Overview:

The purpose of this briefing is to introduce House and Senate staff to the new Agricultural Conservation Planning Framework (ACPF) developed by the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS) after the last farm bill. The ACPF includes a powerful GIS watershed planning tool for producers, county conservation districts, state agencies, and other community stakeholders implementing conservation practices to address nutrient and sediment runoff. After a technical introduction to the ACPF GIS tool by its developers, an NRCS official from Kansas and a trade group from Iowa will talk about their on-the-ground experiences in small-scale watershed planning and why the ACPF is a game-changer for implementing conservation practices and improving water quality.

Please RSVP to glasera@nwf.org

Introduction:

Jamie Konopacky, Attorney and Watershed Policy Fellow, Harvard Environmental Policy Initiative

Expert Panel:

Mark Tomer and Dave James, United States Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service

Dean Krehbiel, State Resource Conservationist, Kansas Natural Resource Conservation Service

Adam Kiel, Iowa Soybean Association Research, Environmental Programs and Services