Targeting farm conservation efforts for improving water quality

Targeting farm conservation efforts for improving water quality can occur at different scales and have different expected outcomes.  One perspective concerns using the right conservation practices on the right farm fields for the purpose of improving the water quality leaving those individual fields. Results from the USDA Conservation Effects Assessment Project (CEAP) suggest half the cropland in the country (146 million acres) has a “high” or “medium” need for nutrient and soil loss conservation treatment. Such acres may be broadly distributed across the rural landscape. Another view on conservation targeting concerns improving water quality in water bodies. In order for farm conservation practices to culminate in measurably cleaner water in specified streams, lakes, or bays, practices need to be spatially concentrated in critical areas draining into the water body of concern and their aggregated pollution reductions need to exceed specific environmental thresholds.

This presentation will review multiple definitions of targeting for cropland-related water quality concerns, including geographic targeting and benefit-cost targeting. For the field-scale water quality effort, a recent nationwide analysis by WRI using CEAP data and models illustrates the most cost-effective distribution of funds available for field-scale nutrient and erosion control. For the in-stream water quality concern, a summary of recent targeted watershed projects and their success rates will be presented and a list of the most important factors to achieve watershed-scale results will be shared. Recommendations for improving both the cost-effectiveness and the environmental performance of federal conservation program funds at both field- and watershed-scales will be provided.