January 21, 2020
THREE NEW SPEAKERS ADDED TO 2020 ANNUAL MEETING LINEUP
NACD's 74th Annual Meeting in Las Vegas, Nev., is less than three weeks away !

With so much to look forward to, we're excited to announce we have three additional speakers joining this year's impressive lineup of innovative leaders in conservation.

Ecosystems Services Market Consortium (ESMC) Executive Director Debbie Reed , General Mills Applied Sustainability Manager Jeff Hanratty and Field to Market Vice President, Science and Research Allison Thomson (pictured in order) will be participating in Tuesday morning's general session panels on innovative foundations that invest in conservation and innovations within the agriculture industry. 

Since ESMC's inception, Reed has been a dedicated leader for the project. For over 20 years, she has focused on Green House Gas (GHG) mitigation and ecosystem services from the agricultural sector, having worked at the White House Council on Environmental Quality as the director of legislative affairs and agricultural policy and in the U.S. Senate as a senior staff member on natural resource and agricultural issues for U.S. Senator Robert Kerrey of Nebraska. Reed has also held numerous leadership positions at the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).

A leader in conservation innovation, Hanratty has been with General Mills since 1999. In his current role, he is accountable for the Minneapolis-based company's Green House Gas (GHG) and water footprint programming, where he seeks innovative solutions including eco-design in packaging and collaborating with others to find sustainability improvements.

Using environmental outcomes and science-based metrics and benchmarks, Thomson works with Field to Market member organizations on measuring, benchmarking and reducing the environmental impact of U.S. farming. Prior to joining the nonprofit organization, she conducted research on the intersection of climate, energy and food systems, where she focused on national and global implications of climate change impacts and solutions on agriculture and land use.

Reed will moderate Tuesday morning’s panel on innovative foundations who fund conservation initiatives. Hanratty will participate in a panel on innovations within the agriculture and food supply industry, which Thomson will moderate.

To learn more about each speaker, visit NACD's Annual Meeting webpage .
VASWCD EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR APPOINTED TO STATE ADVISORY BOARD
On Jan. 17, 2020, Virginia Association of Soil and Water Conservation Districts (VASWCD) Executive Director Dr. Kendall Tyree Covington (pictured far right) was appointed to serve on the Virginia Water Resources Research Center Statewide Advisory Board by Virginia Governor Ralph Northam .

The Advisory Board recommends policy guidelines and evaluates programs at the Virginia Water Resources Research Center at Virginia Tech. R epresentatives of the Advisory Board are appointed by the governor and include members from industries; federal, state and local agencies; water user groups; and concerned citizens.

To learn more about the Water Center, visit Virginia Tech's website .
SWCD SHARES EXPERIENCE USING FEMA GRANT
The  Claunch-Pinto Soil and Water Conservation District  (SWCD) in New Mexico is working with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) near wildfire-ravaged areas across the state through the FEMA Hazard Mitigation Grant Program.

“It is a long, detailed process," District Manager Dierdre Tarr said . “But worth the time and effort.”

“It’s a learning curve where you learn something every day,”  she said . “It takes time and patience, but it’s another area we can find dollars to put on the ground. That’s the important thing.”

The initial FEMA Hazard Mitigation Grant targeted 135 acres of privately-owned property for thinning, harvesting and slash chipping to help with moisture containment and erosion. The area is adjacent to lands burned by four major wildfires that took place between 2008 and 2016. During those fires, more than 44,000 acres were devastated, 80 homes destroyed, and nearly 100 other structures lost.

The scarred land that remains contains dense shrub regrowth that is ripe for fast-moving fires that could impact lands that have a higher population density than other areas in the county, a measure Tarr aims to prevent with the hazard mitigation project.
Though Tarr has worked with Claunch-Pinto SWCD in Torrance County for two decades, this is the first time she has partnered with FEMA.

She admits early on there were challenges.

Those findings meant contacting FEMA and, with its permission, revamping the parameters of the project in order to continue. While Tarr was altering the grant documents, FEMA announced it had additional funding that the Claunch-Pinto SWCD project was eligible to receive.

Although the conservation district was awarded the $149,000 Hazard Mitigation grant in 2018, Tarr had just completed phase two of the application process–writing for the implementation portion–in December 2019.

“If there are projects to get done, and we want to secure the funding, I’ll do what it takes,”  Tarr said . “So it’s just another piece of the puzzle with all the partners we’re working with on the project. It takes a lot of patience, but it’s one step at a time.”

One piece of advice Tarr would give to other FEMA partner first-timers is to know and secure your procedural points, such as being identified as a go-to person on those teams and emergency plans.

“Work with your county’s Emergency Management Department, get to know them before an emergency, and get to know the people in the Mitigation Department for Homeland Security in the district’s area,”  she said . “These people will help you with whatever steps you need to take.”

To read the rest of this story, visit NACD's blog .
NACD Welcomes
Winter Intern
Ziwei Zhang
On Tuesday, Jan. 21, Ziwei Zhang joined NACD as the association's winter intern.

Zhang recently graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she majored in agricultural and consumer economics with a concentration in environmental economics and policy.

Born and raised in Beijing, China, Zhang previously worked at the Three Gorges Company in China. She is looking forward to working with the staff and applying her knowledge of conservation during her time at NACD.

Zhang is based in Washington, D.C., and can be reached at  intern@nacdnet.org .
Reminder:
Mail Your NCF Live Auction Item Today
On behalf of everyone at NACD, we want to thank you for your generous donation of items to the National Conservation Foundation's (NCF) Live Auction.

To mail your donated items, please ship them to the following address:

USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service
c/o Teri Knight
7080 La Cienega St., Suite 100
Las Vegas, NV 89119

Please include the words, NACD AUCTION ITEM , on the shipping label or on the box for easy identification.

Special thanks to the Natural Resources Conservation Service's (NRCS) Las Vegas office for volunteering to store the packages! Once you have mailed the package, please contact Teri Knight at teri.knight@usda.gov to let her know you have shipped your package.

Auction items will still be accepted on site throughout the day on  Sunday, Feb. 9, 2020 . Donations will be accepted until  Monday, Feb. 10  at 10:00 a.m.

To learn more and view current auction items, visit the  2020 Live Auction webpage . If you have any questions, please contact NACD South Central Region Representative  Keith Owen  or 405-360-3503.
NACD Thanks Friend
Sherman Bryant
NACD would like to thank Friend of NACD, Sherman Bryant (pictured second from right), for his continued support of NACD.

Sherman serves as the associate supervisor with the Kosciusko County Soil and Water Conservation District in Warsaw, Ind.

Interested in becoming a Friend of NACD? Learn more on  NACD’s website .
Get It Now:
NACD's 2020 Calendar
Stay organized this year with NACD's 2020 Calendar!

Filled with important dates, events and other helpful information, the calendar also features photos from NACD's photo contests.

The calendar is $15 on NACD's Marketplace. After publication, it came to NACD's attention that the month of March was incorrect. Because of this, we have included a free PDF insert that can easily be downloaded and printed out.

To purchase the 2020 Calendar and to download the March calendar insert, please visit NACD's Marketplace.
Promote your conservation district or state association's tree sale, annual meeting, webinar, field day or more on NACD's Calendar of Events !