Washington DC -April 30- Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced that the U.S. Department of Agriculture is seeking proposals from eligible partners for projects to help owners and operators of agricultural and nonindustrial private forest lands improve their natural resources through the Cooperative Conservation Partnership Initiative (CCPI) in fiscal year 2010.

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Washington DC -April 22- Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar, and Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano today announced the formation of a federal partnership with state, regional, local and tribal leaders to develop a strategy to more effectively address America’s wildland fire challenges.

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Washington DC - April 15 - Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced the award of grants to permanently protect private forestland in 33 states and U.S. territories through the Forest Legacy Program (FLP).

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Washington DC - April 12 - Fire activity was very heavy with 2,274 new fires started last week. Eighty-six new large fires were reported and firefighters have contained 75 of them. Currently, 18 large fires are burning in eight states.

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Washington DC - April 7 - Visitors will have a greater number of options for getting around in America’s national parks and on other public lands, thanks to $24.8 million in federal funding announced by the Federal Transit Administration.

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Washington DC - April 6 - USDA Farm Service Agency Administrator Jonathan Coppess said that biomass producers, energy facilities and communities are benefitting from USDA’s innovative Biomass Crop Assistance Program (BCAP).

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Washington DC - April 5 - Many forests depleted by the 1800’s for agriculture and timber are now seeing a resurgence as rocky farmlands abandoned for land in the West begin a natural recovery, as reported in The Washington Post.

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Washington DC - April 5 - Economic activity in the non-manufacturing sector grew in March for the third consecutive month, say the nation’s purchasing and supply executives in the latest Non-Manufacturing ISM Report On Business®.

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Washington DC - March 29 - Obama Administration Officials announced a White House Conference on America’s Great Outdoors to be held on Friday, April 16, 2010. The conference will address the challenges, opportunities and innovations surrounding modern-day land conservation and the importance of reconnecting Americans to the outdoors.

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Washington DC - March 24 - Fifteen conservation groups oppose cutting more than $2 billion dollars from the largest of USDA’s working lands conservation programs, the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP).

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Washington DC - March 18 - Results of a new study find that prescribed burns, often used by forest managers to reduce underbrush and protect bigger trees, release substantially less carbon dioxide emissions than wildfires of the same size.

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Washington DC - March 9 -  The formation of the new Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Advisory Committee will inaugurate a new level of collaboration between the USDA Forest Service and the American people in the restoration of forested landscapes.

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Washington DC - December 31 - The Amazon is being cleared both by soybean growers and by ranchers, who are expanding Brazil’s national herd of beef cattle. Oftentimes, soybean growers buy land from cattlemen, who have cleared the land and grazed it for a few years, pushing them ever deeper into the Amazon rainforest.

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Washington DC - December 17 - Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced the United States, joined by Australia, France, Japan, Norway, and the United Kingdom, agreed, in the context of an ambitious and comprehensive outcome in Copenhagen, to dedicate a total of USD3.5 billion as initial public finance towards slowing, halting and eventually reversing deforestation in developing countries.

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Washington DC - December 9 - Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced that U.S. Forest Service will commit an additional $40 million to address public safety concerns and forest health needs arising from the millions of acres of dead and dying trees from bark beetle infestations in the West.

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