Laserfiche WebLink
<br />001860 <br /> <br />Georgias WATER/FAIR Project Features Farmers in Field Sampling <br /> <br />"Seeing is believing." That bit of common sense was all that was needed to create a unique <br />approach to assessing the impact of management practices on agricultural nutrient runoff in <br />Georgia. This new approach features water quality and runoff monitoring by producers on their <br />own lands since the data they collect has been found to be of the same quality as that collected by <br />professional water quality technicians. <br /> <br />Dory Franklin, a geographer and doctoral student who works for the USDA Agricultural Research <br />Service CARS) in Watkinsville, Georgia, helped develop the project, which is funded by the <br />Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education CSARE) program. The official name for the <br />Georgia initiative is WATER/FAIR, Watershed Assessment Through Ecological Research/Farmers <br />Active in Research. The project was developed by Franklin and a team of agricultural producers, <br />educators, researchers, and students to determine sustainable management practices that protect <br />water quality and to identify incentives needed for producers to adopt such practices. Sustainable <br />farming includes keeping soil-and its nutrients-on the land and out of surface and ground waters. <br />The team has carried out four objectives under the initiative. <br /> <br />First, they assessed the spatial and temporal nitrogen and phosphorus inputs into the Rose Creek <br />and Greenbrier Creek watersheds, and examined linkages to land management practices. The team <br />collected base flow water quality data for nitrate, ammonium, orthophosphate, total nitrate, total <br />phosphorus, pH, and temperature on first through fourth order stream segments beginning in <br />December 1998 for 14 agricultural management systems in five categories (grazing land, cropland, <br />forests, poultry, and dairy). Samples were taken from streams by using rising flow samplers and <br />conventional methods and from fields by using small in-field "dustpan" runoff collectors. Stream <br />networks and watershed boundaries were digitized from digital graphics. Digital elevation models <br />with 30-meter resolution were imported, rectified, and joined. In addition, a global positioning <br />system was used to gather positional data on some of the research plots with known contributing <br />areas (2-meter resolution). A comparative analysis of several computer techniques for identifying <br />contributing areas showed that some techniques could identify contributing areas within less than <br />1.0 percent of the known contributing areas. <br /> <br />Second, the team compared volunteer-assessed nitrogen and phosphorus water quality data to <br />technician-collected data using field test (Hach) kits and laboratory analysis of the same samples. <br />Test kits were collected and recalibrated in the laboratory for the second set of reagents for quality <br />assurance. Franklin developed a unique method for standardizing the shaking tempo and time for <br />nitrate analyses. "We needed a way to get everyone on the same page [on the nitrate tests]," <br />Franklin said, "and found that 'Heartland,' a popular country song by Darren Coggan, was exactly <br />the right tempo. We spliced in a segment so it ran exacdy 3 minutes and made tapes for everybody <br />to calibrate the tests. It works great!" The group also conducts comparative analyses of turbidity, <br />both nephelometric (a measure of the density of suspended particles) and colorimetric, as well as <br />total suspended sediments for both base flow and event flows. All farmers in the program have <br />water quality test kits. <br /> <br />Next, the team evaluated the incentives needed to encourage producer adoption of sustainable <br />management practices. They developed and administered a survey on land use/land management <br />impacts on water quality to project participants (farmers, researchers, educators, students) before <br />they started the project. In addition, Dr. Mark Risse and Henry Hibbs of ARS are comparing the <br />results from Farm*A*Syst, a series of environmental self-assessments addressing specific areas of <br />concern, with water quality impacts (nutrient concentrations coming in the farm minus nutrient <br />concentrations leaving the farm). <br /> <br />And finally, the project educates agricultural producers, youth, and the community on nutrient <br />movement and its potential impacts on water quality. Scientists and educators from the project <br />have participated in the University of Georgia Cooperative Extension Service's statewide training <br />program for extension agents to share information and explore how the project involves farmers in <br />monitoring their management practices to determine which methods are working and which may <br /> <br />18 <br /> <br />NONPOINT SOURCE NEWS.NOTES <br /> <br />MARCH 2000. ISSUE 160 <br />