Sustainable Livelihood

Many times over the past few years I’ve referred to our land use and environmental work in terms of their improvements to health and livelihood of communities. We have never methodically developed indicators or measures of “healthy, sustainable livelihood”…but think it is critically important.
Attached is a white paper that begins to take the issues apart [...]

A User-friendly EPA

The US Environmental Protection Agency has restructured their website. It’s oriented toward user groups…has redeveloped data sources toward practical uses…and thought innovatively about how to recast databases so that they might give meaningful environmental, political and economic insight (check out the zip code organized information on electricity generation, watershed conditions, etc.)
www.epa.gov

2008 Farm Bill…Opportunity Knocks

The 2008 Farm Bill provides for establishing science-based technical guidelines to measure environmental service benefits including carbon, water quality, and habitat credit trading. The Bill proposes creating a registry to collect, record, and maintain benefits.
Because of previous and ongoing research projects within USDA…Rapid Watershed Assessment, Conservation Effects Assessment Program, etc….there exists valuable science to lend [...]

USDA CEAP

In 2003 the USDA began the Conservation Effects Assessment Project (CEAP) to quantify the environmental benefits from conservation practices on private lands. Andy Manale, a Senior Analyst at USEPA, has been working on the team and has spoken well of CEAPs work.
They have been working on a number of pilots that carefully quantify environmental effects [...]

Complaining…Part 2…here’s the project

CIG Project Summary
CIG Project Description
Last week I complained because we did not get a USDA Conservation Innovation Grant. USDA NRCS developed a program for Rapid Watershed Assessments – simple methodologies to assess conservation priorities and relate those priorities to the cost of the improvements. It offers a wonderful framework to incorporate ecosystem service evaluation, look [...]

Getting the Water Right

Getting the Water Right
Andy Manale (EPA) and I met after the Katoomba Meetings. During our discussion, we spoke about a number of the critical water supply and water quality issues confronting us….in the very near term. Attached is the announcement of a meeting taking place in Tucson late in July organized by the Soil and Water Conservation Society.
Part of [...]

2008 Global Katoomba Meeting

I just returned this morning from the 2008 Global Katoomba Meeting themed “Developing an Infrastructure Fund for the Planet”….felt a bit like Pat Coady who said to me after the meeting  “I have enough trouble trying to save 10 acres in our local land trust and now they want us to save the planet”.
It was [...]

Virginia Forestry and Ecosystem Service Initiatives

virginia-forestry-presentation 
An interesting presentation on forestry ecosystem services and a related tools development initiative.