, and participates in many community workshops that focus on wildfire risk and forest heath.

The grant also gave Wells the opportunity to expand his knowledge base, learning about the local programs that could help landowners.

“I’ve had the opportunity and the funding source to spend time researching everything. So, now, when I go talk to a landowner, I’m very comfortable knowing what they have available to them,” he said. “That, I think, was the biggest thing about this first grant.”

To l earn more about NACD’s Technical Assistance grants or to read other TA success stories, visit the NACD Technical Assistance Grants webpage .

FORESTRY NOTES Q&A:

SAF CEO   TERRY BAKER

Terry Baker  (pictured) joined the Society of American Foresters (SAF) as chief executive officer in September of 2018. Hailing from Marianna, Fla., he has worked in seven states for the U.S. Forest Service. Baker earned a bachelor’s degree in forestry from the University of Florida in 2004 and a master of forestry degree at Yale University in 2007. He also holds a bachelor’s degree in agricultural sciences from Florida A&M University. Terry and his wife, Jessica, reside in Washington, D.C. Recently, he shared time with NACD to discuss his work at SAF.

What factors do you believe are critical for forestry to achieve workforce needs over the next decade?

The major factors that I see impacting our ability to address workforce needs over the next decade are awareness, training and career pathways. With an example like the Trillion Trees Initiative, forestry and natural resources management are finally being more widely recognized as part of the solution to carbon and economic issues. As professionals in this area, we have long known this to be true, but we must be willing to adapt and engage the broader public and new audiences versus sitting back and seemingly touting, ‘We told you so!’

One way SAF is working to spark new interest in forestry careers is through a partnership with the Sustainable Forestry Initiative to help create and distribute a new Project Learning Tree course, “Green Jobs.” We felt this was a great way to increase awareness of our professions to students and teachers. The ability for students to see themselves solving natural resource issues and for teachers to see our professionals as part of the solution sets a great foundation in building our future workforce.

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Deadline Approaches: NACD 2020

TA Grants RFP

The deadline to submit proposals for NACD’s current round of Technical Assistance (TA) Grants is less than a week away. Submissions are due  Monday, June 1, 2020  at  11:59 p.m. Eastern .

All proposals must be reviewed and ranked by your state/territory conservation partnership leaders, who may be requesting your information by a date prior to NACD's submission date in order to have time for their review, so please communicate with your state/territory association office if interested in applying.

As with previous years, this year’s TA Grants are made possible through a partnership with the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). This agreement allows NACD to provide an opportunity to work together to serve our customers in the highest workload areas with additional boots on the ground.

To learn more about how to submit your proposal, visit  NACD’s website . Please contact NACD Projects and Partnerships Coordinator  Meg Leader  at 812-512-1811 or your  NACD Region Representative  with any questions.

Save the Date:

June 2020

NCF-Envirothon Representatives Meeting

The NCF-Envirothon operating committee and staff invite all state/provincial representatives, alternative reps and any other key Envirothon leaders to an upcoming Envirothon Representative Virtual Meeting.

Topics that will be covered include 2021 competition details, membership, program impacts, educational updates and more. To learn more and attend the region meeting that pertains to you, click here. If you can't attend your region's meeting, please join one of the others so you don't miss out on important information.

Once you register, you will be emailed a confirmation to the meeting you selected. An email with all login information for the Zoom meeting will follow a week prior to your selected meeting.

Register Now:

Source Water Collaborative Webinar

On Thursday, June 4 from 1:00-2:30 p.m. Eastern, the Source Water Collaborative will be hosting a webinar entitled “Updates from the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and the Northeast: Partnering to Protect Drinking Water.”

The webinar will feature presenters from NRCS, who will share information about NRCS’s work in selecting priority source water protection areas in each state. It will also include presenters from the American Water Works Association and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 1, who will highlight their efforts in the Northeast to host "2018 Farm Bill and Source Water Protection" meetings with NRCS, conservation districts, state drinking water programs and water utilities.

More information and registration is available here . 

Apply Now:

CARCD Seeking Forestry and Fire Project Manager

The California Association of Resource Conservation Districts (CARCD) is seeking a conservation professional to manage its Forest Health and Fire Resiliency Program and Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP) agreement.

The position will implement and coordinate funding for forest health, work with partners to coordinate resources, document success, and seek additional opportunities. The ideal candidate will have a working knowledge of forest health, experience with RCDs and/or local conservation and program management experience.

The position will remain open until filled. To read the full job description and apply, visit CARCD's job board .

AFT Releases

Farm Report

On May 20, American Farmland Trust (AFT) released a new publication, "Farms Under Threat: The State of the States." This groundbreaking report reveals that 11 million acres of agricultural land were paved over, fragmented, or converted to uses that compromise agriculture between 2001 and 2016, an area equal to all the farmland devoted to fruit, nut and vegetable production in 2017. Of these 11 million acres, more than 4 million were converted to urban and other highly developed uses, while nearly 7 million acres went to low-density residential land use.

 

This report also shows the location and quality of each state's agricultural land. Additionally, an “Agricultural Land Protection Scorecard” was created for each state that evaluates their policies and programs for protecting and retaining agricultural land.

 

In light of the pandemic, this report becomes more critical in revealing its effect on the nation's agricultural system and economy and builds on previous work AFT has done to assess farmland conversion nationally. The full report, as well as state-by-state maps and fact sheets, is available here . 

Promote your conservation district or state association's tree sale, annual meeting, webinar, field day or more on NACD's Calendar of Events !