Environmental Stewardship Program Research Articles

Understanding Impacts of Environmental Stewardship Programs through Community Geography: Pro-environment Behaviors Cultivated and Reinforced

Author(s): Lopez, Christina W; Weaver, Russell C | Abstract: Environmental Stewardship (ES) is voluntary action on behalf of the environment. ES is typically practiced at environmental nonprofit organizations that offer stewardship programs. Because these programs are managed by individual organizations, relatively little external research exists on their impacts, e.g., diffusing norms and behaviors of ES more broadly across society. Responding to that research gap, this paper studies change in the environmental outlooks and behaviors of participants at two partner nonprofits in Texas using surveys (n=407) and interviews (n=5). Three categories of changes in environmental behavior are assessed: Natural Areas, Environmental Activism, and Water Awareness. Findings demonstrate that participation was linked to pro-environmental changes in all categories for the survey respondents. Follow-up interviews allowed us to capture additional aspects of ES not addressed in the survey. In all, ES can lead to greater uptake in selected pro-environment actions, higher awareness of environmental issues, and greater appreciation for natural amenities.

Drivers and value tradeoffs of regional-scale adaptation in rural landscapes of central Europe

Coupled human and natural systems exhibit complex interactions (e.g. feedback-loops) that are often poorly understood. Decision-makers from regional (e.g., state or provincial) scale environmental stewardship programs to international policy makers are often faced with uncertainties about future climatic and sociopolitical conditions (henceforth, system change) when supporting livelihoods and ecosystem services derived from lands and waters they oversee. Understanding how these system changes interact with adaptive decision-making processes toward stewardship of ecosystem services represents a considerable gap in knowledge. Adaptation, or iterative adjustment of management practices in response to or anticipation of system change, has been forwarded as a means of effective ecosystem stewardship. Furthermore, lack of clarity about value tradeoffs among competing program objectives (e.g., economics and aesthetics) often precludes development and implementation of adaptation. Although there have been several qualitative studies on regional to national adaptation, lacking is an empirical understanding of how the drivers and value tradeoffs associated with adaptation differ among regions and between related sectors spanning multiple countries. Diverse cultural heritages and political structures among regions of central Europe offer great opportunities for examining spatial patterns of limitations to regional-scale adaptation in forest and agricultural sectors. This project will develop a quantitative index of adaptation for examining hypotheses about patterns of rural adaptation within regions of nine countries in central Europe. Alternative hypotheses describe contrasting assumptions regarding geographic variation in the relative importance among drivers and objectives associated with adaptation. Predictions derived from these hypotheses will be examined through a survey instrument that gathers information from programs focused on rural stewardship. Survey data will be analyzed using a hierarchical Bayesian approach that accounts for biases and missing information often resulting from surveys. Interviews will be used to validate survey responses and receive feedback on inferences made from the analysis of the survey data. Placing findings within the context of existing adaptation literature and evaluating subtler patterns that emerge from the survey data will generate new hypotheses to be examined through future research. The research will be conducted at University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU) in Vienna. The applicant Harald Vacik from the Institute of Silviculture at the Department of Forest and Soil Sciences has proven his expertise on the evaluation of natural resource management in the context of sustainability, biodiversity and climate change. The post docs Brady Mattsson, Pia Kieninger and the PhD student Werner Toth contribute with their experience in developing climate adaptation decision support systems and providing uncertainty analysis in environmental decision-making. The proposed study will be an important step in advancing knowledge about adaptation and the interplay between humans and nature in maintaining a sustainable supply of ecosystem goods and services. This novel research integrates multiple scientific disciplines (e.g., ecology, sociology, decision theory, statistics) and to generate an integrated index of adaptation.

Evaluation of Agri‐Environmental Programs: Can We Determine If We Grew Forward in an Environmentally Friendly Way?

AbstractThe environmental elements of the quinquennial agricultural policy frameworks are probably the largest agri‐environmental programs in Canada and have been running for about 15 years. Formal evaluation of their effectiveness has either not been done, or is not available for researchers and policy analysts to compare with other agri‐environmental policy efforts. This address introduces this problem and attempts to examine evaluative approaches using Alberta's Growing Forward 1 and 2 environmental stewardship programs. While this attempt has uncovered significant data issues, there is evidence that program managers targeted funds to areas where water quality risks are of concern. The review also questions the requirement that producers eligible for funding must have an Environmental Farm Plan. After 15 years of having this requirement, I argue that it's time for Alberta's environmental stewardship program to relax this.Les éléments environnementaux des cadres politiques agricoles quinquennaux représentent probablement les plus vastes programmes agroenvironnementaux au Canada et opèrent depuis environ quinze ans. L'évaluation formelle de leur efficacité n'a soit pas été entreprise, ou n'est pas disponible pour les chercheurs et analystes politiques afin qu'ils les comparent à d'autres efforts en matière de politique agroenvironnementale. Cet énoncé présente ce problème et tente d'examiner les approches évaluatives utilisées par les programmes albertains de gérance environnementale Cultivons l'avenir 1 et 2. S'il est vrai que cette tentative a révélé de considérables problèmes de données, des preuves démontrent que les gestionnaires de programmes dirigeaient les fonds vers les régions où la qualité de l'eau est en jeu. L'évaluation s'interroge aussi au sujet de l'exigence selon laquelle les producteurs admissibles au financement doivent présenter un plan agroenvironnemental. Ayant été requise pendant quinze ans, je propose que le programme de gérance environnementale de l'Alberta assouplisse cette exigence.

Connecting brawn, brains, and people: an exploration of non-traditional outcomes of youth stewardship programs

Programs in which youth work collectively on an environmental stewardship project may provide social learning opportunities that support social-ecological system resilience and the development of social ties. However, few empirical investigations document the social learning processes that actually occur in these programs. This paper presents a multi-case study ethnography of six summer youth civic ecology education programs. Methods included participant observation, interviews, and group mind-mapping. The results suggest that programs offered moderate social learning contexts, with participants having little say over the direction and design of the program’s environmental stewardship goals. Nevertheless, participants worked together and collaborated on projects led by program leaders, with whom they developed strong ties. In programs focused on a single issue in one place, participants shifted their conceptual frames to include locally relevant concepts. While participants did not form strong ties with other program participants or with individuals from outside programs, they valued experiences where they led volunteers or were observed by others doing stewardship work. These results suggest that environmental stewardship programs can be designed to enhance social learning opportunities, which could incorporate strategies to increase youth developing ties with each other and with outside organizations.

Documenting Trends in Land‐Use Characteristics and Environmental Stewardship Programs on US Golf Courses

Core Ideas A survey of land‐use characteristics and environmental stewardship programs on US golf courses was conducted in 2015 as a follow‐up to an initial, 2005, study. There were significant acreage reductions in maintained turf, as well as in overseeded and irrigated turf. Trends in decreased acreage came about primarily through a combination of voluntary reductions in acreage and a net decrease in the number of golf facilities in the USA. Variations in land‐use allocations occurred regionally, as well as for public compared with private facilities and 9‐hole compared with 18‐hole facilities, suggesting that climate, economics, and even real estate values are involved in these decisions. Since an initial survey that documented land‐use characteristics and environmental stewardship programs for 2005, the acreage for an average 18‐hole golf facility has changed little, with a median acreage of 151 acres in 2005 and 150 acres in 2015. In contrast, the acreage of maintained turf on 18‐hole facilities has decreased significantly during that same period, from 99.2 acres (or 66% of 18‐hole facility acreage) to 95.1 acres (or 63% of 18‐hole facility). Natural or native vegetation comprises approximately 17% of 18‐hole facility acreage, while the remaining acreage is composed of water features (4.2%), buildings, (1.5%), bunkers (1.6%), and parking lots (1.6%). The acreage of winter overseeded turf in the Transition, Southwest and Southeast regions has decreased by 49% since 2005. Trends in turf‐type use have varied only slightly since 2005, with bermudagrass (Cynodon spp.) making up 34% of all US acreage, followed by Kentucky bluegrass (Poa pratensis L.) (23%) and annual bluegrass (P annua L.) (11%). The observed reductions in golf course facility and maintained turf acreage since 2005 were the result of an interaction between a net decrease in the number of facilities in the United States and voluntary reductions in the size of facility features. The most commonly cited reasons cited for turf reductions included cutting the costs for water and labor, but also for fertilizers, pesticides, and energy.

Evaluating ecological monitoring of civic environmental stewardship in the Green-Duwamish watershed, Washington

The ecological outcomes of civic environmental stewardship are poorly understood, especially at scales larger than individual sites. In this study we characterized civic environmental stewardship programs in the Green-Duwamish watershed in King County, WA, and evaluated the extent to which stewardship outcomes were monitored. We developed a four-step process based on the Open Standards for the Practice of Conservation to structure our evaluation and to make recommendations for future monitoring of ecological outcomes of stewardship activities. Environmental stewardship, primarily in the form of restoration projects, was common throughout the lower and middle watershed. The distribution of stewardship sites was influenced by population density, political and program boundaries, and financial and technical resources. Conceptual frameworks that link conservation goals, ecological threats, management strategies, and monitoring were rare and incomplete. Collaboration among programs was an important component of stewardship in the watershed, although communication gaps were identified between geographic regions and different ecosystems. Monitoring efforts were relatively common but unevenly distributed, often unsystematic, and usually dictated by project maintenance, funding purpose, or a program’s standard practices, rather than specific ecological outcomes and goals. As a result, monitoring results were rarely and inconsistently used for management. We recommend improving stewardship monitoring by clearly linking stewardship activities to specific conservation goals and objectives, developing reasonable quantitative outcome metrics that link upland and aquatic environments, and improving coordination and learning of monitoring efforts among multiple stewardship programs and actors.

Development of Staff Cultural Capacity in an Intensive Environmental Stewardship Program for Urban Youth

Cultural competence training for environmental educators has typically focused on formal professional development activities. The current research examined how educators can develop cultural competence through interaction with youth in environmental stewardship programs. An online survey was conducted with staff working closely with youth in The Nature Conservancy’s Leaders in Environmental Action for the Future program, to study their learning experiences. Responses were available from 34 staff (completion rate = 51%). Open-ended responses revealed they had learned about cultural differences in urban and youth groups’ engagement with the environment compared to that of adults in rural areas. In contrast, their understanding of different racial and ethnic groups was already high, and had not been impacted meaningfully. Quantitative items indicated that cultural competence about multiple conservation viewpoints (M = 4.30, SD = .33) was higher than that about racial and ethnic groups (M = 4.07, SD = .37), t (33) = 4.30, p < .001. Across questions staff reiterated that contact with interns had helped them develop greater appreciation for conservation work than before for its relevance to a wider segment of society. Rethinking conservation priorities was emotionally taxing for some staff and suggested that structured strategies for reflections on their cultural understandings are imperative for a diverse environmental workforce for the present and future.

Adaptive Governance of Dynamic Social-Ecological Systems: The Case of the Ontario Environmental Farm Plan (1992–2011)

The sustainability of environmental stewardship programs is an ongoing concern. The fluidity of multilevel, polycentric social-ecological systems requires partnerships to be flexible and adaptive. As society changes, the foundation of stewardship programs also shift. In this article, Glasbergen's (2011) Ladder of Partnerships is applied to the analysis of three governance regime shifts in the agroecosystem stewardship program, the Ontario Environmental Farm Plan (OEFP). Six key-informant interviews with pivotal actors within each phase of the program were conducted along with a review of documents and program data. The study finds that changes in the context for, and the governance of, OEFP are shifting the foundations of the original program. The adverse consequences of these changes for the viability of the program, illustrates the need to understand governance issues. The study supports the call for program analysis that is sensitive to the evolution of the system in question. Specifically, the shifting baseline of social norms and policies that affect the sustainability of stewardship programs that are governmental civil society partnerships. The study concludes that the co-option of bottom up processes and programs by top down government interventions can lead to loss of integrity and legitimacy of the programs.

A list of reptiles and amphibians from Box Gum Grassy Woodlands in south-eastern Australia

A large-scale biodiversity monitoring program examining the response of herpetofauna to the Australian Government’s Environmental Stewardship Program is taking place in south-eastern Australia within the critically endangered Box Gum Grassy Woodland vegetation community. Field surveys involve counting reptiles in areas under Environmental Stewardship management. These “Stewardship” areas have been matched with areas managed for primary production (domestic livestock grazing). We list reptiles recorded during surveys conducted between 2010 and 2012. We recorded sixty-nine species from ten families. The list will be useful for workers interested in the zoogeographical distribution of reptiles and amphibians in fragmented agricultural woodland ecosystems.

Adoption of best management practices on equine operations using an Equine Environmental Stewardship Program

Adoption of best management practices on equine operations using an Equine Environmental Stewardship Program

A Novel and Cost-Effective Monitoring Approach for Outcomes in an Australian Biodiversity Conservation Incentive Program

We report on the design and implementation of ecological monitoring for an Australian biodiversity conservation incentive scheme – the Environmental Stewardship Program. The Program uses competitive auctions to contract individual land managers for up to 15 years to conserve matters of National Environmental Significance (with an initial priority on nationally threatened ecological communities). The ecological monitoring was explicitly aligned with the Program’s policy objective and desired outcomes and was applied to the Program’s initial Project which targeted the critically endangered White Box-Yellow Box-Blakely's Red Gum Grassy Woodland and Derived Native Grassland ecological community in south eastern Australia. These woodlands have been reduced to <3% of their original extent and persist mostly as small remnants of variable condition on private farmland. We established monitoring sites on 153 farms located over 172,232 sq km. On each farm we established a monitoring site within the woodland patch funded for management and, wherever possible, a matched control site. The monitoring has entailed gathering data on vegetation condition, reptiles and birds. We also gathered data on the costs of experimental design, site establishment, field survey, and data analysis. The costs of monitoring are approximately 8.5% of the Program’s investment in the first four years and hence are in broad accord with the general rule of thumb that 5–10% of a program’s funding should be invested in monitoring. Once initial monitoring and site benchmarking are completed we propose to implement a novel rotating sampling approach that will maintain scientific integrity while achieving an annual cost-efficiency of up to 23%. We discuss useful lessons relevant to other monitoring programs where there is a need to provide managers with reliable early evidence of program effectiveness and to demonstrate opportunities for cost-efficiencies.

Landowners and conservation markets: Social benefits from two Australian government programs

Market-based approaches to conservation provide two novel policy outcomes. First, they secure public environmental benefits through incentive payments to private landowners to deliver those conservation outcomes that are unlikely to be achieved through regulation. Second, they provide opportunities to influence perceptions, motivations and values, and shift behaviors among landowners towards biodiversity conservation.Here we report on our experiences in engaging private landowners through two large market-based conservation programs funded by the Australian government. The Forest Conservation Fund was run in Tasmania from 2006 to 2009 and protected over 28,000ha of high conservation value forests through contracts with over 125 landowners. The Environmental Stewardship Program was run in temperate south eastern Australia from 2008, targets nationally endangered ecological communities and has so far secured over 45,000ha through contracts with over 260 landowners to improve habitat condition. In total these two programs have, at various stages in their implementation, engaged with over 1400 landowners.Participating landowners benefited from their engagement in three major ways. Firstly, landowner appreciation that their land had both production and commercial conservation values grew, as did their interest in better understanding these values and their measurement. Secondly, was the flow of information to build capacity through improved awareness, knowledge transfers and skills development. Effective landholder engagement was strengthened by targeted communications and information support. Landowners received detailed information on the ecology of their properties, and workshops and on-site field surveys provided practical exposure that filled a conservation information and extension void. Some landowners who had been unsuccessful in bidding for funding said they would change aspects of their land management because of what they learned. Thirdly was a group of benefits associated with property planning and management. The competitive and commercial nature of these two programs prompted many landholders to think more about the mix of revenue and cost drivers for their enterprise, and in particular those associated with new conservation market opportunities. Participation encouraged many landholders to redesign their properties into production and conservation zones that supported improved management for both productive and conservation outcomes.These observations suggest that participation in market-based conservation programs encourage social learning and build social capital in ways that can facilitate additional positive biodiversity outcomes on private land. The effectiveness of biodiversity conservation policies and programs would be strengthened by the inclusion of specific social outcomes.

Polycentric networks and resilience in urban systems: A comparison of Baltimore and Seattle

AbstractNumerous studies have demonstrated that successful resource management requires collaboration among many groups. While most research has been conducted on rural resource management, collaborative management is now recognized as an important strategy in densely settled urban areas. Cities generally consist of many fragmented land parcels under different types of use and ownership, which produces a large and diverse group of stakeholders with an interest in resource management decisions. Past research has shown that 1) natural resource stewardship organizations play an important role in both managing natural resources and building social capital; 2) successful outcomes often rely on effective collaborations through organizational networks; 3) there are different types of network structures; and 4) the effectiveness of a network can depend on its structure. However, missing from the field is empirical research analyzing how natural resource stewardship networks impact social and ecological outcomes, both spatially and temporally.Building on pioneering work on urban environmental groups in New York City and developing efforts in Chicago, this research will assess the stewardship networks in Seattle and Baltimore. More specifically, it will examine whether the network structure affects social and ecological outcomes; and conversely, whether variation in social and ecological conditions affects the resulting social network. Through a mixed methodological approach employing interviews, organizational surveys, spatial mapping, and social network analysis, this research examines:• What network relationships exist between environmental stewardship groups in Baltimore? In Seattle?• What is the spatial structure of these stewardship networks?• Does network structure affect social and ecological outcomes?• Does variation in social and ecological conditions predict the resulting network?• How do the stewardship networks in Baltimore and Seattle compare?Results from this study will contribute to the growing body of research on polycentric governance networks. The need for longitudinal and comparative studies in this area is evident, as many cities are looking to adaptive management strategies to respond to the needs of an rapidly changing population and landscape. In Baltimore, this data can be compared to organizational network data collected 10 years ago. In Seattle, the study will establish baseline network data, which provides a foundation for future studies. Similarities and differences between cities may provide implications for whether environmental stewardship programs and other sustainability initiatives can be applied from one city to another.

Fostering Green Communities Through Civic Engagement: Community-Based Environmental Stewardship in the Portland Area

Problem: Urban development can fragment natural habitats, alter hydrologic systems, and modify energy flows and nutrient cycles. The literature on mitigating ecological impacts of urban development contains extensive support for engineered infrastructure, but few studies have characterized the factors that foster effective involvement of community members in urban ecological restoration. Purpose: This article aims to explain why one community-initiated environmental stewardship program has been successful, and offers lessons on how to use community resources to establish similar programs elsewhere. We ask: (1) How can citizens become more involved in the stewardship of their local watershed? (2) What is the optimal mix of local technical expertise and community capacity? and (3) What innovations and accommodations must public agencies make to improve community involvement in environmental stewardship? Methods: We draw on data from surveys, interviews, and participant reports from 12 years of Portland's Community Watershed Stewardship Program (CWSP) to characterize the prerequisites to developing an effective community-based environmental management program. Results and conclusions: We conclude that programs encouraging the public to participate in environmental planning and stewardship need flexibility to allow innovation and accommodation in the planning process. We observe that community partners have great success completing projects they themselves initiate, and that are physically located nearby. We also find that developing a partnership with a local university was an important component of this effective environmental stewardship program. Takeaway for practice: Community-based watershed stewardship programs, if designed correctly, have the potential to increase citizen trust in government, improve the biophysical environment, and foster participants' ecological understanding. Involving the community in urban watershed management programs fills gaps between what public institutions can achieve and what the community needs. This coproduction provides opportunities for citizens to develop ownership of the local landscape, which may in turn increase the number of community groups involved, and the overall geographic reach of restoration projects. Research support: None

Golf Course Profile Describes Turfgrass, Landscape, and Environmental Stewardship Features

The golf industry does not have comprehensive national data on the property features, management practices, inputs, and outputs associated with golf courses. A series of surveys will be conducted to collect the data necessary to develop a national golf course environmental profile. This was the first survey of the series and the objectives were to determine total acreage of a golf course, land-use characteristics, acres and grass species of each component of the golf course, acreage dedicated to natural resources and environmental stewardship practices. The survey was sent to 16,009 golf course facilities’ superintendents in the United States. Golf courses were stratified by agronomic region, course type, and number of holes to ensure all types of golf courses were represented in the results. Results indicate the total acreage of an average 18-hole golf course is 150 acres, of which 100 acres (67%) is maintained turf. Cool-season grasses are grown on 66% and warm-season grasses are grown on 34% of all maintained turf acreage on golf courses. The remaining acreage is comprised of non-turfgrass landscapes (16%), water bodies (7%), buildings (4%), bunkers (3%), and parking lots (3%). Approximately 44% of golf courses have increased the non-turfgrass landscape areas by nearly 10 acres over the last 10 years. Over the last 10 years, an average of five environmental improvements have been made on 18-hole golf courses, while those golf courses that participated in voluntary environmental stewardship programs have made an average of seven improvements. These data provide an accurate portrayal of golf course land use to guide golf industry agronomic and environmental initiatives and establish a baseline that can be compared to data from future surveys to monitor industry change.

Source Reduction in Florida's Salt Marshes: Management to Reduce Pesticide Use and Enhance the Resource

Source reduction as part of an integrated pest management program is a cornerstone of the American Mosquito Control Association's Pesticide Environmental Stewardship Program Strategy Document to reduce pesticide risk. Since the early 1980s, Florida has made important strides in implementing environmentally sound source reduction strategies in salt marshes while managing them for both mosquito control and natural resource enhancement. The political mechanism for this progress has been interagency cooperation through the Florida Coordinating Council on Mosquito Control and its Subcommittee on Managed Marshes. Challenges in accomplishing source reduction continue because both public and private lands are involved. Public lands include those owned by federal (e.g., U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, National Park Service), state (Florida Department of Environmental Protection), and local governments, and they have a diversity of management objectives. This diversity adds to the challenge facing mosquito control agencies in providing mosquito control services while protecting and enhancing the environment.

The Environmental Protection Agency's Programs to Encourage the Use of Safer Pesticides

The Office of Pesticide Programs (OPP) within the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has initiated several programs to reduce risks associated with the use of pesticides. Examples include accelerated registration of new products (including biological pesticides) that offer reduced risk to human health and the environment, and regulatory relief for products posing virtually no risk to provide replacement for more problematic pesticides. In addition, efforts are being undertaken to reduce pesticide resistance in target pests, develop joint “Environmental Stewardship” efforts between the EPA, United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), and the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The new Biopesticides and Pollution Prevention Division (BPPD), established as a pilot in October 1994, has responsibility for many above functions, with special emphasis on registration of biological pesticides and development of the new Pesticide Environmental Stewardship Program (PESP). This program is designed to recognize achievements already made by farmers to reduce conventional pesticide use and to find further improvements through cooperative efforts with growers.

Contract Design for the Purchase of Environmental Goods from Agriculture

AbstractAn environmental stewardship program, whereby farmers are paid directly for the environmental goods they provide, is developed by combining the microparameter distribution model with mechanism design principles. The program overcomes the information asymmetry between farmers and governments and accounts for the deadweight losses from distortionary taxes. The characteristics of optimal input and payment schedules of the program are derived. These optimal schedules are determined by the tradeoffs between farming profits, environmental benefits, and deadweight losses from taxes, and are second‐best except under restrictive conditions on deadweight losses from taxes and on the marginal product of inputs and marginal pollution costs.

Nurturing People-Plant Relationships in Order to Foster Environmental and Community Stewardship:

Environmental programs have traditionally focused on alleviating environmental problems with an isolated or fragmented approach, rather than addressing the interrelated issues that constitute such problems. Success of environmental stewardship depends on research, establishing techniques for integrating the diverse elements that constitute environmental problems. The Rutgers Environmental and Community Stewardship (R.E.A.C.S.) Program is a proposed application of interdisciplinary research. In addition, it offers the opportunity to collect quantified data to evaluate the efficacy of such programs. The methods used to evaluate the program could serve as a useful model for similar programs. Currently the program is in the initial stages of implementation. Scientific investigation into the value of people-plant relationships can be applied to environmental problem solving. The R.E.A.C.S. program will integrate people-plant relationships into all aspects of program delivery.

Environmental reform of agricultural policy in 1990 and beyond: Consider the source

AbstractThe environment will be a major issue during the 1990 Farm Bill reauthorization, with environmental reform efforts directed toward strengthening the conservation provisions of the 1985 Farm Bill, and expanding into new areas of water quality and food safety. The process will differ from the 1985 Farm Bill environmental reform experience in several important ways. In 1990, the policy ideas under discussion are more sweeping, the issues are more complex and controversial scientific understanding is more ambiguous, technical capacity in the field is highly limited, and the farm policy environment is more volatile. Key environmental policy issues this year are the future size and purposes of the 1985 Conservation Reserve Program, and the strengthening of sodbuster, swampbuster and conservation compliance provisions enacted in 1985. Commodity program reforms that remove disincentives to crop rotations, and food safety issues will also top the environmental agenda. An Environmental Stewardship Program is proposed as a new approach to source reduction and pollution prevention. An ESP program might consist of 10–15 year contracts under which farmers are compensated to adopt environmentally sound practices such as crop rotations, reduced and more efficient use of agricultural chemicals, integrated pest management systems, and best management practices for water quality and food safety concerns.