Climate Programs

This "Factsheets" tool provides information about Americans' beliefs, risk perceptions, and policy preferences about climate change for all 50 states, 435 congressional districts, and 3,142 counties across the U.S.

Categories: climate change, communication, policy, public response

The training package consists of 17 standalone modules covering a range of topics that will prove very useful to build capacity of public health professionals who are involved in management of public health programmes impacted by climate change. The modules are also designed for ease of use by professionals from other sectors such as the environment, transport, disaster preparedness, etc., enabling them to understand the intersectoral nature of the issue and to address health impacts jointly with other sectors. One or more modules can be used as advocacy material as well as to orient different target audiences such as policymakers.

Categories: Tribal Health, capacity building, disaster preparedness, training

The Working Group on Indigenous Food Sovereignty (WGIFS) was born in March of 2006 out of a recognized need to carry the Indigenous voice in the various meetings, conferences and discussions that have taken place within the food security movement. Through participation in the B.C. Food Systems Network Annual Gathering and strategic planning meetings, the WGIFS was created for the purpose of increasing awareness of the underlying issues, concerns and strategies impacting food security in Indigenous communities. The WGIFS seeks to apply culturally appropriate protocols and ancient ways of knowing through a consensus-based approach to critically analyzing issues, concerns and strategies as they relate to Indigenous food, land, culture, health, economics, and sustainability.
The WGIFS consists of members who provide input and leadership on ways to increase awareness and mobilize communities around the topic of Indigenous food sovereignty. The WGIFS strives to ensure Indigenous voices are carried from a strong and balanced representation and currently consists of participants from key communities and groups (listed below) in each of the major regions around the province of B.C. The working group is inclusive of non-Indigenous advocates from settler communities and promotes cross cultural participation that is representative and balanced based on geography, community group and cultures.

Categories: indigenous foods, food security, land, culture, health, economics, sustainability

Committed to Native American cultural sustainability, multimedia education and race reconciliation, Wisdom of the Elders, Inc. (Wisdom) records and preserves the oral history, cultural arts, language concepts, and traditional ecological knowledge of exemplary American Indian historians, cultural leaders and environmentalists in collaboration with arts and cultural organizations and educational institutions. Wisdom of the Elders especially seeks to correct misconceptions, end prejudice, bring health and wellness to Native people, and demonstrate how Indian culture has and is continuing to enrich our worlds.

Categories: journalism, climate documentation

For practitioners looking to develop, facilitate, or participate in a landscape conservation design (LCD) process, the new Recommended Practices for Landscape Conservation Design guide leverages the knowledge, years of experience working on landscape-scale conservation issues, and the legacy of the Landscape Conservation Cooperatives. The guide can serve as a reference and springboard for those seeking to implement broad-scale, multi-species conservation; collaborate and share data across regions and states; and incorporate human dimensions into the landscape

Categories: landscape conservation, species conservation, data sharing, collaboration

Combining traditional ecological knowledge with empirical studies allows the USGS and Native American governments, organizations, and people to increase their mutual understanding and respect for this land. USGS provides information to tribes as part of our basic mission of providing unbiased scientific information to the Nation, and as part of the Federal Trust Responsibility to tribes.

Categories: policy

The USGS National Climate Adaptation Science Center (NCASC) is the managing entity for the eight regional Department of the Interior Climate Adaptation Science Centers (CASCs). Climate change is creating novel challenges for our nation’s resource managers, decision-makers, and communities. Together, the National and Regional CASCs provide resource managers and other stakeholders with information and decision-making tools to respond to the effects of climate change on fish, wildlife, ecosystems, and the communities they support. Through close collaboration with managers and scientists inside and outside of government, the CASCs deliver science to address stakeholder-defined priority climate needs. Learn more about our science approach or read snapshots of our work.

Categories: climate change, climate change impacts, climate change adaptation, research, decision-making tools

The Wood Education and Resource Center (WERC), located in Princeton, WV, is a USDA Forest Service facility with offices, training facilities, and a rough mill. WERC's mission is to facilitate interaction and information exchange with the forest products industry, to enhance opportunities for sustained forest products production in the eastern hardwood forest region of the United States. WERC supports managerial and technical innovation to keep businesses competitive. It provides state-of-the-art training, technology transfer, networking opportunities, applied research, and information and sharing. WERC serves the primary and secondary hardwood manufacturing industries located in the 35 States of the eastern hardwood forest region.

Categories: education, forestry, industry, technology, hardwood forest

The Climate Change Resource Center (CCRC) has been developed as a reference for US Forest Service resource managers and decision makers who need information and tools to address climate change in planning and project implementation on national forests.

Categories: Education

The Climate Change Resource Center (CCRC) is a reference Web site for resource managers and decisionmakers who need information and tools to address climate change in planning and
project implementation.

Categories: Education, Planning

Tribal Relations personnel facilitate work on research projects, forest and project planning, wildlife management, watershed restoration, cultural resource management, Tribal access and use, subsistence, biomass utilization, renewable energy, and many more topics and issues.

Categories: Research, Planning

In 2016, the Department is pleased to update and implement its newly revised Environmental Justice Strategy (EJ Strategy), which seeks to demonstrate the Department’s commitment to comply with Executive Order (EO) 12898, Federal Actions to Address Environmental Justice in Minority Populations and Low‐Income Populations.

Categories: climate change, water quality, biodiversity, human health, social justice, environmental justice, planning, policy

The NorWeST webpage hosts stream temperature data and climate scenarios in a variety of user-friendly digital formats for streams and rivers across the western U.S. The temperature database was compiled from hundreds of biologists and hydrologists working for >100 resource agencies and contains >150,000,000 hourly temperature recordings at >20,000 unique stream sites. Those temperature data were used with spatial statistical network models to develop 30 historical and future climate scenarios at 1-kilometer resolution for >1,000,000 kilometers of stream.

Categories: Climate change, water temperature, stream health, watershed, water health, water management,

Welcome to the Current Research Information System (CRIS) web site. The Current Research Information System (CRIS) provides documentation and reporting for ongoing agricultural, food science, human nutrition, and forestry research, education and extension activities for the United States Department of Agriculture; with a focus on the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) grant programs. Projects are conducted or sponsored by USDA research agencies, state agricultural experiment stations, land-grant universities, other cooperating state institutions, and participants in NIFA-administered grant programs, including Small Business Innovation Research and Agriculture and Food Research Initiative. The Planning, Accountability, & Reporting Staff office of NIFA is responsible for maintaining CRIS.

Categories: research, agriculture, food science, human nutrition, forestry, education, NIFA

The Biomass Crop Assistance Program (BCAP) provides financial assistance to owners and operators of agricultural and non-industrial private forest land who wish to establish, produce, and deliver biomass feedstocks. BCAP provides two categories of assistance: matching payments, and annual payments.

Categories: Biomass, Energy

The 2014 Farm Bill authorized the Tree Assistance Program (TAP) to provide financial assistance to eligible orchardists and nursery tree growers to replant or rehabilitate eligible trees, bushes, and vines lost by natural disasters. TAP is administered by the Farm Service Agency (FSA) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). To be considered an eligible loss:Eligible trees, bushes, or vines must have suffered more than a 15 percent mortality loss in a stand (adjusted for normal mortality) due to an eligible natural disaster;Mortality loss on a stand of eligible trees, bushes, or vines is based on:Each eligible disaster event, except for losses due to plant disease; andFor plant disease, the time period as determined by the FSA for which the stand is infected.The loss must not have been preventable through reasonable and available measures;The loss must be visible and obvious to the FSA representative; if the loss is no longer visible, FSA may accept other loss evidence and determine whether that other evidence substantiates that an eligible loss due to natural disaster occurred; and FSA may require information from a qualified expert to determine extent of loss in the case of plant disease or insect infestation

Categories: natural disasters, rehabilitation, replant, tree health, plant health

The Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP) is a voluntary land retirement program that helps agricultural producers protect environmentally sensitive land, decrease erosion, restore wildlife habitat, and safeguard ground and surface water.

Categories: Natural Resources

This website contains information regarding how FSA is ensuring that the implementation of its programs meet all applicable environmental and cultural resource review requirements.

Categories: Compliance

The Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) is a land conservation program administered by the Farm Service Agency (FSA). In exchange for a yearly rental payment, farmers enrolled in the program agree to remove environmentally sensitive land from agricultural production and plant species that will improve environmental health and quality. Contracts for land enrolled in CRP are 10-15 years in length. The long-term goal of the program is to re-establish valuable land cover to help improve water quality, prevent soil erosion, and reduce loss of wildlife habitat. USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) is holding a continuous signup period for the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), running from June 4, 2018 to August 17, 2018.

Categories: agriculture, conservation, environmental health and quality, water quality, soil erosion, wildlife habitat

ELAP provides financial assistance to eligible producers of livestock, honeybees and farm-raised fish for losses due to disease, certain adverse weather events or loss conditions, including blizzards and wildfires, as determined by the Secretary. ELAP assistance is provided for losses not covered by other disaster assistance programs authorized by the 2014 Farm Bill and the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018, such as losses not covered by the Livestock Forage Disaster Program (LFP) and the Livestock Indemnity Program (LIP).

Categories: emergency assistance, disaster resources, extreme weather events

The Source Water Protection Program (SWPP) is a joint project with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Farm Service Agency (FSA) and the National Rural Water Association (NRWA), a non-profit water and wastewater utility membership organization. The SWPP is designed to help prevent pollution of surface and ground water used as the primary source of drinking water by rural residents. Through NRWA, full-time rural source water technicians with practical experience are hired. The technicians work with specialists from the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and state and county FSA staff, to identify areas where pollution prevention is most needed. Once areas for pollution prevention are identified, technicians work with state rural water associations to create local teams made up of citizens and individuals from federal, state, local, and private organizations. These teams collaborate to create a Rural Source Water Protection plan to promote clean source water. The plan identifies voluntary actions that farmers and ranchers can install to prevent source water pollution.

Categories: source water, water protection, water quality, pollution prevention, agricultural runoff

The Food Access Research Atlas: Presents a spatial overview of food access indicators for low-income and other census tracts using different measures of supermarket accessibility; Provides food access data for populations within census tracts; and Offers census-tract-level data on food access that can be downloaded for community planning or research purposes.What can you do with the Atlas? Create maps showing food access indicators by census tract using different measures and indicators of supermarket accessibility; Compare food access measures based on 2015 data with the previous 2010 measures; View indicators of food access for selected subpopulations; and Download census-tract-level data on food access measures.

Categories: research, food accessibility, data, community planning

USDA's domestic food and nutrition assistance programs affect the daily lives of millions of people, with about one in four Americans participating in at least one program at some point during a given year. These programs represent a significant investment, accounting for over two-thirds of USDA's annual budget. ERS is the primary source for economic studies and evaluations of domestic food and nutrition assistance programs to meet the needs of USDA, Congress, program managers, program participants, the research community, and the public at large. To address this diverse group, ERS has developed an integrated program of intramural and extramural research. A key component of this program is research dissemination. ERS maintains 2 web-based interactive databases to ensure that its broad spectrum of research is available to the public in an accessible format for both technical and nontechnical audiences. Follow link below to view database.

Categories: food and nutrition, economic studies, evaluation, research

The mission of animal production and protection national programs is to improve the health, well-being, and efficiency of livestock, poultry, and aquatic food animals to ensure a productive and safe food supply. Emphasis is placed on germplasm characterization, improvement, and conservation; understanding the mechanisms of disease resistance, and the development of tools to prevent, control, or eradicate diseases that threaten our food supply or public health; and identifying and developing sustainable systems for production of high quality meat, milk, and eggs.

Categories: animal health, marine health, food production, food safety, research, public health

Natural Resources and Sustainable Agricultural Systems National Programs support researchers at seventy locations developing the technologies and strategies needed to help farmers, ranchers, and other managers effectively steward the diverse agricultural mosaic spread across the nation. From livestock grazing expansive natural western rangelands, to crops grown in the rich Midwestern Heartland and the Southern States regions, to the high-value produce that comes from the valleys and plains along both coasts, these diverse landscapes generate more than $200-billion in goods and services that are the basis of a strong rural economy. Emphasis is given to developing technologies that are economical to use and systems that support profitable production and enhance the Nation’s vast renewable natural resource base. Research priorities are identified through a continual dialogue with a wide range of customers and stakeholders to ensure that our science is relevant and provides effective solutions to their concerns. We address issues affecting both private and public lands, because together these are the foundation of a healthy and vibrant agricultural industry that not only provides food, feed, fiber, and renewable energy to the nation, but also abundant and high quality supplies of fresh water and clean air, as well as healthy ecosystems.

Categories: natural resource management, agriculture, research, stewardship, science and technology, sustainable industry

APHIS is an agency with many missions vital to the health and welfare of animals, plants, and the natural environment in Indian Country. We have worked with Tribal partners and Native American communities for many years to help protect livestock and crops from disease, pests, and wildlife damage. We collaborate on these important projects through cooperative agreements, technical and emergency training, outreach activities, and consultations that ensure Native American cultural heritage and values are respected.

Categories: animal health, plant health, natural environment, livestock, crops, disease, pests, wildlife, technical training, outreach, consultation, culture

The Agricultural Analytics Division (AAD) provides economic, statistical, analytic, and scientific expertise in support of both Agency and industry stakeholders functions consistent with USDA’s scientific integrity policy. AAD services help recipients to identify and drive business efficiencies, make informed policy and marketing decisions, develop innovative solutions to complex marketing and production issues, gain a better understanding of the present day commodity market environment, evaluate new marketing opportunities, improve logistics and science based operations, and manage risk.

Categories: analytics, economy, research, business development, innovative solutions, commodity food programs

Deadline is Ongoing. The 1994 Land-Grants use Equity to support faculty who develop classes and degree programs that teach science and math to Native Americans. The programs focus on agriculture, natural resources and human sciences. The faculty strive to graduate students who can achieve their life goals. Since many 1994 Land-Grants are two-year schools, some students aspire to advanced degrees. Other students seek training to begin a vocational career in agriculture. Still other students want to earn certifications just to improve their daily lives. Faculty have used Equity funding to help build laboratories, conduct remedial courses, create new degree programs in forestry and provide students stipends so they can complete their education. The goal is to graduate empowered students who can embrace their future with new skills and knowledge.

Categories: math, science, agriculture, natural resources, human sciences, vocational training, education

Deadline is Ongoing. The Tribal College Extension grant program allows the 1994 Land-Grants to create extension offices for their reservation communities. Each extension office works with reservation communities to build programs that target local needs. The result is a diversified and targeted outreach. Reservation youth participate in fun activities in a safe environment. Farmers and ranchers gain science-based insights to improve their productivity. Financial literacy training enhances rural reservation economies. The 1994 Land-Grants also provide culture-centered family activities to restore Native languages, traditions and agriculture. Within this grant program are two types of funds: Capacity grants and Special Emphasis. Capacity grants fund an entire Extension office which can have many mission areas and clients. Special Emphasis are targeted, short-term pilot projects that allow Extension educators to explore new ways to better serve their community.

Categories: reservation communities, financial literacy training, education, culture, native languages, traditions, agrculture

The 1994 Land-Grants often serve as the primary institution of scientific inquiry, knowledge and learning for reservation communities. This funding allows them to address the questions that matter to these communities such as protecting reservation forests or monitoring water quality. Projects may help a tribe improve bison herd productivity, discover whether traditional plants can play a role in managing diabetes or control invasive species. The grant's partnership requirement ensures that other federal and Land-Grant research entities can share resources and knowledge with these, the newest Land-Grants. In addition, this grant places an emphasis on training students in science.

Categories: reservation communities, science, research, tribal education, tribal colleges