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In the News - NRCS Plant Materials Program

Updated 10/29/2009

Plant Materials Centers Make Headlines

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Title Source Date
Red Hat Society Visits the Golden Meadow Plant Materials Center The Lafourche Gazette September 2009
Restoring Native Prairie
Watch this TV news story that shows how NRCS in Bismarck, North Dakota has restored school grounds at Horizon Middle School back to native prairie vegetation saving on maintenance, water, fertilizer, and pesticides required for grass. The restoration project has also provided an outdoor learning resource where students can study the various native prairie plants, insects, and birds.		 KFYR - TV August 14, 2009
Hawaii Agriculture Gets Boost From Feds Molokaian News Blog August 6, 2009
Producers can turn saline soil areas into productive acres
There is one color producers may not want to see in their fields - white, especially when that white marks an area of soil salinity.		 The Prairie Star July 3, 2009
Training, Tour Bode Well at Big Flats Facility
Representatives from local universities, government organizations, agriculture-focused companies, and private landowners met July 31, 2008 for an in-depth training session and facility tour of the Big Flats, New York Plant Materials Center.		 NRCS New York August 2008
Patrick Broyles hopes his experience will help in the Middle East - Just how the planting knowledge of generations of American Indian elders will fit into the 5,000-year-old traditions of the ''cradle of civilization'' won't be clear until he gets to know the Iraqi farmers, but both groups love to put their hearts into the soil to produce vegetables and fruits for the survival of their nations. Indian Country Today July 16, 2008
NRCS Chief sees farm bill conservation in action in ND - Wayne Duckwitz, manager of the Plant Materials Center in Bismarck, N.D., shows NRCS Chief Arlen Lancaster sweetgrass that is being grown at the center. ND Farm & Ranch Guide July 3, 2008
Switchgrass research fields sprout - Researchers at the U. S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service have been studying switchgrass longer than anyone else in Arkansas, said Randy King, manager of the agency’s Plant Materials Center south of Booneville in Logan County. Arkansas Democrat Gazette June 28, 2008
Your help needed to collect data about an invasive grass! (Ventenata dubia) - Pullman Plant Materials Center, Pullman, Washington Western Invasives Network June 24, 2008
Outdoor Writers Meet in North Dakota - (from KFYR-TV News Stories) Outdoor writers from across the country were in Bismarck, North Dakota, recently to sharpen their skills at their annual conference.  Chief Lancaster took the writers on a field trip to Gabe Brown's farm in Menoken to show them some of the many ways North Dakotans are working to sustain their land.  Included in the field trip was a tour of the Bismarck Plant Materials Center (PMC). KFYR-TV News Stories June 24, 2008
Plant Center Grows Plants that halt coastal erosion - Next to the airport in Galliano is the Louisiana Plant Materials Center, run by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.  Its mission is so important the director couldn't believe it when he found it was one of the best kept secrets in the area. WWLTV Eyewitnes News June 21, 2008
West Virginia Plant Materials Center Training WV Conservation Agency May 2009
"Hear It Now" - The Plant Materials Center in Bismarck offers assistance for native landscaping, windbreaks, and much more. Joining us is Dwight Tober, plant materials specialist, and Nancy Jenson, agronomist.  "Hear It Now" show that aired Monday June 2. Nancy and Dwight's interview begins at 25:42 minutes into the show.  Prairie Public Radio  June 2, 2008
Plant Materials Center Offers Foundation Seeds to Alaska Growers - Preparations for Alaska's 2008 growing season continue with the Alaska Plant Materials Center's (PMC) announcement Alaska Dept. of Natural Resources April 17, 2008
U.S. Perennial Peanut for Quality Pastures and Hay
"Perennial Peanut for Quality Pasturage and Hay" was published in the March 2008 issue of Agricultural Research magazine. - NRCS Brooksville Plant Materials Center		 Source: ars.usda.gov
 		 Mar 18, 2008
Sweet on Switchgrass - Dwight Tober, a plant materials specialist with the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service in Bismarck, ND, says many producers are interested in establishing switchgrass stands for seed production in anticipation of increasing demand for the forage should its potential as a renewable biofuel resource become reality.  To assist with providing information about switchgrass, Tober and his colleagues at the Bismarck USDA Plant Materials Center have recently compiled a report detailing switchgrass biomass trials in the Dakotas and Minnesota. GLCI News October 2007
Watching grass grow becomes critical in hunt for biofuels - Interest in biofuels is so high that at a recent demonstration of grass trials at the USDA/Natural Resources Conservation Service experiment site in Big Flats, N.Y., more than 100 people, including farmers, policy-makers and researchers, showed up on a 100-degree day for a tour of fields of big bluestem, switchgrass, coastal panic grass and other species, according to NRCS's Paul Salon, who is working in partnership with Cornell and other universities. ChronicalOnline September 2007
Switchgrass Savvy: Tips for establishing and growing this warm-season native -  Dwight Tober, a plant materials specialist with the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service in Bismarck, ND, reports that he frequently receives calls from landowners seeking more information about switchgrass. GLCI News August 2007
Cape May PMC in the News
 - Through Trial and Error Wanchese Harbor Project off to a Good Start		 USACE June 2007
For dairy farmers, it could pay to help the environment - NYPMC Star Gazette June 28, 2007
Scientists Working To Shore-Up Honeybee Population - ORPMC Oregon Public Broadcasting June 26, 2007
Dune Restoration on Dauphin Island
The Mobile County, Alabama, Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD), the NRCS Brooksville Plant Materials Center (PMC), and approximately 90 second- and fourth-graders from Collier and Dauphin Island Elementary Schools recently helped restore Hurricane Katrina-flattened dunes by planting 2,000 seedlings on the southern end of Dauphin Island.

 
The following require Windows Media Player. 
 
Hear NRCS National Plant Materials Program Leader Robert Escheman and Alabama NRCS State Conservationist Gary Kobylski talk about the planting event on Dauphin Island.

Hear Florida NRCS State Conservationist and Chairman of the National Plant Materials Program Niles Glasgow talk about the role of Florida's Brooksville PMC in restoring hurricane-damaged coastline.

NRCS This Week May 24, 2007
Molokai's role in the healing of Kaho'olawe The Molokai Times April 23, 2007
Plant Materials Center Manager wins USDA employee award - Los Lunas Gregory Fenchel, Los Lunas Plant Materials Center manager, has been named Plant Materials Outstanding Employee for 2006 by the national headquarters for the United States Department of Agriculture-Natural Resources Conservation Service.
 		 The Valencia County News Bulletin March 28, 2007
Native Plant Center in Aberdeen - Featured news story and video of interview with Loren St. John, USDA
Aberdeen Plant Materials Center		 News Channel 6 - KPVI March 26, 2007
USA Today - Hundreds of willow cuttings have been planted near a historic Oregon Trail site in hopes of protecting it from the Snake River, which has been edging closer. USDA Today March 22, 2007
'Living Landscapes in North Dakota' A Guide to Native Plantscaping NBC - KFYR
Bismarck, ND		 March 20, 2007
How We're Helping To Protect Those Coastal Sand Dunes
Golden Meadow Plant Materials Center - Galliano, Louisiana		 USDA News Jan-Feb. 2007
Vol. 66 No. 1

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