Jerri Marr, forest supervisor for the U.S. Forest Service, greets the crowd that gathered to thank the firefighters returning and leaving the fire camp Tuesday morning, July 3, 2012, at Holmes Middle School in Colorado Springs, Colo. The Waldo Canyon Fire is now 70 percent contained. (The Gazette, Christian Murdock)

Jerri Marr awoke on June 23, 2012, expecting a normal day as forest supervisor tending to issues on the Pike and San Isabel national forests west of Colorado Springs, Colo., and on the Comanche National Grassland, some 250 miles away. Not to mention the Cimarron National Grassland in southwest Kansas. That alone is enough to keep her days full. Read more »

Rural Development is the lead Federal agency that works to ensure that rural families have access to safe, well-built, affordable homes.  In February 2012, the agency initiated a two-year, pilot refinancing program in 19 states hardest hit by the Nation’s housing downturn to help eligible USDA borrowers reduce their monthly housing costs.

Today, USDA announced that the program is expanding to include eligible rural residents in Puerto Rico, Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Washington, West Virginia and Wisconsin. Read more »

Colorado native and local business owner Bruce Longwell at his Durango, CO home on July 17, 2012. Mr. Longwell financed the single-family house with a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Development (RD) Housing Assistance loan. This provided lower monthly payments than his prior rental home. Homeownership provides potential gains through home equity. USDA photo by Lance Cheung.

Homeownership became a reality twice for Bruce Longwell, thanks to USDA Rural Development.  Twice has Longwell been able to purchase a home through the USDA Direct Home Loan Program. Read more »

Snow surveyors approach SNOTEL site on Mount Hood.

Koeberle’s job carries her over mountains by helicopter and horse, snowshoes and skis. She has encountered grizzly bears, avalanches and wolves and visited ridges that few people have seen.

Koeberle is a hydrologist and snow surveyor for USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and works on the agency’s snow survey team—a group of specially trained scientists who maintain snow gauges that are important to farmers, business owners and many other people in the West. Read more »

President Barack Obama and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack visited the McIntosh family farm in Missouri Valley, Iowa, on Monday, August 13, 2012 to view the drought stricken crops. The federal government has already taken some steps to ease farmers whose crops are growing poorly this summer, and the administration plans to spend close to $200 million on livestock, officials announced earlier in the day. The Department of Defense is encouraging vendors to buy meat to ease the crisis. USDA photo by Dave Kosling.

USDA and other federal agencies continue to work to address the long term effects of last summer’s historic drought.

In the wake of a series of regional drought conferences with farmers, ranchers, business owners and other stakeholders, USDA is entering into a memorandum of understanding with the Department of Commerce, including the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), to improve sharing of data and expertise, monitoring networks, and drought forecasting efforts.  The MOU is a direct outcome of the regional conferences. Read more »

Farmer Doug Goyings examines the drought-damaged corn on his farm in Paulding County, OH on Tuesday, July 17, 2012. USDA photo by Christina Reed.

The 2012 drought dried up more than just crops. For many U.S. farmers, it also dried up savings, material resources, and perhaps saddest of all, hope.

“The drought of course impacted our crop yields tremendously,” said veteran Ohio dairy farmer Leon Weaver. “Corn yields were about 50 percent of normal. Dairymen are exiting this business in droves.”

But for Weaver and nearly one hundred other Ohio, Michigan and Indiana farmers who gathered recently in rural Henry County, Ohio, hope was a commodity worth trading as they shared, in roundtable fashion, their ideas on how to access resources and rise from the dust. Read more »