| Journal of Soil and Water Conservation Issue |
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The July 2020 issue of the Journal of Soil and Water Conservation includes a special section on the Agricultural Conservation Planning Framework (ACPF), which has been developed at NLAE over the past eight years. The ACPF assists conservation planners and producers in determining how conservation practices can be placed in a watershed to help meet water quality goals. The ACPF provides watershed data and geographic analysis software to evaluate runoff flow pathways and show where different types of practices can be placed to slow water movement and allow natural treatment processes to improve water quality. The approach is not prescriptive and is designed to help engage producers in conservation planning and decision making.
The special section is led by an overview paper that covers the development of the ACPF and training resources available to planners, this effort was led by ACPF enthusiasts at the Universities of Minnesota and Wisconsin, with case-study contributions from several conservation organizations. Two of the papers in the special section are on use of the ACPF for engaging producers in conservation planning, led by social scientists at Purdue University, and watershed planning staff at the Iowa Soybean Association. The remaining papers were led by NLAE researchers, which cover ACPF’s approach to riparian analysis, and present multi-watershed comparisons on water storage/detention, use of saturated buffers, and runoff control practices.
