SWCS 2013 Annual Conference: Call for Presentations

The Soil and Water Conservation Society is seeking oral and poster presentations and symposia proposals for the 2013 International Annual Conference in Reno, NV.

Each year SWCS identifies topics or a theme for special attention at the Annual Conference. The overarching theme for the conference this year is Resilient Landscapes: Planning for Flood, Drought & Fire. 

At the 2013 SWCS Annual Conference, we would like to explore conservation planning, policy, and practices that, by improving system resilience, help adapt to and mitigate the adverse effects of Flood, Drought, and Fire. This may include urban, suburban and rural natural resource environments and landscapes as well as working agricultural lands. We hope that your abstracts for oral presentations, posters, and symposia submissions will address the technical, educational, and informational needs of conservationists as we work together to address the challenges encountered in creating resilient landscapes.

In the face of pressures from a highly dynamic climate, changing markets, and evolving environmental conditions, agriculture must produce not only food, feed, and fiber but also fuel and a broader array of landscape or ecosystem services. Conservation professionals need to adapt to new resource demands and changes in our client base and needs. Conservation must deal with larger spatial-temporal scales of soil and water management and conservation, such as landscape and watershed scales, and planning for extreme events. Achieving these changes will require improved collaborations with different agencies and research institutions to plan and apply on the ground conservation. It may also require returning to our conservation roots to invigorate local coalitions to prioritize and plan conservation needs and programs.

The submission deadline is December 17, 2012. Download the full call for presentations here. 

Greenest Presidents

Photo from the National Park Service Historic Photograph Collection

When considering presidents with environmental legacies, most people first think of Theodore Roosevelt. At the SWCS, we also remember FDR. But where do Carter, Clinton, and Nixon fall on the tree-hugging spectrum? For Presidents' Day, The Daily Green has offered a list of the 10 Greenest Presidents as well as picks for the least environmentally aware presidents. 

Pop quiz: Which president said, "trees cause more pollution than automobiles do?"

Des Moines Register Article: ISU study finds many Iowa lakes are dirtier, less healthy

Photo by Lynn Betts, USDA NRCS

A recent Des Moines Register article by Perry Beeman gives a preview of the results of a three-year, Iowa State University/Iowa DNR study on the quality of Iowa lakes over time. The study, based on sediment samples taken from 33 of Iowa's lakes, reveals the dramatic changes in the lakes due to intensified agricultural land use.

The implications of the study may be far-reaching: Beeman writes, "The findings by Iowa State University scientist John Downing and colleagues are likely to figure heavily in future debates over farm regulations and the next Farm Bill."

Conservationists also hope that this information can help provide realistic goals for cleanup and restoration.

Read the full article here.

2011 Annual Conference Call for Presentations Released

The Call for Presentations and Symposia has been released for the 66th SWCS International Annual Conference (July 17-20, 2011 in Washington, DC).
The theme of the conference is "Conservation Science and Policy: Global Perspectives and Applications" and the deadline for submissions is 12/17/2010. For more information or to download the Call for Presentations, go to http://www.swcs.org/11ac

Smart Solutions to Climate Change

Smart Solutions to Climate Change: Comparing Costs and Benefits
Edited by Bjorn Lomborg
The failure of the Copenhagen climate conference in December 2009 revealed major flaws in the way the world's policy makers have attempted to prevent dangerous levels of increases in global temperatures. The expert authors in this specially commissioned collection focus on the likely costs and benefits of a very wide range of policy options, including geo-engineering, mitigation of CO2, methane and 'black carbon', expanding forest, research and development of low-carbon energy and encouraging green technology transfer.
413 pages, Cambridge University Press. Softcover ISBN-13: 9780521138567
'This book provides not only a reservoir of information on the reality of human induced climate change, but raises vital questions and examines viable options on what can be done to meet the challenge. In the introduction itself Bjorn Lomborg catalogues the impacts of climate change, highlighting the problem of sea level rise, pressure on water resources, and declining food production in some countries, 'possibly becoming a source of societal conflict'. It allows different authors to articulate their views on a range of solutions, and then leaves the book's readers to form their own conclusions on what might be the best set of actions to adopt. Even though its pages present a diversity of options, at the end the average reader would stand better informed, and would have formed his or her own compelling logic on the answer to this planet's problem of climate change. I would recommend this book as much for the fact that Lomborg supports the view that we have 'long moved on from any mainstream disagreements about the science of climate change', as for the rich diversity of analysis it presents on a range of possible solutions.' Rajenda K. Pachauri, Chairman, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

NWF & SWCS Carbon Workshop Conclusions

Carbon Workshop Proceedings and Presentations Available

Carbon sequestration through agriculture could provide farmers and forest owners with a new revenue stream worth billions of dollars, concluded presenters, panelists and attendees at a National Wildlife Federation and the Soil and Water Conservation Society workshop held in July. Read more conclusions in the workshop proceedings, abstracts, and presentations. Click here... 

International Conservation News

UNEP/GPA ORGANIZES FIRST WASTEWATER TASKFORCE MEETING

The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) Global Programme of Action for the Protection of the Marine Environment from Land-Based Activities (GPA) organized the inaugural meeting of the UN-Water Taskforce on Wastewater at the offices of the World Health Organization in Geneva, Switzerland, on 9 June 2010. The meeting brought together over 30 representatives from 23 organizations and was followed by a Multi-Stakeholder Partnership meeting, from 10-11 June 2010. The meetings used the six recommendations of the “Sick Water?” report (launched on World Water Day, 22 March 2010) as the starting point for their discussions.

Participants addressed the possible elements of the Multi-Stakeholder Collaborative Agenda on Wastewater, which will be a major product of the Taskforce. They identified the major causes of the wastewater challenge, namely: weak national policies/standards and limited capacity at the municipal level; and community perceptions/attitudes towards the re-use of wastewater. Meeting participants also recommended a number of immediate and longer-term actions that will contribute to the Collaborative Agenda and directly tackle the wastewater challenge, including: enhancing communication, capacity building and science; developing interaction with the climate change and food security agendas; carrying out field projects and twinning; exploring wastewater financing approaches; and documenting the economic valuation of ecosystem services affected by wastewater (IISD RS sources).

MEA BULLETIN - Issue Nº 97 Thursday, 29 July 2010 Published by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD)

Related Links:

World Water Week : | Stockholm, 5 - 11 September 2010
Joint workshop on Capacity Development for Farm Management Strategies to Improve Crop-Water Productivity using AquaCrop
World Water Development Report (WWDR)
Climate Change Adaptation: The Pivotal Role of Water
UN-Water Task Force on Transboundary Waters  http://www.unwater.org/TFtrans.html
Transboundary Waters: Sharing Benefits, Sharing Responsibilities

Environmental Working Group Recommends more Focus for EQIP Program

The goal of the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) is to encourage farmers to use conservation practices on their land that reduce farm runoff, improve water and air quality and preserve wildlife habitat. The initial implementation of a new conservation practice can be costly; this program helps provide funding to farmers who volunteer and who meet the eligibility requirements. More information about the program can be found here.

Agricultural practices are the primary cause of the Dead Zone in the Gulf of Mexico. Conservation efforts should help reduce agriculture’s impact on the gulf, but a new report released by the Environmental Working Group (EWG) found that relying on voluntary participation for conservation effort is not enough. Their report recommends targeting taxpayer money to the highest priority locations, particularly in the Mississippi River watershed, to make the most of the money and to have the most improvement on water quality.

This new EWG report is called Making EQIP Work for Water Quality in 10 Mississippi River Border States. The EWG recommends that the USDA NRCS takes action to increase the effectiveness of the EQIP program, including setting specific goals for how much pollution needs to be reduced, identifying which lakes, streams or tributaries are priorities for improvement, and setting a timetable to achieve the goals.

More information about this report can be found here.

The Clean Water Act Needs an Upgrade, and You can Help

For years, the Clean Water Act has protected US bodies of water from unregulated industrial pollution, oil spills and destruction by filling. Its effectiveness began its decline in 2001, when the US Supreme Court made a decision that suggested that the Clean Water Act may not apply to bodies of water that are far from navigable waterways or that are dry for part of the year. Since then, thousands of water bodies have lost their protected status. The status of others remains ambiguous, making it difficult to enforce the Clean Water Act.

A new act, called the Clean Water Restoration Act, would update the old law with text that clearly outlines what bodies of water are protected. It would protect rivers, streams, lakes, and wetlands from pollution and would give protected status back to the bodies of water that have lost it since 2001.

You can help. Click here to use a template email to contact your senator to make sure the Clean Water Restoration Act becomes law.

Conservation Effects Assessment Project to advance conservation effectiveness

The Soil and Water Conservation Society has released a special issue of the Journal of Soil and Water Conservation dedicated to the Conservation Effects Assessment Project, commonly known as CEAP.

CEAP is a unique effort led by the United States Department of Agriculture to quantify the benefits of conservation efforts. The special issue of the journal presents the best science to date on the effectiveness of conservation programs and practices in the United States.

This special publication is an important step in a major effort to provide policy makers an account of what taxpayer investments in conservation are producing and an opportunity to retool conservation programs for greater effectiveness.

Guest editor Doug Karlen notes, “The Agricultural Research Service watershed-scale research and computer simulation modeling presented in this special issue of the Journal of Soil and Water Conservation provide the scientific base that will enable the Natural Resources Conservation Service to effectively use simulation models such as SWAT [Soil and Water Assessment Tool] and AnnAGNPS [Annualized Agricultural Non-Point Source model] to make reliable national assessments of conservation benefits.”

In addition, the journal documents the new STEWARDS data system (Sustaining the Earth’s Watersheds–Agricultural Research Data System) that allows users to search and view soil, water, climate, management, and economic data from Conservation Effects Assessment Project watersheds.

The special publication represents the cooperative efforts of numerous federal agencies, universities across the country, and the Soil and Water Conservation Society.

The special November/December 2008 journal issue is available through the Soil and Water Conservation Society by visiting http://www.jswconline.org/content/63/6.

Special Report Released on Soil Conservation in Nigeria

The Soil and Water Conservation Society has just released a special report entitled Soil Conservation in Nigeria: Past and Present On-Farm and On-Station Initiatives. The report reviews agronomic, soil management, and mechanical methods of soil conservation in Nigeria.

In a Foreword to the special report, Dr. Rattan Lal of the Ohio State University provides a context for the utility of the report and the urgency of improving soil conservation practices in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Lal states that “resource-poor and small land holders in SSA and elsewhere in the developing world must be paid for ecosystem services rendered through the adoption of recommended management practices.”

The report is available for free download here:

http://www.swcs.org/en/publications/soil_conservation_in_nigeria/

USDA Announces Public Access CRP Incentive

The USDA Farm Service Agency announced today that "USDA would fully implement President George W. Bush's directive to offer incentives to farmers and ranchers for opening up their land in the Conservation Reserve Program [CRP] to the public for hunting, fishing, bird watching and other recreational activities."

Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer stated that the goal of this incentive is to double public access by providing up to 7 million acres of CRP land for public access in the next 5 years in participating states.

According to a USDA Farm Service Agency news release, "The CRP public access incentive permits partnerships with existing state public access programs to identify and mark tracts of land as publicly accessible and publish maps for hunters and recreation enthusiasts. The incentive is consistent with current state public access incentives and will enhance the ability of state game departments to use hunting seasons as a wildlife management tool."

Fore more information, go to:
http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/usdahome?contentidonly=true&contentid=2008/10/0256.xml

Ag Secretary Urged Not to Release Land from CRP

News release from Environmental Defense:

Fifteen conservation groups today sent a letter to Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer strongly urging him to reject pressure from Congress and producer groups "to allow the penalty-free early release of land enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP)." USDA has been urged to release up to 24 million acres from CRP - roughly three-fourths of the land currently enrolled in the program - and put it back into production. This move would result in a loss of billions of dollars of taxpayer investment in conservation on these lands.

"A penalty-free early release of the magnitude you are considering - millions of acres - would deliver a devastating blow to the nation's soil, water, and wildlife habitat, and significantly increase global warming," said the letter. "Because most CRP lands are marginal for cropping, even if all CRP acres were brought back into commodity production, the impact on aggregate commodity supplies and prices would be modest... We urge you to protect the taxpayers' investment in soil quality, water quality, and wildlife habitat and not allow landowners to leave CRP contracts early without fully reimbursing the Treasury for the taxpayer-funded investment in those lands."

Combined Earth Systems Science Agency Recommended

An article in the recent issue of Science magazine recommends combining the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the United States Geological Survey (USGS) into a new Earth Systems Science Agency.

According to the authors, "Addressing serious environmental and economic challenges in the United States will require organizational changes at the federal level."

Associated Press story: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5h_4RSLLOhub2xXzr5OjRl2OiLLUQD91MJV500

Science article (subscription required): http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/short/321/5885/44

Midwest Floods, Global Warming, and Managing Associated Challenges

Learn more about the increasing frequency of heavy rain, how floodplains are being managed, and how we can be better prepared in the future by tuning in to a teleconference on July 1 at 10 am Eastern time and 9 am Central. This teleconference is presented by the National Wildlife Federation. Speakers will include Dr. Amanda Staudt, a National Wildlife Federation Climate Scientist who will discuss the latest science on global warming, heavy rainfall, and increased flooding risk. David Conrad, who is the senior resource specialist with the National Wildlife Federation, will speak about national flood insurance legislation that is poised to move in Congress. The president of the Iowa Wildlife Federation, Joe Wilkinson, will share his on-the-ground perspective on the flooding. Nicholas Pinter from the Department of Geology at Southern Illinois University will talk about why flood levels have increased systematically through much of the Mississippi system, and how new estimates appear to dramatically underestimate the actual modern frequencies of large floods. To join in the call, dial 1-800-791-2345 pin 64083#.

NOTE: Birl Lowery and Pete Nowak from the University of Wisconsin-Madison are organizing a special symposium at the SWCS Annual Conference on conservation issues related to the Midwest floods. The symposia will be held on Tuesday, July 29th as a part of the 2008 SWCS International Conference in Tucson, Arizona. For more information, go to www.swcs.org/08ac.

Conservation Tillage and the Floods

This post was the beginning of an email exchange among the members of the Science and Policy Committee of the Soil and Water Conservation Society. We've posted Pete Nowak's (UW-Madison) original comments as well as subsequent comments from Jerry Hatfield (NSTL), Dewayne Johnson (SWCS), and Andy Manale (EPA) over at the SWCS Network to prompt further discussion (http://swcsnetwork.ning.com/group/conservationimpactsof2008floods). ~Dewayne

Early last week I had a chance to drive from Madison to Nebraska City, Nebraska for a workshop at the Lied Center. This trip took me across SW Wisconsin, Central Iowa, and SW Iowa shortly after the significant rain events (I could not cut down and pick up I-80 as the Interstate was closed outside of Iowa City due to flooding).

What I saw was a tragedy in terms of our soil and water resources. I have not seen washing and gullies to this extent since I was a wet behind the ears assistant professor at Iowa State University in the early 1980s. Many of you will remember that this was before widespread use of various conservation tillage systems, and it was still a "normal" practice to moldboard plow fall soybean ground. The streams and rivers I crossed were dark brown with major streambank slumping evident. The travesty is what the science and policy communities allowed to happen on our agricultural lands in the Heartland. The only exception was those rare fields where continuous no-till was in use.

So you might be asking what this situation has to do with science and policy? I believe the science and policy questions revolves around how we could allow something like this to occur. When was the last time you saw conservation tillage or no-tillage being listed as a major research issue? Yet many of those "systems" failed in the rains last week. I suspect that many failures had more to do with how they were implemented rather than the inherent capacity of those systems. I do not buy the argument that this was a "natural" event where nothing could be done to prevent it! The lack of grassed waterways and other conservation practices that should have been part of the tillage system were absent in most cases. The Kansas City conference on conservation at the landscape scale had much to offer relative to explaining why this occurred, but to what extent are the science recommendations from that conference being addressed by the SWCS Board? Should not our committee be pushing the SWCS Board to reach out to other scientific societies to explore how we can design conservation at the landscape scale?

The policy side of last weeks tragedy is even worse. It was clear that a number of farmers were overcome with greed in pursuing high crop prices at the expense of common sense on how to treat the land. More important, where were our federal agencies in enforcing compliance on these now highly eroded land? We have laws in place but these laws are not being enforced by NRCS and others. Why not is a legitimate policy question. Another policy question is how we can be giving away tens of millions of federal dollars in the Conservation Security Program yet apparently this had little impact last week (a great research question). Any individual looking at the amount spent on conservation versus what happened has to wonder whether there was any thought given to how those dollars were allocated.

It seems to me that our agricultural federal agencies and Districts have redefined their role to one where they give away government checks with no expectation or responsibilities relative to conservation. It also seems to me that a lot of land grant university and federal agency research is focused on the latest "hot themes" where there is no obligation to finish the hot topics of yesteryear. Who has the responsibility to speak for the soil and water resources of this country if not the federal agencies and land grant scientists charged with this mission? Again, a messy policy issue that we would all rather avoid.

Let me repeat what I have stated many times with this committee in the past. Our mission is to raise the hard and unpopular questions with the SWCS Board. Ours is not to conduct a polularity contest where we all agree with the laest trends or research areas with new funding. There are some hard and unpopular questions that need to be addressed or at least raised for discussion. Under no circumstances should we allow the Board to be "blind-sided" by a science issue or policy question they did not anticipate. We (our committee) needs to be one step ahead of the SWCS Board on both science and policy themes.

Someone in Iowa or elsewhere is going to raise the questions listed above. Will the press catch on that we have another situation where it looks like all is going great until there is a real need, and then the system falls apart? Will the SWCS Board know how to respond? Look at the mission statement of SWCS and then ask whose job it is to work for the right science to be conducted on soil and water conservation questions. The same could be said for policy.

Let me repeat myself; if we will not speak for our soil and water resources, then who will?

Pete

Pete Nowak
Professor, Environmental Studies, Nelson Institute Soil & Water Conservation Specialist, UW-CALS ERC University of Wisconsin-Madison
64 Science Hall550 North Park Street
Madison, WI 53706608-265-3581
pnowak@wisc.edu

To participate in the discussion or read the other posts in the topic, please visit http://swcsnetwork.ning.com

SWCS Comments on Climate Change Strategy

The Soil and Water Conservation Society (SWCS) recently provided input to the US Environmental Protection Agency's National Water Program Climate Change Strategy.

In a letter to the agency (available here), SWCS President Peggie James recommended the following priorities for immediate action:

1. Focus more attention in planning and program implementation processes on currently well-understood practices that reduce damage from concentrated flow.
2. Focus more attention in planning and program implementation processes on protecting or repairing stream and riparian corridors.
3. Use current models and monitoring systems to indentify high-risk and high-value tributary watersheds that would benefit from focused conservation efforts.
4. Update climatic parameters used in conservation tools and planning approaches to include the most recent data and ensure that routine and periodic updates are completed in the future.

These recommendations are based on an SWCS special report available here.

World Food Summit

Recent stories on the World Food Summit...

From The Economist:
June 5: Only a Few Green Shoots
"Some good ideas, but too little cash, were among the fruits of a global gathering"
Full story at: http://www.economist.com/world/international/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11502285

From the Guardian:
June 5: Rome food crisis summit ducks crucial issues
June 6: Food summit fails to agree on biofuels
"The world food summit in Rome has come to a delayed end after some angry exchanges in the closing stages, but it ended without agreement on some of the key policy decisions now confronting governments."
Full stories at:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/jun/05/food
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/jun/06/food.biofuels

From IFPRI:
June 6: Food Summit: Some Progress But More Needs to be Done
"The UN food summit closes with a strong statement on agriculture, but fails to adequately address trade, biofuels, safety nets, and implementation."
Press release from IFPRI

Water Leaders Form Water Policy Institute

Leaders representing various sectors of the water industry formed a new institute to collaborative develop solutions to water availability and use issues.

Director
Kathy Robb, Esq., Partner, Hunton & Williams LLP

Chair
Christine Todd Whitman, former EPA Administrator and New Jersey Governor

Advisory Panel
Leslie Carothers, President, Environmental Law Institute
Gabriel Eckstein, Professor, Texas Tech School of Law
Paul Faeth, Executive Director, Global Water Challenge
David Freestone, Senior Adviser, World Bank
Craig Manson, Professor, McGeorge School of Law
Tracy Mehan, Principal, The Cadmus Group
Mark Van Putten, President, ConservationStrategy LLC
Robert Stavins, Professor, Harvard University

More information: http://www.waterpolicyinstitute.com

Balance all three: Food, biofuels, conservation

This Guest Column by Matt Liebman appeared in the Des Moines Register on May 23, 2008.

The controversy erupting over food and biofuel production generally overlooks the critical need to conserve and protect soil, water and wildlife. When conservation is considered, the implicit message is often this: In a hungry world, or in a fuel-deficient world, we simply can't afford the luxury of forgoing crop production by idling land for conservation purposes.

But can we really afford to abandon conservation? More...

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Matt Liebman is the Henry A. Wallace Endowed Chair for Sustainable Agriculture and a professor of agronomy at Iowa State University.