NACD's 76th Annual Meeting, hosted in partnership with the Association of Florida Conservation Districts, will be held in Orlando, FL from February 12-16, 2022, at the Hilton Orlando Lake Buena Vista at Disney Springs Resort. The theme for this year's meeting is "Conservation Defined For All" and will be integrated into sessions and activities at the event!

Conference registration is still open and includes entry into the Conservation Expo, NACD General and Concurrent Sessions, Monday’s Leadership Lunch and NCF Live Auction, and NACD Training Sessions and Workshops.

The meeting will also host a variety of breakout sessions covering natural resources policy and protection, districts and partnerships, stewardship and outreach, and conservation innovation. Some of this year's breakout sessions will include presentations on pursuing diversity in your conservation district from Hamilton County Conservation District; using online tools to aid in conservation from Delaware Association of Conservation Districts; The Conservation and Agriculture Reach Everyone (CARE) Project; partnering to implement conservation as both the Ohio Agriculture Conservation Initiative and Sublette County Conservation District have; and much more!

This year's breakout sessions will be held on Monday, February 14 and Tuesday, February 15, 2022. See NACD's 2022 Annual Meeting Breakout Sessions webpage to learn more about these and other sessions.

Visit NACD’s Annual Meeting webpage to learn more about scholarships, view the agenda, register and reserve your room.

Since 2016, NACD has partnered with the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) on a very successful Urban Agriculture Conservation (UAC) grant initiative, awarding over $5.6 million dollars to 102 conservation districts in 35 states.

In fiscal year 2022, NACD will again award up to $900,000 through the UAC program, with the January 31 deadline for applications fast approaching. Interested applicants may review NACD’s Urban and Community Conservation webpage for the full request for proposals (RFP) and examples of projects from previous grantees. Grantees have completed projects like targeting outreach programs to underrepresented smallholder farmers, conducting activities related to urban soil health, and partnering with schools to expand learning gardens.

Districts who are interested in applying must demonstrate in their application how they will build district capacity to provide technical assistance beyond the 1-year time frame of the UAC grant. Partnerships with other organizations may help provide some of this long-term sustainability, for example many districts work with local youth- and faith-based organizations for support with events and maintenance of garden sites, or with local cooperative extension, NRCS, and universities to help fill gaps in the district’s technical abilities. The monthly spotlights in NACD’s eResource (the second Tuesday of each month), are a great source of example partnership opportunities. Districts may also review the funding resources section on NACD’s Member’s Only page for additional grant examples that some CD’s have used to sustain their programs through time.

Conservation districts may view the complete request for proposals (RFP) on the Urban and Community Conservation webpage. The online application portal is now open, with a deadline of 11:59 p.m. local time on January 31, 2022.

Districts interested in NACD’s UAC grants may now watch a recording of a recent information session. Staff and leadership described the program and answered questions from potential applicants, and several past grantees shared more about their projects.

During the January Urban and Community (U&C) Conservation webinar, scheduled for Thursday, January 20 at 4 p.m. Eastern, Shannon Russell Pennington, Warren County Park District staff naturalist, and Melissa Proffitt, Warren County SWCD Education & Communications Specialist, will describe their new pollinator habitat garden and walking trail. The trails surround a solar panel farm and contain 7 self-guided interactive learning stations for local families to learn more about the science behind pollinators and solar power. Attendees will learn how they collaborated to bring about this project, as well as its successes and challenges.

NACD’s Urban and Community Conservation webinar series, sponsored by The Scotts Miracle-Gro Foundation, highlights programs related to urban and community conservation, outreach to underrepresented clients, small-scale natural resource concerns, stormwater management and other related themes.

Learn more about this webinar, view recordings of past U&C webinars, and submit a webinar proposal on our website.

Myron Johnson is a fourth-generation dryland farmer and owner of Double J Farms in Henry County, AL. Johnson’s operation includes cotton, corn, peanuts, cattle, and cover crops – all with a focus on soil health. Johnson employs multiple strategies to keep his operation both environmentally and economically viable.

As a dryland farmer, Johnson began using cover crops to capture moisture as irrigation did not seem like a possible option. Through cover crops, he’s been able to increase water infiltration with the established root systems, lower evaporation rates by keeping the soil’s surface covered and protected, and decrease nutrient runoff and soil erosion as the covers hold the moisture in place. Johnson found additional benefits along the way such as weed suppression, increased organic matter, and improved soil health.

Johnson also employs the use of climate outlooks when making decisions in his operation. Weather forecasts only examine up to 10 days out and can really vary, but climate outlooks for temperature and precipitation indicate a region’s chance of below-average, within-average, and above-average conditions for up to a year in advance. Through consulting climate outlooks, Johnson bases his decisions on when and what to plant as well as when to terminate the cover crops. While he cannot predict the future or eliminate the risks, climate outlooks deal with probabilities and consulting them can increase the odds for long-term benefits. Johnson feels that any strategy that helps increase his odds of getting his crops to market is worth considering. Johnson explains this strategy further in this video interview with the Alabama Cooperative Extension for The U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit.

For more information on Johnson and his operation, please visit his NACD Soil Health Champion Profile on the NACD website and visit the Alabama Extension website to view a video interview with Johnson as one of Alabama’s Soil Health Stewards.

If you or someone you know would like to join the NACD Soil Health Champions Network, please visit the NACD website or contact NACD North Central Region Representative Beth Mason for more information.

During NACD's Annual Meeting, the National Conservation Foundation (NCF) will host their auction to support Envirothon, the Next Generation Leadership Institute, and other conservation education programs. The auction will be held in person and virtually on Monday, February 14 at 6:00 p.m. and is hosted thanks to the sponsorship from Prince George's Soil Conservation District.

The NCF Auction is a great opportunity to support conservation and we are accepting donations for the 2022 event now! The deadline for donations is this Friday, January 7, 2022.

To learn more about donating to the auction, see this webpage or email NACD Director of Education Keith Owen at keith-owen@nacdnet.org.

See the full RFP online. Applications are due February 4, 2022 at 11:59 p.m. Eastern.

Learn more about the NCF-Envirothon at www.envirothon.org or by following us social media; Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.

NACD has launched a new webpage detailing the new NACD + Mercer insurance benefits program.

When you renew your membership at the Gold level or above, you become eligible for benefits through Mercer. All Gold level and higher membership contributions for fiscal year 2021 will count for eligibility.

This program offers coverage for your health and wellbeing, including ACA-complaint health insurance, supplemental benefits, life insurance, auto/home protection and more.

Visit the website to learn more.

The U.S. Biochar Initiative and U.S. Forest Service (USFS), with Butte Community College and Butte Fire Safe Council, are hosting a workshop on "Biochar in the Woods." The event will be a combination of live online and in-field presentations and demonstrations on making and using biochar on site in the forest and WUI (Wildland Urban Interface).

See a detailed schedule and registration info here. There will be an online symposium on January 27, with an attendance cost of $50, and free field events on February 1-3 in Butte County, California.

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