The first five years of the Conservation Effects Assessment Project

Abstract

T he Conservation Effects Assessment Project (CEAP) was initiated by the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), Agricultural Research Service (ARS), and Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service (CSREES) in response to a general call for better accountability of how society would benefit from the 2002 farm bill's substantial increase in conservation program funding (Mausbach and Dedrick 2004). The original goals of CEAP were to establish the scientific understanding of the effects of conservation practices at the watershed scale and to estimate conservation impacts and benefits for reporting at the national and regional levels. Other federal agencies and nongovernmental organizations with conservation and natural resource interests are currently partners in various CEAP activities, often through jointly funded research projects. CEAP activities are organized into three interconnected efforts: 1. Bibliographies, literature reviews, and a scientific workshop to establish what is known about the environmental effects of conservation practices at field and watershed scales, and what kinds of research and data collection are needed to assess conservation practice benefits. 2. Watershed assessment studies to provide in-depth quantification of water quality and soil quality impacts of conservation practices at the local level and to provide insight on what practices are needed…