Task Force Appointment & Online Mapping Tool
Task Force Appointment & Online Mapping Tool. I'm Greg Martin with today's Northwest Report.
A dryland wheat farmer from Washington State, has been appointed by Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack to take part in the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Air Quality Task Force. Brian Cochrane is a fourth generation farmer also grows grapes, raises bees and a few steers. The other 34 task force members come from industry stakeholders, state commissions, academia, government agencies, environmental experts and nongovernmental organizations. Cochrane says he's "honored and humbled to be selected for the Agricultural Air Quality Task Force."
A new, interactive mapping tool that, for the first time, combines layers of related data to better target invasive species damaging habitat and rangeland in Western states has been announced. Tracy Robillard, NRCS Public Affairs Officer explains.
ROBILLARD: What it's going to do is allow farmers, ranchers or anyone really to see where those encroaching invasive species are that are affecting sage grouse habitat The first layer of the map really focuses on the conifers, the invasive junipers and then there's going to be additional layers added to this interactive map so that anyone can go on there and see where the threats are, what we've worked on so far to address the threats and then to determine how best to plan for addressing threats down the road.
That's today's Northwest Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network of the West.
