STRIPs Research Team

Go to this research team's website

Purpose

An interdisciplinary team of researchers from several ISU departments and collaborating institutions are investigating native prairie strips as a tool for improving the function and integrity of row-cropped farms. The project name is STRIPs (Science-based Trials of Rowcrops Integrated with Prairies). Formerly known as "the Perennializers," the team is showing that small areas of prairie, strategically placed on the contours and foot slope of a row-cropped watershed, provide multifunctional benefits for farmland health.

The STRIPs experiment began in 2008 on 14 small watersheds at the Neal Smith National Wildlife Refuge. The project has attracted substantial attention and interest from diverse stakeholders, and is currently being designed for demonstration on private farmland.
 

The goals of the STRIPs Research Team:

• Test the potential for obtaining multiple ecosystem service benefits (e.g., water quality, hydrologic regulation, biodiversity, production of commodity goods, quality of life) from watersheds supporting mixtures of annual commodity and perennial prairie plants
• Provide new environmental and production knowledge leading to
  • adoption of new landuse practices,
  • policy enabling conservation enhancing practices and outcomes, and
  • improved environment (water quality, soil health and biodiversity improvements)

Research team resources

• Practices to Improve Water Quality, a two-page fact sheet that highlights 11 conservation practices, including prairie strips
• A Landowner's Guide to Prairie Conservation Strips, a four-page color fact sheet that offers tips for planting and maintaining prairie strips on row-cropped farms
• Incorporating Prairies into Multifunctional Landscapes, a 26-page color publication that looks at ways to incorpoate prairies into farms, how they affect nearby crops, benefits they offer, and resources to establish your own prairie
• A Targeted Approach for Improving Environmental Quality, a 20-page color publication that makes the case for strategic use of trees, prairies and other perennials in key parts of the landscape to result in multiple environmental benefits and only a small change in overall agricultural production
• General flier about the project [PDF]
• Poster - Evaluation of Ecosystem Services [PDF]
• Watch videos about the project
  • Testing a trio: Prairie strips, row crops and birds - Feb. 2012
  • Integrating prairie into cropland - Sustainable Agriculture Land Tenure Initiative, 2011
  • Adding perennials to an annual landscape - Nov 2008
• See photographs from the project
  • Photo gallery of visit to Seth Watkins' farm - June 2012
  • Photo gallery from June 2011 stakeholder field day; report of stakeholder discussions [PDF]
  • Photo gallery from September 2009 field day

Related grant projects

• Investigating opportunities for enhancing farmer adoption of strategically targeted prairie strips in Iowa (P2012-08)
• Blurring the lines between working and conservation lands: Bird use of prairie strips in row-cropped watersheds (E2011-20)
• Optimizing buffer strips for improved ecosystem services (E2009-09)
• The impact of biodiversity services in row crop production in annual verses perennial landscapes (E2006-13)
• Variations in water and nutrient cycling and soil properties during agricultural landscape restoration (2004-E14)

More photos, research papers and profiles of all team members can be found on the STRIPs Research Team website.