Trees line the National Mall in Washington, D.C. The nation’s capital has over 7,000 acres of green space and the U.S. Forest Service’s robust urban forestry and research programs are active in the neighborhood forests of more than 7,000 communities across the U.

Just a day after President Barack Obama cited the obligation to posterity and the threat of climate change as an issue that can’t be ignored, Nebraska Gov.

Despite the need to find consistent, legal workers for farms, it’s been a struggle to get all the various farm groups to come together under one umbrella. Some major agricultural groups also have declined to join.

At capacity, the 180,000acre ranch, which dates back to 1883, could stock nearly 4,000 cows and their calves. However, 2011 delivered only 4 inches of rain on the ranch in addition to the fire that stripped the southern half of the ranch down to bare ground, leaving it open to wind erosion.

under the State Acres for Wildlife Enhancement (SAFE) program, Vilsack said. People are ready to sign the papers, it’s just that they can’t right now because Congress has been unable to pass a farm bill, Vilsack told a few farmers, state USDA agency leaders and reporters on Monday.

Fred Stokes, a 77-year-old retired Army veteran who has run a small cattle operation in Mississippi, has spent much of his time over the past several years raising Cain against large market forces in agriculture such as meatpackers and seed companies.

Another five calves have been attacked by wolves at the Diamond M Ranch in eastern Washington, bringing wolf-livestock conflicts to a tally of 15 in a short three-month period. Three calves were found dead two weeks ago and two more suffered severe injuries, according to ranch co-owner Bill McIrvin.

With the backdrop of one of the nation’s biggest farm shows, leaders of major agricultural groups declared they expect members of Congress to spend their precious few legislative days next month passing a fiveyear farm bill before the current legislation expires.

The agriculture secretary spoke to participants at the Iowa Farm Bureau’s economic summit in Ames after also attending a drought meeting earlier in the day. Vilsack continued his push for farmers to let House Speaker John Boehner, R- OH, know that going to the August recess without passing a farm bill isn’t acceptable.

Californians will vote on the “Right to Know Genetically Engineered Food Act” on the November ballot. Bailey called the ballot measure “a serious, longterm threat to the viability of biotech in agriculture,” adding that it would lead down a path similar to Europe where biotech crops are opposed and face multiple barriers to production.