Download Agricultural Soil and Water Conservation Stewardship

Agricultural Soil and Water
Conservation Stewardship
Sarah Ditmore
Key Topics
 1.) Best ways to manage and conserve soil and water
 2.) How are the tactics to manage said soil and water
also interrelated to wildlife, forestry and aquatic
systems?
 3.) How is the balance between the quality of life
versus the quality of the environment maintained?
 4) Methods farmers can use to conserve stuff and the
different categories that
I should probably be able to
 1) Identify and recommend techniques for conserving
stuff
 2) Describe the role that the feds play in regulating stuff
 3)Identify the concepts of soil quality/health to provide
the needed functions for the conservation planning
processes
 4) Identify various types of soil erosion while utilizing
different methods of to estimate soil erosion to assess
land use impacts*
 5)Explain why land-use planning is necessary for our
ecosystems and the economy to achieve sustainable
agriculture
*methods from 4
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RUSLE equation
Aerial Photographs
Topographical Maps
Soil Maps
USDA Classification Symptoms
Soil Survey
Inter-Rill Erosion: When rain splashes and
water transports the soil over the surface
Rill Erosion: erosion by concentrated flow in
small rivulets
Gully Erosion: Runoff that is scourging and
deeper than one foot (so pretty intense )
Steambank Erosion: when a river/stream
cuts into a bank
The RUSLE equation (revised
universal soil loss equation)
 A = annual soil loss
 R = erosivity of rainfall
 K = erodibility of the soil (function of the soil/what it is
made out of)
 LS = slope legnth/steepness
 C= cropping and management factors (crops grown,
residue cover, surface roughness)
 P = erosion control practices(contour tilling +
planting, strip-croppig, terracing, subsurface damage)
CONTROL THE EROSION
 Contour buffer strips: permanently vegetated strips located between larger
crop strips on sloping land.
 Field borders: bands or strips of permanent vegetation at the edge of a
field.
Filter strips: strips or areas of permanent vegetation used to remove
sediment, organic
 materials, nutrients, pesticides, and other contaminants from runoff.
 Riparian forest buffers: areas of trees and/or shrubs along streams, lakes,
ponds, or wetlands.
 Vegetative barriers: narrow permanent strips of stiff-stemmed, tall,
dense perennial vegetation established in parallel rows perpendicular to the
dominant field slope.
 Grassed waterways: natural or constructed swales where water usually
concentrates as it runs off a field.
 Streambank protection: structures such as fences and stable crossings to
keep livestock out of the streams as well as streambank stabilization with
rocks, grass, trees, shrubs, riprap, or gabions.
The Stewardship
 PA makes up 35% of the Chesapeake Bay Watershed
and its tributaries.
 Although great strides have been made,
contaminated runoff from agriculture, urban and
suburban areas, sewage treatment plants, septic
systems and even air pollution contaminate PA’s
water systems as well as the Bay. How rude.
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Conservation Choices for Maryland
Farmers
 Soil Conservation and Water Quality Plan (SCWQP)
helps farmers protect and enhance the natural
resources that support an productive and profitable
farming operations
 Many of these plans are put into place and they are
modified to fit the specific farm/farmer