Sen. Mike Johanns has been chosen as “Ag Person of the Year” by ProFarmer, a national agriculture publication, for his stance on against health care reform and climate change legislation. 

“I am humbled and appreciative to ProFarmer for this recognition,” Johanns said. “Agriculture is the backbone of Nebraska’s economy, and allows our country to feed the world. I have carried my passion for agriculture with me since growing up on a dairy farm, and this honor means a great deal to me. I look forward to continuing my work on behalf of Nebraska’s and our nation’s farmers and ranchers as a United States Senator.”

 A copy of the ProFarmer announcement can be found here.

More than 40 scientists with expertise in climate, agriculture, soil, and entomological science today sent a letter to American Farm Bureau Federation President Bob Stallman requesting a meeting to discuss his group’s “inaccurate and marginalized” position on global warming.

 The Farm Bureau maintains that “there is no generally agreed upon scientific assessment on … carbon emissions from human activities, their impact on past decades of warming, or how they will affect future climate changes.” According to the scientists’ letter, that assertion ignores the overwhelming scientific evidence of climate change, a problem that puts Farm Bureau members at risk.

 “As scientists concerned about the grave risks that climate change poses to the world and U.S. agriculture,” the letter states, “we are disappointed that the American Farm Bureau has chosen to officially deny the existence of human-caused climate change when the evidence of it has never been clearer.”

 The letter then points out the fact that scientific institutions worldwide have concluded that human activity is causing global warming. For example, 18 U.S. science organizations, including the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Meteorological Society and the Crop Sciences Society of America, recently issued a statement declaring that “human activities are the primary driver” of climate change and “contrary assertions are inconsistent with an objective assessment of the vast body of peer-reviewed science.”

 The letter also stresses the threat that global warming poses to agriculture. It cites a 2009 federal report that found any agricultural benefits of climate change would be more than offset by the drawbacks, including more frequent heat waves that would reduce crop yields and stress livestock, more extreme rainfall that would prevent spring planting and flood fields, and more widespread pest and weed infestations that would require costly pesticides and herbicides to keep them in check.

 The scientists’ letter stands in stark contrast to the opinions of climate change denier Christopher Horner, who will be the only scheduled speaker addressing climate at the annual American Farm Bureau meeting later this week in Seattle. Horner is an attorney with the Competitive Enterprise Institute, an industry-funded, anti-regulation think tank that has received millions of dollars over the last decade from the auto and oil companies, most notably ExxonMobil, to try to block federal action on climate change.

 “This letter is a wake up call to the American Farm Bureau of the importance for them to take the concerns about climate change seriously,” said Don Wuebbles, a climate scientist at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and one of the letter’s three co-sponsoring signatories. “We think it’s important to share our knowledge directly with Mr. Stallman and hope he agrees to meet with us.”

LINCOLN – Heavy snow is smashing shrubs. Ice is affixed to tree branches. Grass is buried under what seems like an avalanche of snow. Just what does all this bad weather do to our landscapes?

We probably won’t know for sure until the spring, or at least whenever the several inches of snow on the ground melt, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension experts say. In the meantime, there is little we can or should do.

While we may be tempted to knock off the snow and ice covering our plants, shrubs and trees, landscape horticulture specialist Kim Todd advices people to resist.

“They’re so brittle that by knocking the snow off you could snap branches,” she said. “The last thing you want to do is snap branches.”

If you are determined to get the snow off the branches, Todd advises doing so with the most gentle touch possible. Lift the branch gently from beneath and attempt to brush the snow off. However, it is best to “sit back and enjoy the beauty,” she said.

The effects of the snow and ice on delicate tree and shrub branches may not be known until everything melts, Todd said. Deciduous plants are less at risk since they can be pruned, sometimes to the ground, and bounce back just fine. However, damage from rabbits may be severe, as deep snow gives them access to branches and trunks above protective fencing, Todd said.

Evergreens may have some lasting damage because the older they are, the less likely they will produce more woody growth, so heavy pruning is not a good idea, Todd said.

“It may take them time to spring back into their natural shape, and they may not at all,” she said.

The effects of the heavy snow on turf is, again, “a wait and see sort of thing,” said Roch Gaussoin, extension turf grass specialist. The snow is a great insulator for turf, but damage can occur if a frozen layer develops and rests its weight against the grass, he said.

“If there’s a frozen layer underneath an oxygen exchange problem develops and turf literally can be smothered by the snow,” Gaussoin said.

The best thing to do is to avoid walking on the snow that covers grass as much as possible so as to not stomp it down and form a layer of ice, he said. Turf can withstand 90 days of snow cover but only 60 to 70 days of ice cover, he said.

One positive note: the snow is actually protecting plants and grass from the extreme cold temperatures. The cold can do much more damage without the snow cover, Todd said.

The use of deicers also can affect plants and grass. When buying deicers, make sure to avoid the ones with sodium, Todd and Gaussoin said. The salt in the deicers can leach into soil and cause damage that results in brown grass and leaves.

When shopping for deicers, look for those that contain calcium chloride, magnesium chloride or potassium chloride, as those won’t harm landscapes, Todd said.