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Watershed Academy Webcast: Ten Years of Watershed Assessment in CEAP: Insights and Lessons Learned

  • Lisa Duriancik, M.S., CEAP Watersheds Component Leader, USDA NRCS, Resource Assessment Division
  • Dr. Mark Tomer, Research Soil Scientist, USDA-ARS National Laboratory for Agriculture and the Environment
  • Dr. Deanna Osmond, Professor and Dept. Extension Leader, Soil Science Department, North Carolina State University
  • Dr. Douglas R. Smith, Research Soil Scientist, USDA-ARS Grassland, Soil and Water Research Laboratory in Temple, TX
  • Dr. Roger Kuhnle, Hydraulic Engineer, USDA-ARS National Sedimentation Laboratory, Watershed Physical Processes Research Unit in Oxford, MS
  • Dr. Claire Baffaut, Research Hydrologist, USDA-ARS Cropping Systems and Water Quality Research Unit

Please join us as we review insights and lessons learned from the past 10 years of USDA's Watershed Assessments in the Conservation Effects Assessment Project (CEAP). CEAP addresses USDA's need to quantify the effects and benefits of agricultural conservation practices. The goal of CEAP watershed assessments is to develop scientific understanding and quantify conservation practice effects at watershed scales. The projects are focused on understanding how the suite, timing and spatial distribution of conservation practices influences their effect on local water quality outcomes. Modeling, monitoring and human dimensions approaches were utilized in CEAP watershed projects.

Presentations include recent findings and developments and discussions of some applications of CEAP watersheds results. Also, the presentations synthesize lessons learned to guide watershed-scale conservation addressing water quality and soil concerns and propose opportunities for continued advances. Topic areas include a recently published overview of key findings from ARS CEAP projects as well as new conservation insights related to nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment concerns. These insights can be used to help refine conservation and watershed planning and assessment to increase effectiveness and enhance outcomes of restoration.

CEAP watersheds component is based on a collaborative partnership among USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), Agricultural Research Service (ARS), National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA), and Farm Service Agency (FSA), universities and others including EPA, USGS, NOAA, and numerous state, watershed and local conservation partners and agricultural producers.

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