Location: Cropping Systems and Water Quality Research
Project Number: 5070-21600-001-015-I
Project Type: Interagency Reimbursable Agreement
Start Date: Sep 1, 2026
End Date: Sep 1, 2031
Objective:
Foresters need clear, science-based soil health information and decision tools to preserve and protect productive forestry and agroforestry landscapes. Current soil health interpretation and decision tools, including the Soil Health Assessment Protocol and Evaluation (SHAPE) tool, are designed for cropland and pasture systems. This project fills a national gap in soil health information to develop a robust interpretation tool and technical assistance materials to empower foresters and agroforesters to optimize productivity and boost prosperity.
Approach:
Approach: 1) Develop a comprehensive management survey for forestry and agroforestry systems by October 2026 and develop a nationwide allocation and distribution plan for site recruitment across the U.S. by November 2026 in partnership with NRCS, AGES, the UM-CRA, and the Center for Agroforestry. 2) Landowners will be recruited across the U.S., including on Tribal lands where Tribal Nations choose to participate, to build a robust dataset of approximately 5,500 sites representing the range of management practices applied to forestry and agroforestry working lands. Multiple partners, including NRCS, NACD, AGES, and the Center for Agroforestry, will work together across their networks to identify and recruit landowners. Recruitment will begin no later than December 2026. 3) AGES staff will schedule and conduct the virtual management surveys with each landowner for each identified site. Surveys will begin no later than January 2027. 4) AGES will coordinate with landowners and collect approximately 13,000 soil samples [5,000 in year one (by December 2027), 5,000 in year two (by December 2028), and 3,000 in year three (by August 2029)] and associated on-site information from the selected sites and deliver the samples in accordance with APHIS requirements to the ARS Soil Health Laboratory. Soil sample collection will begin no later than March 2027. 5) Soil samples will be analyzed for a suite of soil characterization, soil fertility, and soil health measurements. Analyses will be conducted across three laboratories: the ARS Soil Health Laboratory in Columbia MO, KSSL in Lincoln NE, and the SHAC in Columbia MO. Transfer of samples from the ARS Lab to KSSL and SHAC will adhere to a mutually agreed upon protocol and timeline approved by APHIS PPQ Officers. Transfer will occur in batches of 500-1000 samples as processed from the field, with anticipated completion of analysis for the first 5,000 by March 2028, the second 5,000 by March 2029, and the final 3,000 by November 2029. 6) The ARS PI will collaborate with USCS to integrate the forestry and agroforestry land use and management information into the SHAPE tool and release two new versions: one at the mid-point of the project (2 yr milestone: December 2028) and a final version at project completion (August 2030). The UCSC Cooperative Agreement will fund a post-doctoral fellow to develop the underlying Bayesian, heteroskedastic, spatially explicit model for the SHAPE tool. The publicly available, online SHAPE tool will be updated and the executable files will be provided to NRCS by September 2030. 7) Soil health reports will be delivered to all participating landowners following the development of the 2028 version of SHAPE. A final report will be provided upon project completion. 8) The ARS PI will collaborate with NRCS on production of technical conservation materials focused on forestry and agroforestry for NRCS staff, TSPs, and forest industry specialists. Initial materials will be co-developed by March 2029, and updated materials will be developed by September 2030. 9) The ARS PI will provide the final dataset to NRCS by September 2030.