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Research Project: MANAGING FORAGE AND GRAZING LANDS FOR MULTIPLE ECOSYSTEM SERVICES

Location: Pasture Systems & Watershed Management Research

Title: Monitoring Pasture Best Management Practices in the Spring Creek Watershed of Central Pennsylvania

Authors
item Goslee, Sarah
item Piechnik, Denise -

Submitted to: Meeting Abstract
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: January 5, 2010
Publication Date: January 21, 2010
Citation: Goslee, S.C., Piechnik, D. 2010. Monitoring Pasture Best Management Practices in the Spring Creek Watershed of Central Pennsylvania[abstract]. Meeting Abstract. Page 1.

Interpretive Summary: An interpretive summary is not required.

Technical Abstract: Agricultural Best Management Practices (BMPs) for grazing farms such as streambank fencing, cattle crossings and conservation buffers are intended to reduce sediment and nutrient movement into streams, but the effects of these practices are difficult to measure. A large interdisciplinary team is examining the long-term effects of these BMPs in the Spring Creek watershed of central Pennsylvania. One of the three subwatersheds is mostly forest, with little agriculture. A second subwatershed had BMPs applied to 98% of the agricultural lands in the mid-1990s. The third subwatershed had a smaller proportion of treated area. Data on water quality, fish abundances and stream invertebrates were collected in 1991-2 before treatment, 1999-2003 after treatment, and in 2007-2009 to assess long-term effects. BMP placement effects - are some sites more effective than others? - are being studied using high-resolution aerial data. The third component is a social and economic analysis of attitudes toward BMP installation, maintenance, or abandonment. This project is ongoing, but preliminary results suggest that BMPs do improve water quality, and that fish and invertebrates respond to agricultural management.

   

 
Project Team
Skinner, Robert - Howard
Soder, Kathy
Goslee, Sarah
Adler, Paul
 
Publications
   Publications
 
Related National Programs
  Food Animal Production (101)
  Pasture, Forage and Rangeland Systems (215)
  Bioenergy (213)
 
Related Projects
   PASTURELAND CONSERVATION EFFECTS ASSESSMENT PROJECT LITERATURE SYNTHESEIS
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   MECHANISTIC MODELING OF MULTISPECIES PASTURE GROWTH AND MANAGEMENT
   INTEGRATED PASTURE-CROP ROTATION
   GRAZINGLAND CONSERVATION ASSESSMENT
   GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS AND NITRATE LOSSES FROM ORGANIC SOILS IN DAIRY FARMING SYSTEMS IN NORTHERN GERMANY
   REGIONAL DISTRIBUTION AND ABUNDANCE OF BIOFUEL AND FORAGE SPECIES
   IMPACT OF CONSERVATION PRACTICES ON NUTRIENT TRANSPORT AND FATE IN PASTURE SYSTEMS
   REGIONAL CORN STOVER REMOVAL IMPACT STUDY - AMES (II)
   ASSISTING ORGANIC DAIRY PRODUCERS TO MEET THE DEMANDS OF NEW AND EMERGING MILK MARKETS
   GRAZING LANDS CEAP
   GREENHOUSE GAS LIFE CYCLE ANALYSIS OF BIOCHAR EFFECTS ON MARGINAL LAND CONVERSION TO SWITCHGRASS PRODUCTION
 
 
Last Modified: 05/19/2013
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