Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture

New team makes case for targeted conservation

Back to Leopold Letter Spring 2009

Can targeting your investments work for conservation as well as economics? Such an approach not only is possible, but also may be more effective when it comes to conservation practices on Iowa's landscape.

The Leopold Center Ecology Initiative is making a strategic investment in a team of researchers that encourages the targeted use of trees, prairies and other perennials in key parts of the landscape to achieve multiple environmental benefits. They have outlined these benefits in a new four-color publication, A Targeted Conservation Approach for Improving Environmental Quality.

"Not all portions of agricultural landscapes are equally suited to protecting or enhancing environmental quality," said Lisa Schulte Moore, an assistant professor in Natural Resource Ecology and Management who coordinated the publication project. "Of course, we need to maintain the conservation practices we already have, but in this economic climate we also need to be strategic in our efforts to establish new practices where they will have the most impact, such as on land that is marginal for producing commodity crops."

The conservation practices explored by the research team also offer economic opportunities — for hunting leases when wildlife habitat is improved; for switchgrass and trees in emerging carbon and biomass markets; and for agroforestry niche products such as medicinal and culinary herbs.

More importantly, the conservation practices result in major environmental benefits: clean air and water, productive soils, carbon sequestration, diverse wildlife and plant habitat, and biological controls for crop protection.

The team is leading a multi-year research project at the Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge in Jasper County and on nearby private farms. Members also are working on educational materials, landowner surveys and other activities.

"We have a box full of great tools — conservation tillage, grass waterways, field borders, contour buffers, riparian buffers and filters," Schulte Moore said. "But we also need to adopt a landscape view, use more native plants, build wetlands at the end of tile lines, expand our use of cover crops, and create new markets and policies that help landowners adopt these practices where they will do the most good."

About the new group
The team, which calls itself "The Perennializers," includes investigators of several previous projects supported by the Ecology Initiative, as well as new partners and collaborators from several disciplines. The Leopold Center's strategic investment, which will continue for five years, is being used to conduct research related to perennial systems and leverage funds for additional grants from other organizations.

The team project is "Integration of Water, Nutrient and Carbon Cycling Under Diverse Annual Perennial Plant Community Systems in Agricultural Landscapes."

Team members include:

  • Jeri Neal, Leopold Center Ecology Initiative
  • Matt Helmers, ISU Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering
  • Nancy Grudens-Schuck, ISU Agricultural Education
  • Cathy Kling, Center for Agricultural and Rural Development
  • Matt O'Neal, ISU Entomology
  • Matt Liebman, ISU Henry A. Wallace Endowed Chair for Sustainable Agriculture
  • Rick Cruse, Iowa Water Center
  • Keith Schilling, Iowa Department of Natural Resources and Iowa Geological Survey
  • Lisa Schulte Moore, Heidi Asbjornsen, John Tyndall and David Williams, ISU Natural Resource Ecology and Management
  • J. Gordon Arbuckle, Jr., ISU Sociology
  • Cynthia Cambardella and Mark Tomer, USDA-ARS National Soil Tilth Laboratory
  • Randy Kolka, U.S. Forest Service
  • Pauline Drobney, Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge
     

Back to Leopold Letter Spring 2009