The USDA Climate Hubs: Almost One Year Old and Making Progress

From USDA:

Posted by Randy Johnson, Ph.D. National Leader, USDA Climate Hubs, on January 6, 2015 at 3:00 PM

The USDA Climate Hubs are almost one year old!  Since February of 2014, we have made considerable progress by developing networks that connect researchers to landowners; by evaluating available tools that can help land managers with management decisions regarding risk management; by synthesizing regional risks and vulnerabilities; and we have learned a lot along the way.

The Hubs are about developing and delivering science-based, region-specific information and technologies, with the help of USDA agencies and partners, to agricultural and natural resource managers and communities.  Land managers and communities desire healthy, resilient, productive, and profitable agricultural or natural ecosystems that are sustainable over time. The Hubs’ role is to work with (and as) advisers to land managers by providing information and tools to help them achieve their goals in an environment filled with climate-related stresses and risks.  The Hubs’ initial focus is on communicating with our stakeholders and developing networks with our partners. This includes communicating research to Certified Crop Advisors, relaying stakeholder needs to science organizations, or just making sure the lines of communication are open among the respective science and information providers and managers of working lands.

As part of our mission, we work with our USDA agencies and partners (e.g., Cooperative Extension, certified crop advisors, universities, federal agencies) to deliver science-based, region-specific information and tools to farmers, ranchers and forest land owners to enable them to make wise risk-management decisions.   With regard to a variable climate, the risks/stressors include drought, floods, extreme weather events, increased pests, diseases and forest fires, and changing growing seasons.

While there are a number of networks providing research and information to managers, none focus on the working land mangers – those that produce our nation’s food, fiber, and forest products every day.  That’s why we need the Hubs.  They work with other Federal climate networks (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessments (RISA) program, U.S. Geological Survey Climate Science Centers, Fish and Wildlife Service Landscape Conservation Cooperatives, NOAA Regional Climate Centers, and others) to make science available to managers over a broad range of sectors. The different networks work together to coordinate and complement each other’s efforts. While considerable research examines the impacts and risks associated with climate variability, only a small percentage of this research is in a form that a land manager can use.  The Hubs were formed to help transform complex research results into easily accessible products and then to provide these products to land managers.

A climate hub chart showing communication between research and landowners.

We do this through partnerships. There are a number of organizations and programs that already do some of the activities the Hubs hope to accomplish. Keys to the hub’s success include: 1) establishing partnerships with existing research and outreach organizations, 2) coordinating USDA climate-related efforts, and 3) establishing a pathway that runs from the researcher to the land manager and back.

The Hubs are being designed to facilitate communication between research and landowners.  This two-way “conversation” brings research to the landowner and also brings input back to the research community regarding the usefulness of the tools and information being provided and the unmet needs that require additional research and tool development.

USDA funds foundational and applied research  that examines vulnerabilities and risks to agriculture and forestry.  The purpose of this research is to understand climate-induced risks, and to develop management solutions to deal with drought, flooding, pest pressures, forest fires, altered water availability, changing growing seasons and other stressors.  The Hubs take advantage of all available research and will leverage existing results that can contribute to our mission.  Our role is also to inform research organizations (USDA and others) of landowner concerns so that research can address priority needs.  This feedback will come from our interactions with landowners, landowner organizations, and our partners.

Often, packaging research is the bottleneck in moving science to the land owner.  For the agriculture sector, the State Agricultural Experiment Stations are primary producers of useable science information and tools, and are important partners in this effort. The USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture’s (NIFA) Coordinated Agricultural Projects (CAP) support large-scale regional projects that also provide tools and information for land owners.  Other organizations, such as NOAA RISAs and the Nature Conservancy, also develop tools, and we are trying to evaluate all the available tools we can find and make them available on our web site.

Land managers often depend on trusted advisors to supply them with the information they need to find solutions to challenges they are facing. It’s that person-to-person contact that drives changes to land management practices.  While the Hubs do reach out to land owners directly, the major way we will engage landowners on a person-to-person basis is to capitalize on existing networks.  Two primary networks are Cooperative Extension and the USDA Service Centers.  These organizations have been helping farmers, ranchers and forest land managers for decades (100 years for Cooperative Extension!).  On the forestry side, the Forest Service Threat Centers and the Climate Change Response Framework provide outreach to forest land managers.

So what’s next?  This first year has been more about coordination than production.  It is crucial that we understand all the players in the game so that we can concentrate on areas and projects that will have the greatest impact on providing risk-management tools and resources to America’s farmers, ranchers and forest land owners.  This requires that we coordinate with other research organizations, work closely with Cooperative Extension and the USDA Service Centers to understand their needs, and also to establish a working relationship with those private advisors that work with landowners (see figure below).  These private advisors include the Certified Crop Advisors (CCAs), forestry consultants, and seed and fertilizer dealers.  By better understanding the needs of the agricultural community and documenting the currently available resources we can prioritize the gaps in the research-to-field supply chain and more effectively direct USDA resources to help the Nation’s farmers, ranchers, and forest land owners.

A climate hub chart showing the Climate Hub, stakeholders and providers.

Everybody Talks About the Weather...

USDA Blog Post:

Posted by Mike Crimmins, Cooperative Extension, Arizona, on April 23, 2014 at 2:00 PM

A member of the Geronimo Interagency Hotshot Crew, Department of the Interior (DOI) Indian Affairs (IA) Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) San Carlos Agency in Arizona; on assignment. The combined effects of droughts and insects may lead to a pulse of tree mortality that increases the potential for intense fires. USDA Photo by Lance Cheung.

The climate statistics for the first month of 2014 have been impressive. Extreme weather has lashed the United States from Alaska to Florida with record warmth, cold, dry and wet conditions all at the same time. The National Climatic Data Center reports that January of 2014 was the driest January on record for New Mexico, 2^nd driest for Arizona and 3^rd driest for California. January 2014 was also in the top ten of coldest Januaries on record for much of the upper Midwest.

Extreme drought conditions in the western U.S. are dramatically impacting water supplies critical to agriculture and elevating fire risk across our National Forests. Across the continent frequent cold waves have repeatedly threatened winter crops across the Southeast while frost depths reaching several feet will impact springtime planting across the Midwest. This kind of winter gets everyone talking about the weather.  It brings to mind the quote “Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it,” often attributed to Mark Twain (but apparently said by a friend).

What can we do about the weather? Not much directly, but we can plan and prepare for the worst and try our best to anticipate what is coming through forecasts. Our best climate science indicates that extreme weather is something we should get used to and learn how to work with. America’s agricultural systems and vast and precious natural resources are intimately tied to weather and climate and will need to further adapt to these extremes. This is where the newly created effort of organizing USDA resources and partners into Regional Climate Hubs plays a role, supporting farmers, ranchers and resource managers’ efforts to better manage risk in a changing climate.

There is a secret weapon in this effort, one that is a uniquely American invention. This weapon is equipped with 100 years’ experience in supporting agriculture and natural resources management through climate extremes like the Dust Bowl of the 1930’s all the way up to the Midwest floods of the early 1990’s and recent west-wide drought of the past decade. The Smith-Lever Act, signed into law by President Woodrow Wilson 100 years ago this year, created the U.S. Cooperative Extension System, a distributed network of local level experts connected to each state’s land grant university that work to connect science and decision making. This translates to a local level expert in almost every county that anyone can to turn to for ‘useful, practical and research based information’.  Farmers, ranchers and resource managers will undoubtedly need new science and technology to adapt to a changing climate, but they will also simply need someone they trust of whom they can ask questions and learn about new opportunities…an ‘honest broker’ of cutting edge, research based information. Extension Agents and Specialists have served in this role for 100 years and as a key part of the USDA Regional Climate Hub effort are ready to help their clientele meet the emerging challenges of a changing climate.

I have spent the last decade in Arizona as an Extension Specialist working solely on climate issues and know the challenges that weather extremes from droughts to floods can pose to producers and resource managers. We will certainly still continue to talk about the weather on a regular basis, but our conversations in Extension and through the Hubs will also turn to what we can do about it as well.

Two Forest Service rangers walk through the snow covered paths at Lolo National Forest in Montana on November 22, 2007. Lolo National Forest is located in west central Montana and encompasses two million acres. USDA photo.