LandCAN Toolbox

LandCAN Toolbox

Sustainable Farm Lease
The Sustainable Farm Lease website is a project of the Sustainable Agricultural Land Tenure Initiative, through Drake University. It is intended to assist landowners and farmers develop farm lease arrangements that are profitable and sustainable for the landowner, the farmer, the community, and the land.

Texas Forest Information Portal

Through Texas Forest Info, Texas A&M Forest Service provides landowners, managers, government officials, local community groups, and the public state-of-the-art access to information about trees and forest lands across the state.

Texas Forest Sector Economic Impact Summary Tool
Texas Forest Sector Economic Impact Summary Tool is an interactive tool to summarize estimated economic impacts of the forest sector in East Texas. The tool allows users to show economic impacts of a selected set of counties. In addition to providing values for each of the selected counties, totals are given for the entire selection. To use the tool go to Texas Forest Sector Economic Impact.

Texas Plant Protection Assn
For the past 24 years, the non-profit professional Texas Plant Protection Association (TPPA) has sponsored educational conferences for those involved in production agriculture. These conferences include the Annual Texas Plant Protection Conference and the TPPA Precision Ag Expo. These events have been successful due to the broad support of many leaders in Texas agriculture that represent academia, Extension, research, consulting, agribusiness, farmers and regulatory. Click Here.

The Business Case for Green Building
The WorldGBC launched its new report, "The Business Case for Green Building" in March 2013. Miles Keeping introduces the report and its findings at Ecobuild in London.

The Climate Corporation
The Climate Corporation offers insurance and land consulting by means of a sophisticated computer modeling system. The Climate Corporation has developed protection against a variety of weather perils that can have an impact on crop yield, including precipitation, heat, drought, and freeze through a system that assesses risk and determines crop insurance premiums using historic, simulated and forecasted climate and weather data. Click here to learn more!

The Global Invasive Species Database (GISD)
The Global Invasive Species Database (GISD) aims to increase awareness about invasive alien species and to facilitate effective prevention and management activities. It is managed by the Invasive Species Specialist Group (ISSG) of the SSC- Species Survival Commission of the IUCN -International Union for Conservation of Nature. The GISD was developed as part of the global initiative on invasive species led by the Global Invasive Species Programme GISP and was/is supported through partnerships with the National Biological Information Infrastructure (NBII), Manaaki Whenua-Landcare Research and the University of Auckland.

The GISD focuses on invasive alien species that threaten native biodiversity and natural ecosystems and covers all taxonomic groups from micro-organisms to animals and plants in all ecosystems. Species information is either supplied by or reviewed by expert contributors from around the world.

As the database is continually being populated with species information, please check back on a regular basis for updates

The Greenhorns
The Greenhorns is a non-traditional grassroots non-profit organization made up of young farmers and a diversity of collaborators. Their mission is to recruit, promote and support the new generation of young farmers. This is done by producing avant-garde programming, video, audio, web content, publications, events, and art projects that increase the odds for success and enhance the profile and social lives of America’s young farmers. Click Here.

The Lesser Prairie Chicken Initiative
USDA is working with landowners in five states to protect an increasingly rare bird and its habitat.

The NRCS episode on the Lesser Prairie Chicken.
Learn how the Working Lands for Wildlife partnership provides landowners with voluntary incentive programs to help keep working lands in production while providing beneficial habitat for wildlife.

The Southern Forest Futures Project
The Southern Forest Futures Project provides a science-based “futuring” analysis of the forests of the 13 States of the Southeastern United States. With findings organized in a set of scenarios and using a combination of computer models and science synthesis, the authors of the Southern Forest Futures Project examine a variety of possible futures that could shape forests and the many ecosystem services and values that forests provide. The science findings and modeling results could inform management and policy analysis of the South’s forests. In the chapters of this technical report, the authors provide detailed findings and results as well as sets of key findings and implications.

The UC Guide to Healthy Lawns: Identification key to weeds
This key includes the most common weeds found in California lawns. Other species may occur but are not of major importance in turf. Because flowering parts are often mowed and not seen in turf, this key was developed using vegetative characteristics. Identifying weed species is essential for choosing appropriate management practices.

Click on illustrations that resemble your weed.

Work through the key until you get to a summary page of your weed.

Link to Pest Notes from many summary pages to see specific management practices.

Begin key

Identification tips :

Distinguishing broadleaves, grasses, and sedges

Grasses

Sedges

Broadleaves

Already know your weed problem? Go directly to your species:

Weeds in key

The USA National Phenology Network
The USA National Phenology Network (USA-NPN) monitors the influence of climate on the phenology of plants, animals, and landscapes. We do this by encouraging people to observe phenological events like leaf out, flowering, migrations, and egg laying, and by providing a place for people to enter, store, and share their observations. We also work with researchers to develop tools and techniques to use these observations to support a wide range of decisions made routinely by citizens, managers, scientists, and others, including decisions related to allergies, wildfires, water, and conservation.

Timber Prices
Looking for timber prices in your area? Wondering what mills are offering for delivered logs? Want to know what loggers are paying for stumpage? Use this page to find links and explanations of what free information is available for your state. Also included is contact information for state authorities on timber prices, where available. If you're selling timber be sure and also check our general advice for selling timber.

Tools for Engaging Landowners Effectively (TELE)
Tools for Engaging Landowners Effectively (TELE) is a project of the Sustaining Family Forests Initiative (SFFI), an ad hoc collaboration of universities, government agencies, industry, conservation organizations, certification systems, and landowners.
America’s family lands present our biggest conservation challenge. Nearly one million acres of our forests are being converted to development each year. Forty-one percent of the forest in the contiguous United States is owned by families, and it is the forest most at risk of being fragmented and converted for development. Decisions made by 10 million family forest owners collectively enhance or degrade the landscape. How they manage their forests and whether or not they convert them to other uses is of significant public interest. Reasonable estimates are that only 20-30% of them are being served by current programs aimed at conservation and sustainable forest management.

The goal of this multiyear project is to provide a practical set of tools to help conservation and forestry professionals reach more landowners with effective stewardship messages and develop programs that serve the needs and values of the landowners. Landowners and natural resource professionals have been intimately involved in all phases of the project. We strongly believe that our work must be useful to a wide array of organizations and agencies, and grounded in solid data about the landowners.

Tools to Manage Agriculture and Soil Resources
Environmental Health and Safety provides a list of freeware containing information and tools for helping farmers manage agricultural and soil resources. Some of the available tools include:
Cool Farm Tool- a greenhouse gas calculator that is free for growers to help them measure the carbon footprint of crop and livestock products.
DecAID- an advisory tool to help managers evaluate effects of forest conditions and existing or proposed management activities on organisms that use snags and down wood. Landscape Management System- assists in landscape level analysis and planning of forest ecosystems by automating the tasks of stand projection, graphical and tabular summarization, stand visualization, and landscape visualization.

To see all click here.

Track the threat of Hungry Pests.
Help keep Hungry Pests from spreading. Know the threats in your area. Use the Pest Tracker map to see where invasive species have been identified and what areas in the United States are at greatest risk. This interactive map is a joint effort of the USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service and state and county agencies throughout the country. The Pest Tracker is updated frequently and provides an easy to use overview of the latest local invasive species spread information. You can also use the map to find state-specific contact information to report a pest. You'll find county-level views as well as maps for all 50 states.

Tree Planting Program
Dovetail Partners, Inc. has created an interactive map of organizations that provide resources, information, and assistance for people interested in planting trees. Each organization offers opportunities to get involved, whether it’s planting trees or making donations for trees and seeds. Click here.

It’s no secret that planting a tree is one of the best actions that you can take to improve and protect the environment. What you may not know, however, is that there are already hundreds of programs and efforts dedicated towards planting trees. By planting trees, we can improve air quality, harbor wildlife, and reduce carbon emissions that affect our climate.

TrueHarvest
TrueHarvest is the first and only yield benchmarking service that uses objective, unique and accurate data to show your farm's full range of performance potential, down to a 150 square foot area we call a micro-field.

With TrueHarvest, you can compare your yields to the full range of performance for comparable land with comparable conditions at the portfolio, field, zone and micro-field levels. You will find that high yield doesn't necessarily mean peak performance and low yield doesn't necessarily mean poor performance.

These "Benchmarks" will help you make better decisions about where to invest - or not invest - resources to optimize yield and profitability on each and every field. Learn more about TrueHarvest here.

U.S Drought Portal
Drought is one of the most costly natural disasters affecting the U.S. The National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS) was established in 2006 (NIDIS Act) to help begin to move society from a reactive response to drought to a proactive stance. NIDIS was envisioned to be a dynamic and accessible drought information system that provides users with the ability to determine the potential impacts of drought and the associated risks they bring, and the decision support tools needed to better prepare for and mitigate the effects of drought. In this, NIDIS forms the backbone of a national Drought Early Warning System and the U.S. Drought Portal is the public face of NIDIS on the Web.
Click here to learn more.