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Forest Sciences

University of Nebraska - Lincoln

Working Trees (USDA-NAC)

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Articles 1 - 13 of 13

Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences

Working Trees For Livestock Jun 2008

Working Trees For Livestock

Working Trees (USDA-NAC)

Working Trees protect livestock from the stressful effects of winter and offer relief in the summer. They can also create diversified income opportunities.

Conventional wisdom in the past has been that livestock and trees can’t co-exist. Yet moderm agricultural practice is showing their livestock and trees not only can co-exist, but, if properly managed, can provide additional income from land formerly used for a single crop.

Trees can provide livestock with protection from cold wind and blowing snow in winter, as well as from the hot sun and drying winds of summer. And, if commercially desirable timber or nut trees …


Working Trees For Agriculture Jun 2008

Working Trees For Agriculture

Working Trees (USDA-NAC)

Working Trees help make agricultural systems more sustainable by protecting crops and livestock, conserving natural resources, improving human environments, and providing sources of income.

Putting trees to work in conservation and production systems for farms, ranches, and nearby communities means planting the right trees, in the right places, and in the correct design to achieve desired objectives.

Agroforestry is a unique land management approach for landowners and anyone who cares about working lands and natural resources. Agroforestry practices provide opportunities to integrate productivity and profitability with environmental stewardship and result in healthy and sustainable agricultural systems that can be passed …


Working Trees: Silvopasture, An Agroforestry Practice Jun 2008

Working Trees: Silvopasture, An Agroforestry Practice

Working Trees (USDA-NAC)

Silvopasture integrates trees, livestock, and forage into a single system on one site.

These components diversify income sources. Annual income from grazing and long-term profits from trees respond to different market pressures and reduce risk when combined in the same operation.

Shade from the trees lengthens the forage growing season and improves forage quality. It also increases the comfort level for livestock which reduces stress.

The structure and plant diversity of silvopastures is attractive to many wildlife species including wild turkey, quail, deer, and many songbirds.

Silvopastures are inherently sustainable systems. They increase biological diversity, protect water quality, reduce soil …


Working Trees For Community Jun 2008

Working Trees For Community

Working Trees (USDA-NAC)

Working Trees for Communities is the adaptation of agroforestry technologies to assist communities of all sizes achieve environmental, social, and economic goals, especially at the rural/urban interface.

Today, communities are challenged with accommodating new growth while maintaining the integrity of existing neighborhoods. Accommodating health, safety, transportation, quality of life, economics, environmental quality, and infrastructure development can often lead to land use conflicts. Compromises are often needed to achieve a workable plan.

Today, community residents, businesses, rural landowners, and local leaders must look beyond their own backyards. What is done by one resident or business can affect the community and the …


Working Trees For Wildlife Aug 2007

Working Trees For Wildlife

Working Trees (USDA-NAC)

Sustaining quality wildlife habitat is challenging, especially where agricultural fields offer little plant diversity and in suburban areas where human development has fragmented the landscape.

Increasingly, these areas are managed primarily for people. But, an amazing variety of animals call the same areas home and depend on us to make sure that their needs are met.

Working Trees are trees and shrubs, especially native species, that are in the right place to do a specific job. Whether Working Trees come in the form of a windbreak to enhance crop or livestock production or a riparian forest buffer to filter storm …


Working Trees For Water Quality Aug 2006

Working Trees For Water Quality

Working Trees (USDA-NAC)

Water is a precious national resource. Often, human activities degrade the quality of the water in the streams, lakes, estuaries, wetlands, and aquifiers on which we depend. Pollutants from agricultural and urban sources have made many of our waters unsuitable for swimming and fishing. Excessive sedimentation, pesticides, and fertilizers are harming fish and other aquatic life. Changes in land use also have had a dramatic effect on floodwater damage and frequency. Both surface and subsurfaceAgroforestry drinking water supplies are being impacted by human activities.

Water quality is the end result of the individual actions of all the “neighbors” in a …


Working Trees For Carbon: Windbreaks In The U.S. Apr 2006

Working Trees For Carbon: Windbreaks In The U.S.

Working Trees (USDA-NAC)

Windbreaks are used throughout the U.S. to accomplish a multitude of objectives. Among these are the reduction of water stress to improve crop yield and quality, reduction of soil erosion, snow management, livestock protection and odor control, provision of wildlife habitat, and energy conservation around farmsteads.

If society is looking for places to store carbon, windbreaks are an obvious choice. Since a large number of landowners already appreciate the value of a windbreak for the many benefits listed above, many would be interested in discussing ways to get financial assistance for planting and maintaining a windbreak that was also designed …


Working Trees For Carbon Cycle Balance Apr 2006

Working Trees For Carbon Cycle Balance

Working Trees (USDA-NAC)

Carbon based energy sources like coal, gas, and oil all originated from the conversion of sunlight energy by plants. A dominant consideration for rebalancing the global carbon cycle is to find ways to promote the increased growth of trees and shrubs. Agricultural activities occur on approximately half of the land in the contiguous U.S., so much of the opportunity to store carbon through afforestation will occur on farms and ranches.

Agroforestry does not convert agricultural land to forests, but rather leaves land in production agriculture, while integrating trees into farm and ranch operations to accomplish economic, environmental, and social goals. …


Working Trees For The 2002 Farm Bill Aug 2004

Working Trees For The 2002 Farm Bill

Working Trees (USDA-NAC)

The Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002 (Farm Bill) has been hailed as the single most significant commitment toward conservation on private lands in the Nation's history. Landowners can benefit from a portfolio of voluntary services. The conservation provisions can assist farmers and ranchers in meeting environmental and production challenges on their land. This legislation modifies existing programs and creates some new programs. The 2002 Farm Bill provides many opportunitiesy to enhance the long-term quality of our environment and the conservation of our natural resources.

Agroforestry has come a long way in the United States in the last …


Arboles Trabajando En Beneficio De La Ganaderia Dec 2001

Arboles Trabajando En Beneficio De La Ganaderia

Working Trees (USDA-NAC)

Éstos son, árboles que se utilizan en conservación y sistemas de producción en fincas y ranchos. Estos árboles tienen un trabajo que realizar, sea aumentar los ingresos, proteger los recursos naturales o hacernos disfrutar un poco más de nuestras vidas. “Árboles trabajando” es un lema usado para promover la ciencia y práctica de la agroforestería. Agroforestería es un término que agricultores y dasónomos han definido para incluir la mayoría de las prácticas en las que se integran árboles y arbustos de forma intencional junto con un cultivo, forraje u operaciones de ganadería. Prácticas tales como rompevientos, bosques ribereños de amortiguamiento, …


Arboles Trabajando En Benficio De La Agricultura Nov 2001

Arboles Trabajando En Benficio De La Agricultura

Working Trees (USDA-NAC)

Imagine por un momento que en su finca usted cuenta con un producto capaz de controlar la erosión, aumentar el rendimiento de las cosechas y absorber los contaminantes en aguas de escorrentía. ¿Y que le parece si además pudiera proteger a los animales de fuertes vientos y temperaturas críticas, a la vez que éstos animales aumentan de peso y reducen los gastos de energía? Un producto que provea fuentes adicionales de ingreso y que provea diversidad al medioambiente, mantenga las aguas limpias y atraiga más vida silvestre. Seguramente la mayoría de nosostros correríamos a comprarlo.

Por supuesto un producto como …


Working Trees For Treating Waste: A Natural Alternative For Using Nutrients From Livestock And Farm Operations, Municipalities, And Industries May 2000

Working Trees For Treating Waste: A Natural Alternative For Using Nutrients From Livestock And Farm Operations, Municipalities, And Industries

Working Trees (USDA-NAC)

Excess nutrients and other chemicals from agricultural, municipal, and industrial operations impact surface and ground water quality. Plant science and engineering have combined forces forming a natural partnership between treating waste and growing trees. The technology of putting fast growing trees to work recycling nutrients from solid and liquid waste is available and increasingly being adopted. This waste treatment approach has emerged as an alternative to other more expensive treatment technologies, such as constructed treatment plants.


Arboles Trabajando En Beneficio De La Ganaderia Jan 2000

Arboles Trabajando En Beneficio De La Ganaderia

Working Trees (USDA-NAC)

Como creencia general del pasado, se pensaba que los árboles y los animales no podian co-existir en un mismo predio de terreno. En la actualidad, la agricultura moderna está mostrando que los animales y los árboles no tan solo pueden co-existir sino que pueden proveer una fuente adicional de ingresos en tierras anteriormente utilizadas en monocultivos.

Los árboles pueden proveer protección de vientos fríos y climas adversos al ganado, además de proveerles sombra. Si es deseo del usuario de tierras también puede cosechar maderas o frutos.

Ésta publicación le describirá algunas formas específicas en las que usted y su tierra …