The 2008 Farm Bill
Summarized by Rochelle Streker
The 2008 Farm Bill is the current governing legislature of federal farm and food policy. Reviewed about every five years, the reauthorization of the bill is taking place again this year, 2012. This bill is the primary document for agriculture and food policy and is regulated by the United States Department of Agriculture. The USDA is also the most affected by the bill, since they must adhere and enforce the bill. The Farm Bill is greatly influential on how both small scale and industrial farms are run. Some titles include commodities, nutrition, energy, and horticulture and organic agriculture. It is clear the Farm Bill is very instrumental in the farming industry effecting everything from food safety to spending to deciding subsides for crops, as well as international trade and environmental conservation.
In the Bill, one can see a lengthy section for Conservation at Title II of the bill. In the section on conservation, the many laws and programs that are in the Bill are broken down into categories. The categories in the Conservation section are as follows; Conservation Reserve Program, Wetlands Reserve Program, Conservation Stewardship, Farmland Protection and Grassland Reserve, Environmental Quality Incentives Program, Other Conservation Programs of the Food Security Act of 1985, Funding and Administration of Conservation Programs, Conservation Programs Under Other Laws, and Miscellaneous Conservation Programs. All of the programs and laws within the Conservation section of the Farm Bill have to do with farming and conservation either working together or delegating where farming ends and conservation begins. While this is by large the biggest and most influential bill about farming that is passed by Congress, it is not the only one. Other bills that focus on farming or farming and conservation are mentioned throughout the Farm Bill as guidelines or reasons for the Farm Bills laws.
For more information on the Farm Bill (because actual legislature is impossible to understand) go to
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Lake Champlain Basin Nonpoint Source Phosphorus Assessment
Donald W. Meals and Lenore F Budd
Summarized by Maxwell Siegel
This document provides much analysis on the importance of controlling levels of phosphorus able to enter large bodies of water, in this case, our own Lake Champlain. Increasing amounts of nutrients find their way into the lake each year as agriculture continues to grow in scale. The only way to combat such a trend is through the introduction of healthy riparian buffer zones, including specially designed forests and constructed wetlands. A reduction in phosphorus usage in Vermont's agricultural sector is not likely simply because of the raw need for food production, and the important role phosphorus plays in the growth of all flora. The document provides proof of the need to cutback the amount of phosphorus entering the lake, along with relevant mitigation strategies.
For more information, you can find the document here.
Wetlands have long perceived as wastelands, especially for farmers. Research within the last forty years has proved otherwise though. Wetlands provide invaluable services to the environment including but not limited to improving water quality, providing fish and wildlife with habitat, controlling flood waters and maintaining surface water during dry periods.
If you would like to find out more on how wetlands can benefit your land the link is here.
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Comparing bird assemblages in successional black spruce stands originating from fire and logging
Louis Imbeau, Jean-Pierre L Savard, Réjean Gagnon
Canadian Journal of Zoology, 1999, 77(12): 1850-1860
Summary by D.F. Miles
This survey compared the effects of logging and fire damage in forests just north of Vermont, in the Canadian providence of Quebec. The primary focus of this expansive study was on the bird composition relative to successional forests that result in black spruce climax communities. Much of Vermont’s northern forests are often heavily logged, which is why we believe that the results of this study can be usefully implemented for our purposes. Logging in today’s landscape is as much a form of farming as any other, and many local farms currently use on-location logging to supplement their incomes or simply to heat their homes.
Aves is a highly niche portioned class and as such, our decisions surrounding when and where to cut can affect particular species more so than others. The results of this study were able to determine a level of habitat overlap and classify them into six general assemblages, which can be seen in the figure listed with this post. I will also quote their results directly because undoubtedly they put it better than I could and I quote, "Twenty species were more likely to be encountered in a given forest development stage, and analysis of habitat overlap between species suggested six major groups. One group composed of 3 early-successional species (Common Yellowthroat, Lincoln’s Sparrow, and Alder Flycatcher) was clearly associated with clearings created by recent clearcuts. A second group composed of 3 early- to mid-successional species (White-throated Sparrow, Magnolia Warbler, and Nashville Warbler) was associated with younger development stages (I-II to I-III) and were less abundant or not found in mature forests (IV-F). The Cedar Waxwing and Hermit Thrush reached their highest abundance in burns and completed the group of species mostly associated with the open-land community type Groups 4 and 5 comprised all mid- to late successional species more associated with the forest community type. Group 4 showed a gradation from the Yellow-rumped Warbler, which is widely distributed, to the Brown Creeper and woodpeckers of the genus Picoides (P. arcticus and P. tridactylus), which were restricted to three stages. When we compare mature forests (stage IV; Picoides spp. were present in 5 of 40 stations) with young forests (stage III; no woodpeckers were detected in 40 stations), the difference is also significant. Species belonging to group 5 (White-winged Crossbill, Pine Siskin, Blackpoll Warbler, Fox Sparrow, and Swainson’s Thrush) were either restricted to or found in greater numbers in postlogging stages. A last group included 2 species, the Gray Jay and Yellow-bellied Flycatcher, that could not be associated with a particular forest development stage."
Implementing this knowledge though requires your eye to determining bird composition on your particular plot of land. Choosing when and where to cut can drastically affect your bird populations, especially if you hit them where it hurts.
For more information on this study go here
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Relationships of bird community structure and species distributions to two environmental gradients in the northern boreal forest
Daniel A. Welsh and Stephen C. Lougheed
Published in Ecography 1996
Summary by D.F. Miles
In similar respect to the last document summarized this peer review article pertained to the study of bird habitats in the forests of Quebec. While they acknowledged some of the types of suitable microhabitats, like fallen trees, and their relationship to particular species; their most important discover was far broader. They noticed a pattern that developed as Neo-tropical migrants were found to frequent broad-leafed forests at much higher rates than other types of forest composition. These migrants likely come to these stands because of their persistency; broad leafed deciduous forests do not grow over night. It was also observed that black spruce forests in general have a successional scheme resulting in the initial dominance of aspen. With this knowledge, logging can often times be a positive disturbance in a community – creating habitat for new types of species, especially birds.