There is increasing enthusiasm around the concept of soil health, and as a result, new public and private initiatives are being developed to increase soil health-related practices on working lands in the United States. In addition, billions of U.S. public dollars are dedicated annually toward soil conservation programs, and yet, it is not well quantified how investment in conservation programs improve soil health and, more broadly, environmental health. The Environmental Quality Incentives Program(EQIP) is one of the major U.S. public conservation programs administered on privately managed lands for which public data are available. In this research, we developed a multi-dimensional classification system to evaluate over 300 EQIP practices to identify to what extent practices have the potential to improve different aspects of soil and environmental health. Using available descriptions and expert opinion, these practices were evaluated with a classification system based on the practices potential to exhibit the following environmental health outcomes: (i) principles of soil health to reduce soil disturbance and increase agrobiodiversity; (ii) a transition to ecologically based management to conserve soil, water, energy and biological resources; and (iii) adaptive strategy to confer agroecosystem resilience. Further, we analyzed nearly $7 billion U.S. dollars of financial assistance dedicated to these practices from 2009 through 2018 to explore the potential of these investments to generate environmental health outcomes. We identified nine practices that fit the highest level of potential environmental health outcomes in our classification systems. These included wetlands and agroforestry related practices, demonstrating that ecologically complex practices can provide the broadest benefits to environmental health. Practices with the greatest potential to improve environmental health in our classification system represent 2-27% of annual EQIP funding between 2009 and 2018. In fiscal year 2018, these practices represented between $13 and 121 million, which represented around 0.08% of total annual USDA expenditures. These classifications and the subsequent funding analysis provide evidence that there is tremendous untapped potential for conservation programs to confer greater environmental health in U.S. agriculture. This analysis provides a new framework for assessing conservation investments as a driver for transformative agricultural change.
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There is increasing enthusiasm around the concept of soil health, and as a result, new public and private initiatives are being developed to increase soil health-related practices on working lands in the United States. In addition, billions of U.S. public dollars are dedicated annually toward soil conservation programs, and yet, it is not well quantified how investment in conservation programs improve soil health and, more broadly, environmental health. The Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) is one of the major U.S. public conservation programs administered on privately managed lands for which public data are available. In this research, we developed a multi-dimensional classification system to evaluate over 300 EQIP practices to identify to what extent practices have the potential to improve different aspects of soil and environmental health. Using available descriptions and expert opinion, these practices were evaluated with a classification system based on the practice's potential to exhibit the following environmental health outcomes: (i) principles of soil health to reduce soil disturbance and increase agrobiodiversity; (ii) a transition to ecologically-based management to conserve soil, water, energy and biological resources; and (iii) adaptive strategy to confer agroecosystem resilience. Further, we analyzed nearly $7 billion U.S. dollars of financial assistance dedicated to these practices from 2009 through 2018 to explore the potential of these investments to generate environmental health outcomes. We identified nine practices that fit the highest level of potential environmental health outcomes in our classification systems. These included wetlands and agroforestry related practices, demonstrating that ecologically complex practices can provide the broadest benefits to environmental health. Practices with the greatest potential to improve environmental health in our classification system represent 2���27% of annual EQIP funding between 2009 and 2018. In fiscal year 2018, these practices represented between $13 and 121 million, which represented ~0.08% of total annual USDA expenditures. These classifications and the subsequent funding analysis provide evidence that there is tremendous untapped potential for conservation programs to confer greater environmental health in U.S. agriculture. This analysis provides a new framework for assessing conservation investments as a driver for transformative agricultural change.
Download Zip File Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) U.S. data at state, county and individual practice level for soil and environmental health, 2009-2018
The Fourth National Climate Assessment (NCA4) provided the most up-to-date understanding of climate change and its effects on the Earth system and on consequences for the United States, including impacts and associated risks, along with approaches to coping with these effects. It is intended to provide guidance to decision-makers in governmental sectors while, in practice, providing guidance for nongovernmental actors. Its regional and topical chapters highlight current knowledge, uncertainties, gaps in knowledge, and emerging threats. The current knowledge and gaps can help set a research agenda to inform future national, regional, and local climate assessments and thereby support better decision-making. The evolution of the assessment, including greater diversity in participation, and more grounded research in the Northwest represents a growing and deepening engagement with more diverse participants. This shift emphasizes the importance of diversity, inclusion, and a greater acknowledgment of multiple ways of knowing, including local and Indigenous knowledge. The Northwest chapter reflects the broader shift in framing from NCA3 to NCA4 to better understand how climate impacts pose risks to things of value in each sector or region. It considers climate impacts through five broad ways in which humans relate to the environment: natural resource economy; heritage and quality of life; water, transportation, and infrastructure; health and social systems; and frontline communities. We reflect on the assessment process and identify three recommendations to improve the assessment outcomes and processes: seek new ways to 1) engage diverse authors and stakeholders and 2) value and integrate epistemic plurality and different knowledge systems, and 3) when gaps are identified, promote research or data collection efforts designed to fill those gaps. Done well, the assessment can build support and knowledge to facilitate community action, leading to broader resilience.
Average annual temperature over the contiguous United States has increased by 0.7 degrees Celsius (°C; 1.2 degrees Fahrenheit (°F) for the period 1986-2016 compared to 1901-1960 (Vose and others, 2017). Warming temperatures, increased frequency of heat waves, and possibly drought have likely contributed to longer fire seasons, more extreme fire weather, and consequently, larger amounts of sagebrush (Artemisia spp.) burned each year. Future climate warming and alterations in timing of seasonal precipitation may impact the distribution of sagebrush and invasive plants, and further increase the frequency and severity of fires and duration of fire seasons. The degree and spatial extent of these impacts of warming climates on the sagebrush biome will depend on the degree and rate of warming and changes in timing and amount of precipitation. View entire publication here.
Forest Service research dates back almost to the time the national forests were created. The first study in the Pacific Northwest was started in 1909 to determine tree volume, taper, and bark thickness of hundreds of trees. Permanent growth plots were established on the Willamette National Forest in 1910. That same year research began at Wind River (Carson), Washington, to learn more about reforestation followinga wildfire. In 1913, the Wind River Forest Experiment Station was established as the first Forest Service research facility in the Pacific Northwest.
The Rocky Mountain Research Station works with National Forest planning teams to understand and maximize an important resource: forest data collected by the Forest Service’s Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) program. The program’s website, found at https://www.fia.fs.fed. us, provides a variety of tools that allow users to download standard reports and create custom queries that can be used to improve the efficiency of their planning process. By integrating or putting FIA data to work, National Forest planners are able to meet the 2012 Planning Rule’s requirements for monitoring and using the best available science. For example, National Forest planning teams can use FIA data to better understand forest characteristics and conditions using readily available data and FIA analysis skills. Additional information on FIA resources for the Interior West region can be found at https://www.fs.usda.gov/rmrs/ interior-west-forest-inventory-analysis-fia. Other resources for National Forest plan revision teams include riparian and groundwater-dependent ecosystems assessments and a nationwide toolset of National Forest Climate Change Maps.
The temperature of water within a river network fluctuates in time and place, creating diverse thermal regimes. This variability has important biological and ecological consequences. Water temperature and changes in temperature trigger changes in the life stages of aquatic organisms.
