Kim Kalliber, Author at Tulalip News

President’s Fiscal Year 2014 Indian Affairs Budget Focuses on Strengthening and Supporting Tribal Nations

Request supports Indian Affairs’ mission to serve federally recognized tribes and individual Indian trust beneficiaries

Source: U.S. Department of the Interior

WASHINGTON – President Obama’s fiscal year (FY) 2014 budget request for Indian Affairs, which includes the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) and the Bureau of Indian Education (BIE), is $2.6 billion – a $31.3 million increase above the FY 2012 enacted level. The proposed budget maintains the President’s commitment to meeting the government’s responsibilities to the 566 federally recognized American Indian and Alaska Native tribes, while exercising fiscal responsibility and improving government operations and efficiency.

“The President’s budget request for Indian Affairs reflects his firm commitment to keeping our focus on strengthening and supporting tribal nations, and protecting Indian Country,” said Assistant Secretary – Indian Affairs Kevin K. Washburn. “While realizing the benefits from improvements to Indian Affairs program management, the request supports our mission to federally recognized tribes, particularly in the areas of trust lands and natural resource protection. The request also promotes economic development, improves education, and strengthens law enforcement and justice administration.”

Strengthening Tribal Nations Initiative

The Strengthening Tribal Nations Initiative is a comprehensive, multi-year effort to advance the President’s commitments to American Indians and Alaska Natives to improve conditions throughout Indian Country and foster economic opportunities on Indian reservations.

The FY 2014 budget request includes $120 million in increases for this initiative to support sustainable stewardship and development of natural resources in Indian Country, public safety programs that apply lessons learned from successful law enforcement pilot programs, operations at new and expanded detention facilities, contract support costs to facilitate tribal self- governance, and new and expanded payments for water rights settlements. Additionally, it

provides increased funding for post-secondary education and an elementary and secondary school pilot program based on the U.S. Department of Education’s turnaround schools model and concepts.

Advancing Nation-to-Nation Relationships

The FY 2014 budget request for Contract Support Costs is $231 million – a $9.8 million increase over the FY 2012 enacted level. The Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act of 1975, as amended, allows federally recognized tribes to operate federally funded programs themselves under contract with the United States – an expression of the federal government’s policy to support tribal self-determination and self-governance. Tribes rely on contract support costs funds to pay the costs of administering and managing contracted programs. It is a top priority for many tribes.

In light of the Supreme Court’s decision in Salazar v. Ramah Navajo Chapter, the FY 2014 budget request includes the Administration’s proposed interim solution to budgeting contract support costs. The Administration proposes Congress appropriate contract support costs on a contract by contract basis and will provide Congress with a contract funding table for incorporation into the Department’s FY 2014 appropriations legislation. Through tribal consultation, this interim step will lead to a long-term solution that will result in a simpler and more streamlined contract support costs process.

Protecting Indian Country

The FY 2014 budget request for BIA Public Safety and Justice programs is $363.4 million with targeted increases over the 2012 enacted level of $5.5 million for Law Enforcement Operations, $13.4 million for Detention Center Operations and $1.0 million for Tribal Courts.

The request also includes a $3.0 million programmatic increase in BIA Human Services to address domestic violence in tribal communities. A partnership between BIA Human Services and Law Enforcement will address the needs at tribal locations with high levels of domestic violence. The initiative will improve teamwork between law enforcement and social services to more rapidly address instances of domestic violence, and expand services that help stem domestic violence in Indian Country and care for its victims.

The FY 2014 budget request for Law Enforcement Operations is $199.7 million, a $5.5 million programmatic increase over the FY 2012 enacted level. The increased funding for Criminal Investigations and Police Services will enable the BIA to hire additional bureau and tribal law enforcement personnel. The request includes $96.9 million for Detention Center Operations, a program increase of $13.4 million over the FY 2012 enacted level. The additional funding for staffing, training and equipment will strengthen BIA and tribal capacity to operate existing and newly constructed detention facilities.

The request also includes $24.4 million for Tribal Courts, an increase of $1.0 million above the 2012 enacted level. The funding will be used for judges, prosecutors, public defenders, court

clerks, probation officers, juvenile officers, and support staff, as well as for training and related operations and administrative costs for tribal justice systems and Courts of Indian Offenses.

The FY 2014 budget request also supports the BIA’s successful pilot program, launched in 2010, that carries out the President’s Priority Goal of reducing violent crimes by at least five percent within 24 months on four initial reservations. The targeted, intense community safety program successfully reduced violent crime by an average of 35 percent across the four reservations. In 2012, the program was extended to two additional reservations. After a year, the two new sites have experienced an increase in reported crime – a trend similar to that seen at the initial four sites. The BIA will continue to support the efforts of all six programs in 2014 with funding, technical assistance, monitoring and feedback.

Improving Trust Land Management

Taking land into trust is one of the most important functions the Department undertakes on behalf of federally recognized American Indian and Alaska Native tribes, whose homelands are essential to their peoples’ health, safety and economic well-being. The BIA’s trust programs assist tribes and individual Indian landowners in the management, development and protection of trust lands and natural resource assets totaling about 55 million surface acres and 57 million acres of subsurface mineral estates.

In 2012 and 2013, the Department undertook the most substantial overhaul of the federal fee-to- trust process in over half a century. In 2012, Interior placed 37,971 acres of land into trust on behalf of tribes and individual Indians and approved 299 fee-to-trust applications. Over the past four years, Indian Affairs has processed more than 1,000 separate applications and acquired over 196,600 acres of land in trust.

The FY 2014 budget request for the Trust – Natural Resources Management program, which assists tribes in managing, developing and protecting their trust lands and natural resources, is $189.2 million, a programmatic increase of $34.4 million over the FY 2012 enacted level. The increases support sustainable stewardship and development of natural resources and will support resource management and decision making in the areas of energy and minerals, climate, oceans, water, rights protection, and endangered and invasive species.

The FY 2014 budget request for Trust – Real Estate Services is $128.9 million, a programmatic increase of $7.7 million increase over the FY 2012 enacted level. This program carries out the BIA’s trust services, probate, and land titles and records functions, as well incorporates the Department’s trust reform improvement efforts. The request proposes a $5.5 million increase to fund authorized activities related to the Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement at $7.0 million and provides $1.5 million for litigation support for Indian natural resource trust assets management.

Advancing Indian Education

The FY 2014 budget request for the Bureau of Indian Education of $802.8 million, a program increase of $6.7 million above the FY 2012 enacted level, advances the Department’s continuing

commitment to the education of American Indians and Alaska Natives from the federally recognized tribes. The Advancing Indian Education initiative addresses the full spectrum of educational needs throughout Indian Country from elementary through post secondary levels and adult education. The 2014 budget supports student academic achievement in BIE schools by initiating a $15.0 million pilot program to turnaround lower performing elementary and secondary schools, provides $2.5 million in increased funding to meet the needs of growing enrollment at tribal colleges, and provides $3.0 million in new funding for a Science Post- Graduate Scholarship Fund. The budget also proposes an additional $2.0 million for tribal grant support costs.

Achieving Better Results at a Lower Cost

Administrative Cost Savings Over the last few years, Indian Affairs has taken significant steps to reduce the administrative costs associated with the wide range of services it delivers. In addition to $7.1 million in cost-saving measures from information technology standardization and infrastructure consolidations, the FY 2014 budget request includes a reduction of $19.7 million to reflect anticipated cost savings from streamlining operations. The request also includes $13.8 million in savings from reductions to contracts, fleet management, awards, and travel.

Indian Arts and Crafts Board The budget proposes to transfer the $1.3 million funding for the IACB from the Office of the Secretary to Indian Affairs, thereby allowing Indian Affairs to oversee the implementation of the Indian Arts and Crafts Act of 1990, as amended, which contains both criminal and civil provisions to combat counterfeit activity in the American Indian and Alaska Native arts and crafts market, and the Board’s management of three museums in the Plains Region dedicated to the promotion, integrity and preservation of authentic American Indian art and culture.

Program Reductions and Eliminations:

Housing Improvement Program (-$12.6 million) Eliminates the HIP. Tribes are not precluded from using HUD funding to provide assistance to HIP applicants.
Law Enforcement Special Initiatives (-$2.6 million) Reflects decreased participation on collaborative activities such as intelligence sharing.
The Indian Student Equalization Program (ISEP) (-$16.5 million) Offsets $15.0 million for a turnaround school pilot program.
Replacement School Construction (-$17.8 million) The construction program will address improving physical conditions of existing school facilities through the Facilities Improvement and Repair program.
The Indian Guaranteed Loan Program (-$2.1 million) The funding level of $5.0 million will guarantee over $70 million in loans.
Indian Affairs’ responsibility to the federally recognized American Indian and Alaska Native tribes is rooted in Article I, Section 8, of the United States Constitution, as well as in treaties, executive orders, and federal law. It is responsible for the management, development and protection of Indian trust land and natural resources, providing for public safety and justice in Indian Country, and promoting tribal self-determination and self-governance. Through the

Bureau of Indian Education, it funds 183 elementary and secondary day and boarding schools, of which two-thirds are tribally operated, located on 64 reservations in 23 states and serving in School Year 2011-2012 a daily average attendance of 41,000 students. It also provides funding to 27 tribal colleges and universities and two tribal technical colleges, operates two post- secondary institutions of higher learning and provides higher education scholarships.

Snohomish County 2013 Walk MS

Saturday, April 13, 2013

Location: View with Google Maps
Address: Tulalip Amphitheatre, 10400 Quil Ceda Blvd, Tulalip, WA
Site Opens: 9:00 a.m.
Route Length: 2.4 miles

What if we could connect every person living with MS? Every person who cares about someone with MS. Every family affected by it. Everyone who has seen what this disease can do to people. What if we could come together, even one day a year, to show the power of our connections? At Walk MS, our connections become more powerful than the connections MS destroys.

When you participate in Walk MS, the funds you raise give hope to the more than 12,000 people living with MS in our community, and more than 72,000 others whose lives are directly impacted (family members, friends, co-workers, and caregivers). The dollars raised support life-changing programs and cutting-edge research.

If you would like more information about Walk MS, or the Greater Northwest Chapter and the services we provide, please use the contact information below.

General Questions: walkMSnorthwest@nmss.org
Donations: waswebdonations@nmss.org
Website: waswebsite@nmss.org

Check your child’s shot record to ensure full protection

Early vaccination works best — National Infant Immunization Week, April 21-28

Source: Snohomish County Health District

SNOHOMISH COUNTY, Wash. – Parents want to protect their children, but they might not know about some of today’s vaccines or the serious diseases they prevent, such as polio, diphtheria, hepatitis, and whooping cough. These diseases can be especially serious for infants and young children – witness the Lake Stevens infant who died in the whooping cough epidemic that swept Snohomish County last year. More than 35,000 cases of whooping cough were reported across the United States last year, including 15 infant deaths. The majority of these deaths were among infants younger than 3 months of age.

Medical providers are standing by in Snohomish County to help you ensure your child is fully immunized against 16 vaccine-preventable childhood diseases during National Infant Immunization Week, April 21-28.Vaccination is so important that Washington state subsidizes shots for children under age 19. Families are asked to pay an office visit and administration fee. These charges may be waived if the family cannot pay.

Vaccinate kids on time. Overseen locally by the Snohomish Health District, the state’s Vaccines for Children program enrolls and assists 84 health care professionals to safely stock and administer vaccines according to the recommended childhood immunization schedule. The Health District also immunizes children at its clinics in Lynnwood and Everett.

Vaccinate completely. A recent sample of local medical records showed about 25 percent patients aged 3 months-10 years were not up to date with the recommended whooping cough shots. Forty-nine percent of children 19-35 months of age in Snohomish County do not have complete vaccination records on file in the state’s central immunization registry.(Source: Washington State Department of Health, Child Profile Immunization Registry, 2010).

All vaccinators are encouraged to enter immunization information into the state’s Washington Immunization Information System, formerly known as Child Profile. Ask your pediatrician and family practice doctor if they participate, and check your family’s immunization status.

Vaccinate during pregnancy. In response to recent whooping cough outbreaks in several states, including Washington, the national Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices advises all pregnant women to get adult whooping cough vaccine (Tdap) during each pregnancy, ideally in the third trimester. The antibodies formed will provide disease protection until the child is old enough to begin the vaccine series at two months of age. If Tdap is not given during pregnancy, women should get the vaccine as soon as possible following birth to prevent them from getting pertussis and passing it along to a newborn.

Flu vaccine is also recommended for pregnant women, so a baby is born with protection until it can receive flu vaccine at 6 months of age. To protect infants under six months old, make sure that everyone near them is fully vaccinated.

Established in 1959, the Snohomish Health District works for a safer and healthier Snohomish County through disease prevention, health promotion, and protection from environmental threats. Find more information about the Health Board and the Health District at http://www.snohd.org.

How much exercise do we really need?

By Melissa Cavendar, Tulalip Tribes Health & Safety Specialist

You say you don’t have time to exercise? You’re hardly alone. For many people, lack of time is the single biggest obstacle to fitness. But, experts say, you may be overestimating how much exercise you really need to get at one time. Instead of investing an hour at the gym, what if you could get fitter with 10 minutes here, 10 minutes there through your day?

There is no question that short amounts of exercise can help you get fit, help you stay fit, and help you maintain your health. Did you know some of these exercises can fit into a 5-minute time period at work, at your desk, waiting in line in the grocery store, even driving in your car and it’s not an overwhelming task, plus, the benefits can be enormous.

So how much exercise do you really need? Most of the studies show that 5 minutes of continuous movement repeated during the day is about the bare minimum to have any effect, and fitness experts believe 10 minutes is more realistic.

Simple movements, such as standing up super-straight, with shoulders rolled back, abdominals tight, and chin up. The main trick is to set a timer for 5 minutes and hold that posture. A quick fitness routine could include functional movements such as repeatedly standing up and sitting down in a chair, bending down and picking objects up off the floor, or putting something on a high shelf, taking it down, and putting it back up again, until your five minutes are up. (Think Spring cleaning your closet every day for 5 minutes!)

Stretching is another option for exercise and improved mobility. Just little movements each day can make a difference in how your body burns calories and tones muscles. Keep moving!

Just do as little or a lot, but remember to have or set goals and put them in place, prior to starting your movement or workout plan. So how much exercise do we really need? It is up to you! Take a walk, play with your children, walk your dog, and don’t forget that laughter is a stress reliever.

Crab research by QIN to shed light on low oxygen events

Is low oxygen in the ocean near Taholah killing off young crab each year, threatening the future of the fishery?

The Quinault Indian Nation proposes to research how low oxygen events may be affecting Dungeness crab populations in their traditional fishing waters. Dungeness crab is important culturally and economically to most western Washington treaty Indian tribes.

Source: Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission

That’s the question Quinault Indian Nation (QIN) wants to help answer using special equipment to measure the extent and depth of low oxygen events.

QIN has requested a grant to pay for instruments that would measure dissolved oxygen from inside crab pots. “It’s a great way to get them distributed as part of a fisherman’s normal crab pot routine and they can retrieve them once a month for us so we can download the information,” said Joe Schumacker, marine scientist for QIN.

“Right now, all we know is that dead fish and crab have washed up on our shores in varying degrees in the summer for the past few years” Schumacker said. “We have no idea how far the low oxygen zones extend or how long they last. We see a result and we need to define the problem.” There is also no oral history among Quinault people for consecutive seasons of this sort of die-off.

Dungeness crab is a delicacy served in many fine restaurants and a signature Washington state seafood. Not only has it been important to tribes culturally for millennia, it forms the mainstay of the fishing season for many tribal members on the coast and in Puget Sound.

“Crab has always been a cultural resource for us,” said Ed Johnstone, QIN fisheries and ocean policy representative. “Ever since we have been on these shores, the abundant crab and razor clams sustained us along with the greens of the sea.”

QIN has only one measurement of the oxygen problem from a fish kill in 2006 when a QIN fishermen was pulling his cab pots in a line running north and south. “As he headed north toward Taholah, he was getting live crab in his pots until he crossed the Moclips River. Then it was pot after pot of dead crabs until just past the Quinault River. That’s about eight miles,” said Schumacker. One of the things QIN would like to know is if oxygen-poor water is settling over young crabs who take refuge in nearshore areas. “Maybe we’re losing whole age classes sometimes. We just don’t know,” said Schumacker.

The instruments QIN would use cost $8,500 each including annual maintenance that includes calibration. Six devices would allow QIN to minimally cover the nearshore part of their traditional fishing area. The Nation would also test less expensive dissolved oxygen meters that have traditionally been used in freshwater streams, but would need field testing side-by-side with the more expensive meters to evaluate performance in saltwater and ocean depths.

Low oxygen water naturally upwells from deep in the ocean and gets oxygenated at the surface. “Somehow this mixing isn’t occurring during some summers,” Schumacker said. “These events tend to happen when the winds and the ocean go calm.

“There is a lot of research interest in the low oxygen events along the Pacific Coast, but this affects treaty-protected resources and we need a great deal more information for our area to understand the extent of the problem and how we can adaptively manage around it,” Schumacker said.

Sarvey center’s raptors still draw the eagle-eye of kids

A display of its birds of prey in Snohomish impresses kids as the wildlife center continues to request financial support.

Dan Bates / The HeraldSarvey Wildlife Center volunteer Robert Lee holds a red-tailed hawk with only one wing Friday at the Snohomish Library. Having lost a wing, the hawk will remain at Sarvey for the rest of its life, Lee said. — Dan Bates / The Herald
Sarvey Wildlife Center volunteer Robert Lee holds a red-tailed hawk with only one wing Friday at the Snohomish Library. Having lost a wing, the hawk will remain at Sarvey for the rest of its life, Lee said.

By Alejandro Dominguez, The Herald

SNOHOMISH — A line formed in the Snohomish Library 30 minutes before the show started.Eight-year-old Lily Westman and her brother, Cooper, 6, were first in line last week, waiting for the doors to open for the “Raptor Factor” show. They were eager to see all of the birds, but hoped to see a bald eagle.

“I want to know how they take care of them,” said Cooper, who goes to Cascade View Elementary School.

The show is put on by the Sarvey Wildlife Care Center, a nonprofit located between Arlington and Granite Falls that rescues, treats and releases wild animals. It’s one of the outreach efforts by the center that has been around since 1981.

Last month, the center announced that it was having financial difficulties. The center has an operating budget of about $450,000 a year, but donations have been down. Director Suzanne West said last month the center needed $95,000 to continue to care for animals, keep the doors open and continue their programs.

In the last couple of weeks, however, the center has seen an increase in donations and new donors have also appeared. The shortfall has been reduced to $50,000.

“We are still feeling the crunch,” West said. “We have been able to tighten our belts and we have received additional funding.”

Jennifer Cutshall, 44, of Snohomish, heard about Sarvey’s financial problems. She’s hoping that people step up to help out the center. She’s seen the raptor show herself. On Friday she brought her youngest son, Isaac Tavares, 4, for the first time.

“It’s a good chance to see these birds this close,” Cutshall said.

They were about 75 kids, parents, grandparents and others who attended the show and learned about the barn owl, great horned owl, red-tailed hawk and peregrine falcon.

The children asked questions about the birds, such as the length of their wings and how fast they could fly. They were amazed when some of the birds spread their wings.

Most of them gasped when volunteers took out the last bird of the show: a bald eagle named Askate.

Seeing the animal was the favorite part of 5-year-old Kaylee Broome who goes to kindergarten at Machias Elementary School.

“It was so cool,” Kayle said.

Alejandro Dominguez: 425-339-3422; adominguez@heraldnet.com.

More about Sarvey

The Sarvey Wildlife Center is located at 13106 148th St. NE, near Arlington.

For more information on the center, including how to donate and what to do if you find an injured or orphaned animal, go to www.sarveywildlife.org/ or call 360-435-4817.

Suquamish Museum newest of many impressive tribal cultural displays in Washington, Oregon

By Terry Richard, The Oregonian

Six life-size wood figures shouldering a 300-year-old canoe command the most attention among the exhibits at the new Suquamish Museum and Cultural Center on the west shore of Puget Sound.

Carved from cedar, the figures morph from a pair of sea otters in the rear to tribal ancestors in the middle and to modern people up front. The sculpture symbolizes the carrying of the tribe’s canoe culture forward through time.

The second new tribal museum in Washington to open in two years, the $7.5 million Suquamish Museum is on the Port Madison Indian Reservation near Poulsbo on the Kitsap Peninsula. Its opening last September followed the 2011 opening of the Tulalip Tribe’s Hibulb Cultural Center near Marysville.

The Northwest tribal museums, which include showcase displays in Oregon near Pendleton and at Warm Springs, offer travelers the chance to connect with the rich native culture that predated exploration and settlement by European Americans.

The Suquamish Museum is a short walk from the gravesite of Chief Sealth, the tribal elder who cooperated with Americans when they settled Puget Sound in the 1850s. Seattle is named for the Suquamish chief.

The museum’s small but impressive exhibits feature woodworking, baskets and beadwork. The 9,000-square-foot building, in the style of a traditional longhouse, has a performance space, museum store, plus an art gallery that features the work of 20 tribal artists, including intricate masks in the coastal Salish style.The surrounding grounds are landscaped with native plants. Nearby houses will be removed when leases expire to further enhance the tribe’s cultural district as a learning center. The tribe’s Suquamish Clearwater Casino Resort is one mile south.

The House of Awakened Culture, an indoor tribal event center, is just north of the museum on the waterfront. Seattle’s highest buildings are in view across the Salish Sea, the name bestowed recently on all the inland waters of Washington and lower British Columbia.

The new museum is three times the size of the tribe’s previous cultural display.

The Suquamish Museum address is 6861 N.E. South St., on the east side of S.R. 307 just north of its intersection with S.R. 305 (the highway with the only bridge to Bainbridge Island). The museum is open daily (except some holidays) from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; 360-394-8499, suquamishmuseum.org.

A traditional salmon bake outside the Museum at Warm Springs. Terry Richard/The Oregonian

Other tribal museums in Oregon and Washington Warm Springs: The Museum at Warm Springs features the Wasco, Walla Walla and Paiute tribes of central and eastern Oregon and the Columbia River Gorge. The 25,000-square-foot building opened in 1993. It is located along U.S. 26 in Warm Springs, between Mount Hood and central Oregon, with the relocated Indian Head Casino across the highway; 541-553-3331, museumatwarmsprings.org.

Umatilla: Tamástslikt Cultural Institute tells the story of the Cayuse, Umatilla and Walla Walla tribes of northeast Oregon and southeast Washington in a 45,000-square-foot building that opened in 1998. It also has an outdoor living-history exhibit during summer. The museum is near Wildhorse Resort and Casino, just east of Pendleton; 541-966-9748, tcimuseum.com.

Makah: Most artifacts in the Makah Museum at Neah Bay, Wash., come from a nearby archaeological dig on the Olympic Peninsula coast at Ozette. The 24,000-square-foot Makah Cultural and Research Center was built as the repository and display site for the 11-year dig, from 1970 to 1981, which uncovered 55,000 artifacts from a 500-year-old village preserved by a massive mudslide; 360-645-2711, makah.com.

Squaxin Island: The 15,000-square-foot Squaxin Island Museum opened in 2002 with an exhibit of the Salish tribes of southern Puget Sound, the “people of the water.” The museum is just off U.S. 101 near Shelton, Wash.; 360-432-3839, squaxinislandmuseum.org.

Tulalip: The 23,000-square-foot Hibulb Cultural Center, which opened in 2011, tells the story of the Snohomish, Snoqualmie and Skykomish tribes of the northern Puget Sound area. Its location is Tulalip, Wash., not far off Interstate 5; 360-716-2600, hibulbculturalcenter.org.

Yakama: The Yakama Nation Museum opened in 1980 with a 12,000-square-foot exhibit hall that tells the story of central Washington tribes, as well as famous chiefs from other tribes. The museum is along U.S. 97 at Toppenish, Wash.; 509-865-2800, yakamamuseum.com.

Local food code goes low-cal as state’s beefs up, May 1

Source: Snohomish County Health District

SNOHOMISH COUNTY, Wash.– The local food regulations in Snohomish County have changed to conform to the newly revised state food laws. Three years of state-level meetings culminated in state-approved revisions to the food regulation, WAC 246-215, effective May 1. The Snohomish County Health Board passed a resolution to adopt the changes in the county at its monthly meeting, April 9.

The Snohomish Health District, which inspects about 3,250 food establishments in the county, hosted a training update to food service regulators, and posted the revised code and a summary of its changes to its website.

The new rules absorbed a good deal of the formerly more stringent local code, which is now trimmed to three areas: enforcement procedures; food service manager training and certification; and recertification training of restaurant managers and operators.

The menu of statewide changes includes hot holding temperatures of 135°F or hotter. Cut leafy greens and cut tomatoes were redefined to be potentially hazardous foods and will be required to be kept at 41°F or below.

Other revisions include updated requirements for tracking and documentation of wild mushroom harvesting, more flexible guidelines for preschools, and deletion of all but dogs and miniature horses as service animals.

Local health jurisdictions and the food service industry were represented in the three years of deliberations. The Health District also facilitates a 20-member Food Advisory Council of local food establishment owners and operators, who have followed every step of the state revision process.

NRCS helps landowners manage for soil health, buffer drought effects

Source: USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service

Soil health is always important, but extreme weather in the last few years has shown landowners just how important managing for it really is.

“The vital part of soil is topsoil, which unfortunately is also the part most susceptible to the effects of weather. That’s what makes protecting it so crucial,” said Doug Miller, NRSC Minnesota soil health coordinator.

The top two components of topsoil are clay content and soil organic matter which hold nutrients and water for plant use and growth.

“The amount of clay content is determined by glacier content left behind and cannot be changed, but the percent of organic matter in topsoil can be increased,” Miller said.

One percent of organic matter in the top six inches of soil can hold about 27,000 gallons of water per acre. Increasing organic matter increases the holding capacity for water making your land more resilient to extreme weather.

Even with last year’s drought, landowners benefitted from improved soil health.

“There were two farms separated by a road that had the same soils, same crops and same precipitation. While one farm thrived through extreme weather, the other one lost corn plants, soil and water. The variable here was the management of the land,” said Miller.

Landowners are the managers of soil, so it’s important to use practices that help protect and improve your soil, he added.

NRCS identified four principles that help improve soil health.

Keep soil covered as much as possible.
Use plant diversity to increase diversity in the soil.
Keep living roots in the soil as long as possible.
Disturb the soil as little as possible.

Managing for soil health can help increase productivity and profits, decrease inputs and improve sustainability for farms and ranches.

“We need soil to be productive not just this year, but five years from now, 20 years from now, 60 years from now, and that starts with soil health,” Miller said.

NRCS’ soil health webpage provides in-depth knowledge and experiences from landowners across the nation. Visit your local NRCS office or visit the website (http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/main/national/soils/health/) to see how soil health is making a difference.

IHS signs pact for sanitation development in tribal communities

Source: Indian Health Services

The Indian Health Service and several other federal agencies plan to improve interagency coordination in providing safe drinking water and basic sanitation to tribal communities. The IHS, which is in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, signed a memorandum of understanding with the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Department of the Interior, and the Department of Agriculture.

In 2007, these agencies and tribal representatives assembled an infrastructure task force to improve access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation in Indian Country. The memorandum of understanding formalizes federal cooperation toward the task force’s goal of reducing the number of tribal homes lacking access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation by 50 percent by 2015.

The agreement will help to coordinate available funding, programs, and
expertise for access to basic sanitation as federal officials work with tribal officials to develop successful sanitation programs in Indian Country.

Since 2007, substantial progress has been made to improve access; for instance, the number of American Indian and Alaska Native homes lacking safe drinking water has been reduced from 12 percent in 2007 to 7.5 percent in 2013.

The IHS provides essential sanitation facilities, including water supply and sewage disposal systems, to American Indian and Alaska Native homes and communities. Safe sanitation facilities improve public health in many ways, including by lowering the incidences of gastrointestinal disease and infant mortality.

The IHS works in partnership with tribal communities to provide a comprehensive health service system for approximately 2.1 million American Indian and Alaska Natives who are members of 566 federally recognized tribes.