(Iowa News Service) – American agroforestry initiatives got a big boost of funding in 2022 from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), which allocated $60 million to help farmers transition toward this style of climate-friendlier farming, as part of the Partnership for Climate-Smart Commodities program. The Nature Conservancy (TNC) is leading the multi-partner effort, allocating money to farmers across 30 states. Dubbed the Expanding Agroforestry Project, it will provide technical assistance and funding to farmers for planting new agroforestry acres on their land. The goal is to plant 12,140 new hectares (30,000 acres) of agroforestry across the U.S.

Recently, Mongabay checked in to see how agroforestry efforts were progressing and whether funds were making their way to farmers. After the first application cycle, farmers in 21 states submitted more than 200 applications to the program, representing about 20% of the agroforestry acreage goals. Like agroforestry itself, the application, training and distribution of funds take some time to get off the ground — the first incentive payments are anticipated to be disbursed in the summer and fall of 2024.

Expanding Agroforestry Project

The Expanding Agroforestry Project is part of the USDA’s larger Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities program — a $3.1 billion effort to fund projects to fight climate change while supporting landowners. Agroforestry practices are effective at capturing carbon while providing additional commodities and land benefits to farmers. Above and below ground, agroforestry systems typically capture 2–5 metric tons of CO2 per acre per year. Nate Lawrence, ecosystem scientist for the Savanna Institute, expanded on the science of measuring such figures during a recent podcast.

As the lead administrator of the grant, TNC is “processing $36 million … in incentive payments directly to enrolled producers,” Audrey Epp Schmidt, the agroforestry program manager at The Nature Conservancy, explained in an email. The remaining $24 million will support the expansion of project partner organizations, including adding staff capacity for the agroforestry work. These funds will also bolster measurement, monitoring, reporting and verification activities and develop market opportunities for agroforestry commodities, she said. With the influx of federal funding, TNC created a five-year program to provide growers with technical help and funding to support agroforestry efforts. To get the word out, the project partners launched a communication effort that included emails, social media posts and virtual presentations, along with in-person events on farms.

“Producers typically want to hear directly from other producers, so we encourage farmer-to-farmer networks to help drive adoption whenever possible,” Epp Schmidt said. TNC’s goal is to attract at least 200 farmers to the program, with at least 50 of those being underserved producers, said Epp Schmidt. The USDA defines underserved producers as farmers who are new, have limited financial resources, are socially disadvantaged (either by race or gender) or are military veterans. Epp Schmidt said the program includes the adoption of alley cropping, silvopasture and windbreak projects.

Alley cropping means planting rows of trees or shrubs within crops, while windbreaks are planted on the edges of fields (stopping or slowing wind erosion while adding biodiversity). Silvopasture is an agroforestry practice that integrates trees, pasture, forage plants and livestock into a single system. She noted the program is focused on adding new fruit, nut, timber and biodiversity-supporting trees that are ecologically suitable for the project site. Agroforestry enhances biodiversity on farms by breaking up large expanses of the same crop, called monocropping. By planting trees, shrubs and understory plants, farmers can attract beneficial insects, fungi and wildlife to their land, bolstering pollinators and potentially reducing the need for insecticides.

After being accepted to the program, farmers are matched with a technical assistance staff member — each region has its own partner organization — to support developing an agroforestry plan for the farmers’ land. The program subsidizes the cost of tree planting, providing $36 million in incentive payments directly to producers. Wendy Johnson, a farmer at Jóia Food & Fiber Farm and active agroforestry practitioner in Iowa, said she heard about the program in its early stages and thought it was an important step forward for agroforestry support. Johnson, who has planted more than 6,000 trees on her farm, is not able to apply for funding from the project — her trees are already in the ground. But she said learning about the program was “really exciting because it’s finally providing a dollar amount that would help with maintenance costs, too.”

She knows that young trees need a lot of care in the early years before they are fully established. “Maintenance is huge, and I can’t stress that enough,” she said. “You can’t just plant a tree and let it go — it also needs shelter and it needs care for the first three years … otherwise that investment is lost.” Johnson noted that on her own farm, the planted saplings coincided with record drought — and regular watering of the seedlings is a time- and labor-intensive endeavor. Such issues are only likely to amplify due to the worsening impacts of climate change. Committing to years of maintenance and switching part of a farm to more diversified land use may take a leap of faith. It can also mean farmers have to accept a risk to their profitability, often lasting for years.

“These are complex, perennial systems, and that involves a temporal mindset,” said John Munsell, forest management extension specialist at Virginia Tech. He added that an adaptive management plan will help farmers adjust in the eight-plus years between planting and maturity of trees and shrubs. Munsell said that a program like Expanding Agroforestry can get farmers to take a chance on planting. “This will tip the scale for many,” he said. And while farmers wait for their plantings to mature, Munsell said the agroforestry community can strengthen the market for forest products. “While your hazelnuts are maturing … you have eight years to move into a market space and set things up.”

Launching the program

The initial application cycle of the Expanding Agroforestry Project received 213 applications from producers in 21 states for the incentive payment program, noted Epp Schmidt. Of these, 93% self-reported as underserved farmers. She said these farmers potentially represent more than “6,300 acres of new agroforestry plantings.” Farmers who are interested in the program can learn more on TNC’s website. There are two application cycles each year, and the next deadline will be in late summer.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – The Atlantic Speech and Debate team is starting a new fundraiser. Coach Tricia Koenig says from October 15th, until November 15th (2024), the team will be selling coupon cards for the Atlantic Hy-Vee. The coupon cards will save each purchaser $135 on Hy-Vee purchases, and the cards are only $25 each! Just using a few coupons more than pays for itself, and it is valid for an entire year.

Proceeds from each card goes to support the Atlantic High School Speech and Debate team in the form of: registration for tournaments, transportation, purchasing scripts, and more.

The National Speech & Debate Tournament is held in Iowa in June 2025, and this will help our performers compete. If you are interested in purchasing a coupon card, please contact:

• Members of the Atlantic High School Speech and Debate team
• Trisha Koenig at tniceswanger@atlanticiaschools.org or
• The Atlantic High School office at (712) 243-5358

Representatives of the Atlantic High School Speech and Debate team also plan to attend upcoming football and volleyball games where these coupon cards will be sold, so look for our table there! Thank you for all your support!

(Coupon card sample shown below)

(Radio Iowa) – The years-long effort to restore a historic building in downtown Webster City is nearing completion. The Elks Building, which opened in 1906, has been under renovation since 2019. Darcy Swon of LIFE W-C says they’re hoping to complete fundraising for the project soon.

“We’re about $500,000 from our finish line, which when you think of it being a $2.8 million project, that’s really not much,” Swon says. “We’re applying for some grants and are still accepting charitable donations.” A fundraiser was held over the weekend in Webster City. Work on the building’s main floor is nearing completion.

“Elevators should be done in 2025 spring and then the ballroom will be our next focus,” Swon says. “And we have a lot of work already done in the ballroom, so it shouldn’t take much longer.” The building’s first occupant will begin setting up shop next year. “We’ll be welcoming Wildcat Distilling Company. They will be the tenant for the main floor,” Swon says. “We are so excited because their business aligns very much with what LIFT is about — social connection, community betterment and many things, so it’s going to be a great partnership.”

The Wildcat Distilling Company makes whiskey from Iowa-grown corn and fruits and has operated a tasting room in Webster City less than half a mile from the Elks Building. Once the ballroom on the top floor of the Elks Building has been restored, it will host music concerts and be available for other gatherings.

(Radio Iowa) – The South Korean author who won the 2024 Nobel Prize for Literature spent time in Iowa in 1998. Han Kang was a writer in residence at the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa. Christopher Merrill, program’s director, says Kang started out as a poet and six of her published novels have been translated into English. “These novels are the novels of a poet,” Merrill says, “someone with that musical understanding of what a sentence can do for a story.”

Merrill says Kang’s prose is very precise. “It’s a kind of chiseled prose,” Merrill says, “and she’s the sort of writer who pays close attention to sometimes just the most seemingly insignificant details.”

Kang is the third alum of the University of Iowa’s International Writing Program to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.

(Radio Iowa) – The 2024 General Election ballots in several Iowa counties will let voters decide whether to raise local taxes to support ambulance services. Emergency Medical Services are generally staffed by volunteers in rural areas and response times vary widely. In 2021 the Iowa legislators passed a law allowing county-wide votes on proposed property tax levies that support emergency medical crews and equipment.

Atlantic Mayor Grace Garrett says if Cass County voters approve their local referendum, the county’s board of supervisors would come up with a plan on how the money would be spent.  “We are wanting to pass this in November to make it an essential service,” she said, “which will allow us to take funds and specifically allocate them to EMS.”

In the past three years, about a dozen counties have approved raising local taxes for ambulance services. The most recent was last month in a special election in Henry County, as 92 percent of voters approved the move to raise property taxes to fund Emergency Medical Services.

(Worth County, Iowa) – A single-vehicle crash on Interstate 35 in northern Iowa, Sunday afternoon west of Kensett, claimed the life of the driver and sole occupant of the vehicle. The Iowa State Patrol says a 2017 Cadillac CT6 was traveling south on I-35 near the 208 Exit ramp, when the car went out of control for reasons unknown. The vehicle entered the median, passed through a cable barrier and struck a bridge pillar before coming to rest.

The accident happened at around 1:45-p.m. The driver was identified as 33-year-old Samuel Joseph Poquette, of New Ulm, MN. The Patrol says he was not wearing a seat belt.  The crash remains under investigation.

(Anita, Iowa) – The CAM School Board is set to hold their regular monthly meeting beginning at 6:30-p.m. Monday, Oct. 14th, in the CAM High School  Media Center. Discussion and/or action items on their agenda include:

• Approval of Daycare Agreement
• Approval of Board Policy Revisions
• Approval of SBRC Modified Supplemental Amount Application and Supplemental Aid for the 2023-2024 Special Education Program Deficit of $1,062,396.81
• Review and Approve FY22 Audit Report
• Approval of Iowa Connections Academy School Handbook
• Discuss Iowa Association of School Board Convention November 20-22nd
• Discuss Facility Updates.

(Delaware County, Iowa) – A head-on collision between a car and a semi tractor-trailer early this (Sunday) morning in northeastern Iowa, claimed the lives of three people, and left one person injured. The Iowa State Patrol reports a 2014 Chevy Impala was traveling east in the west bound lanes of U-S Highway 20 at around 3:36-a.m., when it collided head-on with a 2018 Freightliner semi. Upon impact, both vehicles become fully engulfed in flames. The driver of the semi was injured. Their name was not released.

The driver of the car and two passengers in the vehicle died at the scene. The names of those who died were being withheld pending an autopsy by the Delaware County Medical Examiner’s Office. The passengers were not wearing their seat belts.

The crash remains under investigation. The Patrol was assisted at the scene by the Delaware County and Dubuque County Sheriff’s Offices, Dyersville and Manchester Police Departments, Earlville Fire and Ambulance, and Dyersville Fire Department.

(Red Oak, Iowa) – Police in Red Oak arrested a man on an assault charge, late Saturday night. 31-year-old Thomas Andrew Schooling, of Red Oak, was arrested at around 11:17-p.m. in the 200 block of 1st Avenue, for Domestic Abuse Assault. Schooling was transported to the Montgomery County Law Enforcement Center and held without bond.

(Creston, Iowa) – The Creston Fire Department was dispatched to a structure fire at 506 N. Palm St at around 1:40-a.m., Sunday (today). Authorities say the home’s owner was alerted by her smoke detector and called 911.

Upon arrival, firefighters found a small fire in the basement, likely caused by an overheated electric fan. Firefighters used several ventilation blowers to push fresh air into the house while forcing the smoke out.

The Creston Fire Department on social media, said thank-you to the Creston Police Department, whose officers were first on the scene, and assisted the homeowner.

Creston Fire Dept. Facebook page (photo)

Fire officials remind area residents to “Please test and clean your smoke alarms monthly and replace the battery at least once a year or as needed. If you have a fire or smoke in your home, get out fast. Don’t stop to take anything.”