Restoring Habitats for Wildlife & Farm Safety Anniversary
Restoring Habitats for Wildlife & Farm Safety Anniversary plus Food Forethought. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Northwest Report.
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar have announced the Working Lands for Wildlife partnership between the two departments. The new 33-million dollar partnership will help farmers, ranchers and forest landowners to use innovative approaches to restore and protect the habitats for wildlife, including seven at-risk species and other vulnerable game species. Ag Secretary Vilsack.
VILSACK: We obviously want to restore populations of declining wildlife species. Two, we’d like to provide landowners a greater degree of regulatory certainty so as they make investments they’re assured that those investments will not be required to be redone or increased in the future. And three, we want to strengthen rural economies through productive working lands.
2012 marks the 25th anniversary of Farm Safety 4 Just Kids. The organization has promoted farm safety to more than 6-million people through local programs and education since 1987. FS4JK has a network of more than 120 chapters across the United States and Canada that offer farm safety presentations on a local level. Marilyn Adams founded the non-profit organization in 1987 after the death of her 11-year-old son in a gravity flow grain wagon accident.
Now with today’s Food Forethought, here’s Lacy Gray.
Just what is a good house anymore? Massive homes on postage stamp size lots have had more than their fair share of bad press lately, and the tiny house movement, which encourages a living space of 300 sq. feet or less, while commendable when it comes to reducing one’s carbon footprint, is not realistic for the majority of us with households consisting of two adults, two children, and at least one critter. So, again what would be considered a good house in today’s world - simply, one that is efficient, affordable, healthy for humans and the climate, and still comfortable. A Green Building Advisor discussion group sums it up in what they call, what else, the Pretty Good House Standard. A few of their ideas for what constitutes a good house include one that supports the local community, using local labor and materials when possible, minimal or reasonable operating costs, energy efficient, super insulation, and 1000 to 1800 square feet of living space depending on occupancy. Requirements such as these for home building make sense in today’s environmentally conscience and financially constricted market. It’s a pretty good idea that most of us could live comfortably with.
Thanks Lacy. That’s today’s Northwest Report. I’m Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.
