more than an advisory committee: engaging farmers in watershed improvement projects

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More than an Advisory Committee Engaging farmers in watershed improvement projects Chad Ingels ISU Extension Watershed Projects Driftless Area Symposium March 27, 2013

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For over a decade, Iowa State University Extension and Outreach has worked with a number of watershed groups in northeast Iowa on issues directly related to improving water quality. Engaging residents from the start of each new project was a critical component to success. This performance-based, resident-led approach has roots in the Big Spring and Northeast Iowa Demonstration Projects of the 1990s, and was refined in a series of projects in subwatersheds of the Maquoketa River from 2000-09. With facilitation by ISU Extension, watershed councils were organized in the Maquoketa Headwaters and Mineral Creek watersheds, and later in Hewitt Creek, Coldwater-Palmer, Lime Creek, North Fork Maquoketa Headwaters and Dry Run Creek watersheds. In the most recent projects, watershed councils developed monitoring plans and their own performance incentives to promote and evaluate producer adoption of a group of management practices aimed at improving water quality. Participation in these watershed improvement projects has reached 50-75% of farm operators through this innovative resident-led approach to water quality improvement.

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Page 1: More than an advisory committee: Engaging farmers in watershed improvement projects

More than an Advisory CommitteeEngaging farmers in watershed improvement projects

Chad IngelsISU Extension Watershed Projects

Driftless Area SymposiumMarch 27, 2013

Page 2: More than an advisory committee: Engaging farmers in watershed improvement projects

Watershed Councils

Non-profit status

Regular meetings

Establish water monitoring

Develop incentive structure

Use local data and outside resources

Set goals and evaluate progress

Page 3: More than an advisory committee: Engaging farmers in watershed improvement projects

Citizen Participationin Performance-based

Watershed Management

Goals-PlansPerformance

Targeting

Evaluation

Awareness

Assessment

Page 4: More than an advisory committee: Engaging farmers in watershed improvement projects

Awareness

Page 5: More than an advisory committee: Engaging farmers in watershed improvement projects

Awareness

Northeast Iowa Farmer-led watershedimprovement projects

Page 6: More than an advisory committee: Engaging farmers in watershed improvement projects

Assessment

Page 7: More than an advisory committee: Engaging farmers in watershed improvement projects

Assessment

Page 8: More than an advisory committee: Engaging farmers in watershed improvement projects

Goals-Plans

Install 5 sub-subsurface denitrifying bioreactors in priority tile-drained fields

Install vegetative filter strips or seed cover crops on 20 fields receiving manure applications

Restrict livestock stream access or provide an off-stream watering source at 6 of 17 watershed locations where livestock currently access the stream

Page 9: More than an advisory committee: Engaging farmers in watershed improvement projects

Goals-Benchmarks

Watershed Averages:

IPI - 2.00 SCI - 0.6 CNT - 2,000 ppm

Reduce annual sediment delivery to North Fork River Headwaters by an additional 7,500 tons

Watershed participation rate of 85%

Page 10: More than an advisory committee: Engaging farmers in watershed improvement projects

Goals-Outcomes

Two consecutive years of season-long, rain event, average total phosphorus water analysis of less than 1.40 mg/L at monitoring site 3

A recreation season indicator bacteria (E. coli) geometric mean less than the Class A2 criterion of 630 orgs/100 ml at monitoring site DRC 19

Page 11: More than an advisory committee: Engaging farmers in watershed improvement projects

Targeting

Page 12: More than an advisory committee: Engaging farmers in watershed improvement projects

Targeting

Page 13: More than an advisory committee: Engaging farmers in watershed improvement projects

Targeting

Page 14: More than an advisory committee: Engaging farmers in watershed improvement projects

Targeting Performance

Page 15: More than an advisory committee: Engaging farmers in watershed improvement projects

Targeting Performance

Page 16: More than an advisory committee: Engaging farmers in watershed improvement projects

Performance

Iowa Phosphorus Index- Soil loss- Distance to stream- Soil test P- Management practices- P application- Drainage

A measure of the risk of phosphorus loss to the environment

Measured on a scale of 0 to >15 with lower being better

Page 17: More than an advisory committee: Engaging farmers in watershed improvement projects

Performance

Soil Conditioning Index- Soil map unit- Tillage practices and timing- Crop rotation- Yield level- Management practices- Manure applications

Positive values predict increase in organic matter

Measured on a scale of -1 to 1.1 with higher being better

Page 18: More than an advisory committee: Engaging farmers in watershed improvement projects

Performance

Fall Cornstalk Nitrate TestMeasures amount of nitrate remaining in the corn plant at maturityPlants with inadequate N remove N from the lower cornstalk and leaves during grain fill

a

8"section

14"

6"

Page 19: More than an advisory committee: Engaging farmers in watershed improvement projects

Evaluation

Page 20: More than an advisory committee: Engaging farmers in watershed improvement projects

Evaluation

Page 21: More than an advisory committee: Engaging farmers in watershed improvement projects

Evaluation

2005 2006 2007 2008 2010 2011

Phosphorus Index

$1,230 $13,400 $7,195 $7,830 $5,240 $7,015

Soil Conditioning Index

$0 $31,612 $17,835 $16,013 $18,710 $16,292

Nitrogen Performance

$1,945 $6,650 $8,560 $3,930 $9,120 $6,900

Other incentives

$20,465 $17,230 $9,725 $9,343 $12,700 $17,595

Watershed Performance

$0 $0 $5,700 $4,200 $0 $0

Total Incentives

$23,640 $68,892 $54,765 $46,226 $45,770 $47,802

No. of Cooperators

33 38 47 50 52 56

Page 22: More than an advisory committee: Engaging farmers in watershed improvement projects

Evaluation - Outcomes

30% reduction in stream nitrate

Watershed average IPI improved from 2.48 to 2.19

Installation and improvement of 150,000 feet of grassed waterways and vegetative buffers

Family Biotic Index improved: 5.83 (fairly poor) to 4.74 (good)

Page 23: More than an advisory committee: Engaging farmers in watershed improvement projects

Evaluation - Outcomes

3 denitrifying bioreactors installed

10,500 tons reduction of sediment delivery

Watershed participation exceeds 75%

19% reduction in stream nitrate with 2 years consecutive years less than 10 mg/L

Watershed average IPI improved from 2.70 to 2.18

Page 24: More than an advisory committee: Engaging farmers in watershed improvement projects

Resident Leadership