Natural Resources Conservation Service Research Articles

Native Seeds in the Marketplace: Meeting Restoration Needs in the Intermountain West, United States

The scale of ecological restoration in the Intermountain West (IW), United States is likely greater than anywhere else in the world. This is largely driven by response to accelerating ecological disturbances and government programs that divert privately owned cropland into soil, water, and wildlife conservation use. While restoration in the IW is challenging due to the region’s aridity, over the past few decades considerable improvement in restoration seeding success has been achieved using native plants instead of the exotic species that have predominated previously. The IW is blessed with an extensive research infrastructure for native plant material development through the Natural Resources Conservation Service, the Agricultural Research Service, and the US Forest Service. A high demand for native seeds in the IW allows for a large and diverse product base of grasses, shrubs, and forbs in the form of cultivars, selected-class prevariety germplasms, and source-identified populations. Two sister native seed industries, one based on field cultivation and another based on collection from public wildlands, are likely the largest of their kind in the world. Seed is offered, mostly on a speculative basis, to major markets (e.g., Bureau of Land Management consolidated seed buy, Utah Division of Wildlife Resources seed buy, Conservation Reserve Program). Elements of the IW native seed marketplace (e.g., plant material development and cultivated seed production), may be instructive for the development of broadscale-restoration models appropriate for other parts of the world.

Case studies of scalable wildlife conservation in working landscapes

ABSTRACTLandscape‐scale conservation initiatives have become more common in the past few decades. Many factors led to these increases including a broadening of conservation strategies, technology, and threats to many ecological systems; species’ population declines; and a growing understanding of the need for cooperative conservation. Population and habitat threats and declines often occur on privately owned farms, ranches, and forests, sometimes referred to as ‘working lands,’ which presents a host of challenges and opportunities for conservation. A key challenge of emerging initiatives is funding for conservation. We explore 2 landscape‐scale initiatives that have become loosely linked by the Working Lands for Wildlife partnership. Both have benefited from U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) funding that resulted from an agreement between the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service and the U.S. Department of Interior Fish and Wildlife Service (USDA 2012). We describe a few national cooperative conservation developments to demonstrate their importance to our 2 case studies and the ecosystem of private lands wildlife conservation. © 2019 The Wildlife Society.

Predicting 2,4-dintroanisole (DNAN) sorption on various soil “types” using different compositional datasets

Soil heterogeneity is a major contributor to the uncertainty in predicting the environmental fate of data-scare contaminants. For this paper, we focused on research designed to predict the soil environmental fate of the new munition compound, called 2,4-dinitroanisole (DNAN) -a compound increasingly employed by the U.S. and international militaries in the next-generation, insensitive explosive formulations. Here, we employed multivariate statistical correlation models to predict DNAN sorption among different soil “types” seeking to reduce the uncertainty common in all contaminant sorption models by using soil taxonomic designation as a calibrant. We collected composite soils classified under the Ultisols taxonomic Order in the U.S. National Resource Conservation Service soil classification system and quantified their properties via physical and chemical characterizations. Using multivariate statistical modeling modified for compositional data analysis (CoDa), we developed quantitative analogies of the Ultisols by partitioning the characterization data up into four different compositions: Water-extracted, Mehlich-III (referring to the weak acid) extracted, particle-size distribution, and solid-phase carbon‑nitrogen‑sulfur compositions. DNAN sorption was measured in batch soil suspensions and distribution coefficients (KD) were calculated using linear regression modeling. Prediction models testing the correlation of the DNAN KD values to the centered logratio -transformed compositions were calculated using CoDa-modified multilinear regression. Results showed that DNAN sorption was only predictable by dissolved organic carbon, pH, and the exchangeable cations Ca and K within the water-extracted composition. Analogies for DNAN sorption were the most discriminating at the Suborder level because of the inherent ambiguity in the Hapludults class at the Great Group level.

Conservation Effects Assessment Project: Assessing Conservation Practice Effects on Grazing Lands

On the Ground • The USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) Conservation Effects Assessment Project (CEAP) is responsible for assessing and reporting on the effects of conservation practices provided through Farm Bill programs. • Effects on resources, economics, and production capacity are assessed statistically through a combination of modeling, direct measurement, benefit transfer, and producer surveys. • Results from CEAP-Grazing Land projects help guide NRCS conservation planning and policy, and provide grazing land managers with additional resources for successful management of their soil, water, air, plant, animal, and economic resources. • A summary of projects and project status is provided.

ESTUDO COMPARATIVO ENTRE AS EQUAÇÕES EMPÍRICAS E O MÉTODO DA VELOCIDADE NA ESTIMATIVA DO TEMPO DE CONCENTRAÇÃO

RESUMO: Tão importante para projetos hidrológicos, a estimativa do tempo de concentração (tc) é realizada pela utilização de equações empíricas obtidas em estudos internacionais; desconsiderando-se, muitas vezes, os limites de aplicabilidade a que foram propostas. Não obstante, observa-se a não utilização do método da velocidade do Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), o mais recomendado para a estimativa do referido tempo em bacias urbanas. Deste modo, o presente artigo objetivou analisar qual a estimativa de “tc”, utilizando equações empíricas versus a adoção do método da velocidade, resulta no melhor ajuste de projeto. Para tal, compararam-se os valores obtidos entre os métodos por meio da construção de 168 cenários hipotéticos oriundos da combinação entre parâmetros como a declividade, a extensão do escoamento natural; do escoamento em canais rasos revestidos e do escoamento em canais artificiais. Calculou-se, então, para todos cenários, a vazão de projeto pelo Método Racional. Pela discrepância dos valores obtidos para os tempos de concentração e vazões entre as equações e o método da velocidade, ressalta-se a importância do levantamento em campo da bacia em estudo, bem como do conhecimento das faixas de aplicação de equações empíricas. Verificou-se que a influência das extensões de escoamentos em trechos naturais ou definidos, afetará sobremaneira nas vazões de projeto calculadas; demonstrando a importância da definição do método mais apropriado pelo projetista.

The Beargrass Story: Utilizing Social Science to Evaluate and Learn from the “Watershed Approach”

AbstractThis paper presents the case of a voluntary watershed project that addressed the need for improving water quality by reducing agricultural nutrient loss. The Beargrass Creek Watershed Approach Project in Wabash County, Indiana aimed to demonstrate that it is possible to achieve ambitious water quality goals and maximize the effectiveness of conservation funding through locally‐led efforts that bring together multiple stakeholders throughout the process. The project focused on implementing the “right practices” in the “right places” through a goal‐oriented, science‐based, and locally‐adapted approach to voluntary conservation. We examine and evaluate all three phases of the project and discuss successes and lessons learned from the point of view of both agricultural producers and agency staff from the local Soil and Water Conservation District and the Natural Resources Conservation Service.

Incorporating Antecedent Soil Moisture into Streamflow Forecasting

This study incorporates antecedent (preceding) soil moisture into forecasting streamflow volumes within the North Platte River Basin, Colorado/Wyoming (USA). The incorporation of antecedent soil moisture accounts for infiltration and can improve streamflow predictions. Current Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) forecasting methods are replicated, and a comparison is drawn between current NRCS forecasts and proposed forecasting methods using antecedent soil moisture. Current predictors used by the NRCS in regression-based streamflow forecasting include precipitation, streamflow persistence (previous season streamflow volume) and snow water equivalent (SWE) from SNOTEL (snow telemetry) sites. Proposed methods utilize antecedent soil moisture as a predictor variable in addition to the predictors noted above. A decision system was used to segregate data based on antecedent soil moisture conditions (e.g., dry, wet or normal). Principal Components Analysis and Stepwise Linear Regression were applied to generate streamflow forecasts, and numerous statistics were determined to measure forecast skill. The results show that when incorporating antecedent soil moisture, the “poor” forecasts (i.e., years in which the NRCS forecast differed greatly from the observed value) were improved, while the overall forecast skill remains unchanged. The research presented shows the need to increase the monitoring and collection of soil moisture data in mountainous western U.S. watersheds, as this parameter results in improved forecast skill.

Early Successional Forest Management on Private Lands as a Coupled Human and Natural System

Facilitating voluntary conservation on private lands is a crucial element of policies that seek to mitigate forest habitat loss and fragmentation around the world. Previous research emphasizes the role of social factors (e.g., landowner characteristics, economics) in forest management, but environmental outcomes of past management can also affect landowner decisions. Our objective was to evaluate how positive outcomes for wildlife and habitat might reinforce or amplify landowner efforts to manage forest habitats. We applied the lens of coupled human and natural systems to investigate private lands management for early successional forests, which are declining along with associated wildlife in rural areas of the eastern U.S. Efforts to restore early successional forest in this region involve active forest management to create patches of successional forest in native, mature mixed hardwood stands. By integrating field-based monitoring of wildlife with surveys of landowner perceptions, we examined how landowners observed, interpreted, and responded to property-scale ecological outcomes of forest management. We recorded presence of Golden-winged Warbler (Vermivora chrysoptera) and American Woodcock (Scolopax minor) and estimated bird species richness in spring 2015 and/or 2016 on private properties located in the Appalachians (Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania) and Upper Great Lakes (Minnesota, Wisconsin). These properties were enrolled in early successional forest management programs administered through the Natural Resources Conservation Service. Bird surveys were paired with landowner responses to a telephone survey conducted from January to May 2017 (n = 102). Most (71.6–81.6%) landowners’ perceptions of avian presence on their properties matched monitoring results. These perceptions were informed by personal observations and by outreach from agency partners and field technicians. Landowners who already completed their conservation program contracts (n = 85) continued managing early successional forests. Continued management for early successional habitat was positively associated with perceived benefits to birds, forest health, and scenery. Our findings give insight into how private landowners respond to environmental effects of forest management. We conclude that positive environmental outcomes of these conservation programs are related to continued early successional forest conservation by private landowners.

Farmers’ Perspectives on Challenges and Opportunities Associated with Using High Tunnels for Specialty Crops

High tunnels are an increasingly popular part of the infrastructure among small and diversified farms that market their products directly to consumers. In addition to extending the growing season, research has strongly indicated that high tunnels can increase yield, enhance shelf life, and improve the quality of crops grown. The objective of this study was to gain a better understanding, from the perspective of farmers, of the challenges and opportunities associated with adopting high tunnels for specialty crops in Indiana. We collected information through a case study that included questionnaires and in-depth interviews with 20 farmers. We found that the additional labor and time requirements of high tunnel production, the increased complexity of high tunnel production, soil fertility, and disease management, and limited winter markets posed the greatest challenges. The ability to differentiate their products based on higher quality and longer shelf life, the ability to obtain a premium price, the ability to have a source of income during the off-season, and the ability to produce complementary crops were the most important opportunities for using high tunnels. This research implied ways to expand opportunities and reduce barriers to maximizing the potential of high tunnels. Understanding the human dimensions of managing high tunnels is important for providing extension educators and Natural Resources Conservation Service field staff with better knowledge of the common difficulties and benefits of this technology so they are better able to advise farmers considering investing in a high tunnel. A focus on the human dimensions is also helpful for identifying research priorities to evaluate new approaches to decreasing problems and increasing benefits. Consequently, this study provided an in-depth understanding of farm-level challenges associated with high tunnel adoption to improve future research in diverse fields.

Mesoscale Soil Moisture Patterns Revealed Using a Sparse In Situ Network and Regression Kriging

AbstractSoil moisture spatial patterns with length scales of 1‐100 km influence hydrological, ecological, and agricultural processes, but the footprint or support volume of existing monitoring systems, for example, satellite‐based radiometers and sparse in situ monitoring networks, is often either too large or too small to effectively observe these mesoscale patterns. This measurement scale gap hinders our understanding of soil water processes and complicates calibration and validation of hydrologic models and soil moisture satellites. One possible solution is to utilize geostatistical techniques that have proven effective for mapping static patterns in soil properties. The objective of this study was to determine how effectively dynamic, mesoscale soil moisture patterns can be mapped by applying regression kriging to the data from a sparse, large‐scale in situ network. The fully automated system developed here uses several data sets: daily soil moisture measurements from the Oklahoma Mesonet, sand content estimates from the Natural Resource Conservation Service Soil Survey Geographic Database, and an antecedent precipitation index computed from National Weather Service multisensor precipitation estimates. A multiple linear regression model is fitted daily to the observed data, and the residuals of that model are used in a semivariogram estimation and kriging routine to produce daily statewide maps of soil moisture at 5‐, 25‐, and 60‐cm depths at 800‐m resolution. During over 3 years of operation, this mapping system has revealed complex, dynamic, and depth‐specific mesoscale patterns, reflecting the shifting influences of both soil texture and precipitation, with a mean absolute error of ≤0.0576 cm3/cm3 across all three depths.

Talking SMAAC: A New Tool to Measure Soil Respiration and Microbial Activity

This work was provided by the U.S. Department of Agriculture NRCS Conservation Innovation Grant #69-3A75-14-260 and also provided in part by the U.S. Department of Agriculture National Resources Conservation Service Virginia Agricultural Experiment Station and the Hatch Program of the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Strong Nonagricultural Demand Keeps Agricultural Land Values Increasing

The Florida Land Value Survey, conducted by the Food and Resource Economics Department at the University of Florida, provides estimates of the value of different types of agricultural land for geographic regions of the state. The survey questionnaire was designed to obtain estimates of the market value for different types of land as of May 2005. Survey respondents included rural appraisers, farm lenders, real estate brokers, farm managers, land investors, county extension agents, personnel from the Farm Services Agency and the Natural Resource Conservation Service, county property appraisers, and other persons who develop and maintain information about rural land values in their areas. Respondents provided 185 usable county reports for the 2005 survey. This document is FE625, one of a series of the Food and Resource Economics Department, UF/IFAS Extension. Original publication date January 2006. FE625/FE625: Strong Nonagricultural Demand Keeps Agricultural Land Values Increasing (2005) (ufl.edu)

Land Judging and Homesite Evaluation -- Pointers for Coaches and Contest Officials

The purpose of this Fact Sheet, as a revision of an earlier edition of NOTES IN SOIL SCIENCE No. 28, is to expand upon and clarify several points in Circular 242. The information herein is not to be considered an errata sheet or a correction of the current Circular. Circular 242 should continue to serve as the basic teaching tool and official scoring guide for use in land judging and homesite evaluation activities throughout Florida. This publication is intended for use by vo-ag teachers, 4-H agents and leaders, Natural Resources Conservation Service personnel, Conservation District officials, and others involved in training contest participants or in conducting contests at the district or state level. The format and captions of this Fact Sheet follow those of Circular 242. This document is Fact Sheet SL226, a fact sheet of the Soil and Water Science Department, Florida Cooperative Extension Service, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida. Original publication date: July 2005.

SELECTION OF ECOLOGICAL SITES BY PRONGHORN IN TRANS-PECOS REGION OF TEXAS

Rangeland managers use the ecological site concept to segment rangelands into discrete areas capable of supporting a particular suite of vegetation. Ecological site data are easily accessible and standardized in the Soil Survey Geographic Database published by the Natural Resources Conservation Service. While widely used in range management, wildlife managers have only recently explored the usefulness of ecological site data in delineating wildlife habitat. We undertook this study to assess pronghorn selection of ecological sites across two seasons (warm-dry and warm-wet) following translocation to the Trans-Pecos region of Texas in 2013. We observed seasonal shifts in selection with selection of draws and limestone hills in the warm-wet season and selection of clay flats in both seasons. Pronghorn avoided other sites or used them in proportion to their availability. Our results suggest that ecological sites provide a valid means of segmenting wildlife habitats and identifying important sites for management of pronghorn.

Regional Conservation Partnership Program: A Tool for Natural Resources Management Across Watersheds

This article introduces the Regional Conservation Partnership Program of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources Conservation Service. The program encourages partnerships among Extension professionals, conservation agency representatives, and farmers that focus on addressing natural resources concerns through the development and implementation of regional watershed plans. These plans assist farmers in practicing sustainable crop and animal production methods. Extension professionals will find the program useful as a tool for building collaborations at watershed and regional scales to promote agricultural production practices that enhance natural resources conservation.

NONSTATIONARY SPATIAL PREDICTION OF SOIL ORGANIC CARBON: IMPLICATIONS FOR STOCK ASSESSMENT DECISION MAKING.

The Rapid Carbon Assessment (RaCA) project was conducted by the US Department of Agriculture's National Resources Conservation Service between 2010-2012 in order to provide contemporaneous measurements of soil organic carbon (SOC) across the US. Despite the broad extent of the RaCA data collection effort, direct observations of SOC are not available at the high spatial resolution needed for studying carbon storage in soil and its implications for important problems in climate science and agriculture. As a result, there is a need for predicting SOC at spatial locations not included as part of the RaCA project. In this paper, we compare spatial prediction of SOC using a subset of the RaCA data for a variety of statistical methods. We investigate the performance of methods with off-the-shelf software available (both stationary and nonstationary) as well as a novel nonstationary approach based on partitioning relevant spatially-varying covariate processes. Our new method addresses open questions regarding (1) how to partition the spatial domain for segmentation-based nonstationary methods, (2) incorporating partially observed covariates into a spatial model, and (3) accounting for uncertainty in the partitioning. In applying the various statistical methods we find that there are minimal differences in out-of-sample criteria for this particular data set, however, there are major differences in maps of uncertainty in SOC predictions. We argue that the spatially-varying measures of prediction uncertainty produced by our new approach are valuable to decision makers, as they can be used to better benchmark mechanistic models, identify target areas for soil restoration projects, and inform carbon sequestration projects.

Building geochemically based quantitative analogies from soil classification systems using different compositional datasets.

Soil heterogeneity is a major contributor to the uncertainty in near-surface biogeochemical modeling. We sought to overcome this limitation by exploring the development of a new classification analogy concept for transcribing the largely qualitative criteria in the pedomorphologically based, soil taxonomic classification systems to quantitative physicochemical descriptions. We collected soil horizons classified under the Alfisols taxonomic Order in the U.S. National Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) soil classification system and quantified their properties via physical and chemical characterizations. Using multivariate statistical modeling modified for compositional data analysis (CoDA), we developed quantitative analogies by partitioning the characterization data up into three different compositions: Water-extracted (WE), Mehlich-III extracted (ME), and particle-size distribution (PSD) compositions. Afterwards, statistical tests were performed to determine the level of discrimination at different taxonomic and location-specific designations. The analogies showed different abilities to discriminate among the samples. Overall, analogies made up from the WE composition more accurately classified the samples than the other compositions, particularly at the Great Group and thermal regime designations. This work points to the potential to quantitatively discriminate taxonomically different soil types characterized by varying compositional datasets.

Analysis and Extent of Santa Fe River Flooding in North Florida Attributed to Rainfall and Wind Damage Associated with Hurricane Irma

The Santa Fe River (SFR) is within the north Florida area of the regional Floridan aquifer system. The extent of recent flood damage in the SFR and tributaries in Bradford County has been attributed to rainfall and wind damage to trees associated with Hurricane Irma, September 2017. Implications of the determined cause of a disaster can include the allocation of disaster relief funds. Bradford County, Florida obtained approximately $2.5 million from the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) for emergency flood abatement assistance and $255,875 from the Suwannee River Water Management District (SRWMD), combined with $13,750 in-kind match provided by the county, based on the attributed cause of that damage to rainfall and winds from Hurricane Irma. On January 2, 2018, Bradford County commissioners also approved grant applications to the SRWMD for $2.2 million for Alligator Creek Flood Mitigation and for $90,250 for Hampton Lake Canal to Santa Fe River Flood Mitigation, requiring in-kind matches from the county of $110,000 and $4750, respectively. Our study analyzed historical precipitation data for the SFR Basin and headwaters from 1895 through 2017 and recorded discharge and gage heights from the United States Geological Survey (USGS) to evaluate that presumed cause of flood damage in that basin and to provide a better understanding of historical relationships between precipitation, gage data and flooding in that basin. Recorded USGS peak gage height and Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) also were used to illustrate the lateral extent and relative depth of flooding associated with an extreme precipitation event in the lower SFR vicinity of O’Leno State Park. Finally, we evaluated the condition of the trees in the SFR Basin as an indicator of long-term anthropogenic groundwater alterations. Those data and analyses did not support the conclusion that Hurricane Irma was the only cause of the magnitude and extent of SFR flooding and tree damage in Bradford County and adjacent counties. Other contributors to stream flow in the SFR basin include heavy mineral mining wastewater discharges that have exceeded the maximum discharge volume of “40 million gallons a day” (MGD) under the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit issued by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) to the Chemours Company TT LLC (Chemours, formerly DuPont) for Trail Ridge mining operations. The magnitude of those discharges suggests that those discharges and extensive Trail Ridge mining in Baker, Bradford, Clay, and Duval Counties contributed to the flooding and were a factor in the tree destruction in the SFR Basin.

Determining Highly Erodible Land Utilizing LIDAR Data

Determining Highly Erodible Land Utilizing LIDAR Data McDermott, Michael PhD; Megan Baker, M.S. Abstract Light Detection and Ranging collects a vast amount of data regarding the earth’s surface. Utilizing this data to produce accurate field maps for a specific purpose was a goal for the Natural Resource Conservation Service. Field testing of the software tools designed to utilize LIDAR data was completed by the researchers. The results of the field test created land maps revealing the areas of Highly Erodible Land (HEL) and other classifications based upon erodibility. The utilization of LIDAR data created maps of extreme accuracy without the traditional on-site field data collection process. The researchers concluded that the software was a major time saving process that could replace in the field surveying and data collection. The most limiting factor in the software mapping process is the user’s learning curve to learn the new software intricacies. Full Text: PDF DOI: 10.15640/jaes.v8n1a7

Flash flood susceptibility modeling using geo-morphometric and hydrological approaches in Panjkora Basin, Eastern Hindu Kush, Pakistan

This main objective of this study is flash flood susceptibility modeling using geo-morphometric and hydrological approaches in Panjkora Basin, Eastern Hindu Kush, Pakistan. In the study region, flash flood is one of the horrific and recurrent hydro-meteorological disasters causing damages to human life, their properties, and infrastructure. Watershed modeling approach is implemented to delineate Panjkora Basin, its sub-basins, and extract drainage network by utilizing Advance Space borne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer Global Digital Elevation Model as an input data in geographic information system environment. A total of 30 sub-basins were delineated using threshold of 25 km2. The geo-morphometric parameters of each sub-basin were computed by applying Hortonian, Schumm, and Strahler Geo-morphological laws. The value of each parameter was normalized and aggregated into geo-morphometric ranking number depicting the degree of flash flood susceptibility. Surface run-off depth of each sub-basin is estimated by applying Natural Resource Conservation Service Curve Number hydrological model. Both models outputs were integrated by implementing weighted overlay analysis technique and susceptibility map is obtained. The resultant map was analyzed and zonated into very high, high, moderate, low, and very low flash flood susceptibility zones. These zones were spread over an area of 1441 km2 (27%), 1950 km2 (36.5%), 1252 km2 (23.4%), 604 km2 (11.3%), and 98 km2 (1.8%), respectively. Spatially, the very high susceptible zone is located in the upstream areas, characterized by snow covered peaks, steep gradient (> 30°), and high drainage density (> 1.7 km/km2), and geologically dominated by igneous and metamorphic lithological units. Analysis indicated that flash flood susceptibility is directly increases with increasing surface run-off and geo-morphometric ranking number. A new model is developed to geo-visualize the spatial pattern of flash flood susceptibility. Accuracy of the model is assessed using global positioning system-based primary data regarding past-flood damages and flood marks. The study results can facilitate Disaster Management Authorities and flood dealing line agencies to initiate location-specific flood-risk reduction strategies in highly susceptible areas of Panjkora Basin. Similarly, this methodological approach can be adapted for any highland river system.