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Upper Mississippi River Stewardship Initiative:
Private Lands Conservation for Water
Quality Improvement
The Upper Mississippi Basin Stewardship
Initiative is a private land conservation process to reduce
sediment and nutrient loss and as a result improve water quality
within the Upper Basin. It is a dynamic process designed to
involve the Basin’s stakeholders in the implementation
of the most appropriate private land conservation practices
in the most appropriate places. It is dynamic because we do
not know all the answers that the content and organizational
structure must evolve through the participation of stakeholders.
It is developing in response to concerns about our society’s
ability to sustain cost-effective agriculture and the environmental
infrastructure that supports our inexpensive food and fiber
production. As our farmers are faced with an ever shrinking
margin, their ability to both implement costly conservation
practices and continue to profitably produce their products,
diminishes. The Initiative recognizes a public responsibility
to provide incentives to protect and sustain our natural resources,
and to offset a farmers risk in participation. It recognizes
a public responsibility to design and implement a program
that take full advantage of existing capabilities, reducing
redundancy and increasing the effectiveness of each Federal
and private dollar spent. It recognizes the importance of
good science and the need to fill gaps in our knowledge about
how well certain management practices work in differing environmental
situations. That stewardship of our natural resources, our
land resources and our agricultural economic and cultural
resources are mutually interdependent.
The fundamental Stewardship Initiative’s
philosophies are: stakeholder leadership and oversight; voluntary
participation in private land conservation; a long-term adaptive
management philosophy allowing for the program to change in
response to "lessons learn" in its implementation;
sound science to support decision making; and regular public
and congressional reporting on success and/or failures.
The Initiative assumes that sediment
and nutrients losses result from agricultural practices, in-stream
erosion, and urbanization of rural areas. It is based on voluntary,
incentive-based best management practices applied on private
lands. Information will be developed to insure that the best
practices for achieving specific results are applied in the
right places. The Initiative utilizes existing Federal, State,
and local programs to fund and implement these practices.
It will enhance the capabilities of existing watershed-based
organizations struggling to achieve similar objectives, and
will create new watershed-based alliances in problematic areas
currently not being addressed.
Stakeholders are all groups or individuals
that are impacted by management of watersheds within the Upper
Mississippi Basin. This includes but not be limited to farm
organizations, agribusiness, financial institutions, tribes,
local governments, environmental conservation groups, land
owners and managers, watershed alliances, soil and water conservation
groups, and other organizations representing the public like
recreation, hunting, fishing, and civic groups. As the watershed
scale increases from the local urban stream to the major Mississippi
River tributaries stakeholder definition and participation
will change. Stakeholder groups will both change and become
more encompassing. They may include more representative groups
or organizations than local watershed-based stakeholders would
be defined as.
What is the problem
and why do we need to do something different?
The problem is that sediment and nutrients are being transported
from the land to the streams, rivers, and lakes. This results
in the loss of habitat for all animals that live in and around
our streams, rivers, and lakes. Resultant water quality impacts
cause significant increases in treatment costs for both rural
landowners and cities. Sediment clogs our roadway ditches,
drainage ways, and tile systems. Lost soil represents a lost
resource to the producer. Nutrient loss represents revenue
in both time and dollars flushed from the fields. Urban growth
results in vast areas cleared of vegetation, exposing the
soil to severe erosion by both wind and rain. Streams, which
have accumulated tons of sediment through the many years where
soil was not protected and valued, continue to release sediment
from their eroding banks. This is significant because society
funds buffers strips and stream setback programs to prevent
erosion, yet these streams continue to dump their load, irrespective
of societies investment in keeping them from doing so. All
this results in significant cost to society.
It is important to acknowledge that
farmers have made tremendous progress in changing the way
they manage their land and preserve their soil resources.
Over the last twenty years farmers in many watersheds have
formed relationships to better manage their land and water
quality resources. To try and optimize how the few resources
available through their States and the Federal government
are spent to improve private land management and the resultant
water quality improvements. However, today’s agricultural
economy presents farmers with the challenge of operating on
ever reducing margins. Crop prices are at all time lows with
the potential of becoming a new norm, not just a low point
on the curve. This creates a growing incentive to maximize
production sometimes at the expense of their land stewardship
ethic. It also creates a greater risk in participating in
the currently available incentive programs. Extra nitrogen
in the spring might seem like a good hedge against an untimely
rainfall, or fall plowing with the old moldboard might seem
like a little less risking way to prepare for spring planting.
Conservation practices that have seemed a luxury to participate
in may not be continued. Society must shoulder part of the
cost of the cheap food and fiber we for granted every time
we walk into the grocery store.
What
about our existing programs and efforts?
Core4/CTIC, Fishable Waters Act, existing watershed alliances,
Section 319 of the Clean Water Act, Dept. of Ag’s EQIP
others?
There are many millions of dollars
currently being spent trying to address this problem. There
are many Federal, State, local, and private efforts underway
addressing various aspects of it including education, management
incentives, and regulations. However, there is no coordinated
effort that links all the good attempts, that brings the required
amount of resources to bear on the problems, that shares the
many "lessons learned", or that tries to efficiently
spend our tax dollars in a single integrated manner to accomplish
a focuses set of goals and objectives. We need to build on
these good efforts like the progress that CTIC’s CORE4
effort is making at sharing good information, success stories,
and references. To build on the successes that numerous Watershed
Alliances, Land Conservation groups, and Soil and Water Conservation
districts have made in specific sites in the Basin. We need
to learn from these, to build on them, and expand what we
have learned so we can provide similar benefits across the
Basin. We need to insure that we have common goals with the
resources to accomplish them. But, we also need to recognize
the way we are doing business today will not work. We need
a consolidate and integrated Federal, State, and local approach
to secure the resources necessary to do the job, then ensure
that that job is done right.
What are the Initiative’s
components?
Successful implementation
of this initiative and its philosophies will result in benefits
to natural resources and stakeholders from farmers to fishermen.
But, because It is a long-term, complex effort, it must be
conducted using a well-planned, phased approach.
I. Prelegislation Planning Phase 1
This pre-legislation planning phase is critical to partnership
development, developing trusted relationships, defining organizational
and operational structure, and to clearly scope each of the
Initiatives complex components. This phase is expected to
take approximately one year. It is designed to use draft legislation
as a tool to build consensus on Initiative content and and
structure. The resulting product planning product will be
an authorizing Bill and a strategic implementation plan representing
stakeholders input. This phase will include the following
tasks:
- Partnership development. Through
briefing papers, individual contacts and meetings clearly
define for stakeholder groups what the Initiative is, its
benefits, costs, and value to them. Provide Stakeholders
interested in a partnership relationship with the opportunity
to assist in evolving the Initiative to reflect their priorities
and concerns, insuring the resulting Initiative represents
input from the collective and expanding partnership.
- Plan Development and Scoping.
As stakeholder partnerships are formed the new partners
will work on scoping and developing specific technical Initiative
components. This effort will be conduct with the assistance
and support of appropriate Federal and State agencies with
technical or legal expertise in each of the technical areas.
Specific scoping tasks will include:
- Governance or what is the Government
and Citizen relationships. This task is critical because
it will define the relationship between the private,
citizen-based Council that will oversee and advise the
administering Agencies on the Initiative’s implementation.
They would also be responsible for reporting the Initiative’s
status to Congress.
- Coordination. Systematic and
thorough coordination of Initiative tasks with all partners
is critical to fully realize the Initiative’s benefits
and to insure its success. This task will be administered
by the Natural Resources Conservation Service by Cooperative
Agreement with the Resource Studies Centers. Thoroughly
scoping this task, clearly defining partners’ expectations
for coordinating logistics, providing regular briefings,
and to provide comprehensive information on all related
activities to all Initiative partners will be completed.
- Communication and Outreach
will be scoped. This effort will consist of educational
mechanism to develop broad public understanding of agricultural
economics, management practices, environmental relationships,
public stewardship responsibilities, and relationship
between the public, its cost of living, and agriculture.
It will consider numerous existing models of outreach
and education currently operating around the country.
These must be evaluated, extracting the best of each
to put together and effective outreach and communication
program.
- Water Quality Monitoring Program.
The water quality monitoring program will be designed
using three critical constraints. First, it will be
based on clearly defined goals and objectives. Second,
design and development will be done to strict scientific
standards, using the best science available. Third,
all private lands monitoring information will be treated
as confidential information. Data management and use
protocols will be developed to permit the information
to be used in a manner supporting Initiative related
decision making. The protocols will also insure that
site specific landowner information is protect and defined
as confidential. This will be insured and protected
by managing this information in a non government data
management system housed at the Resources Studies Center.
- Public Water Quality Monitoring
Program. This program will be designed to involve the
public in water quality monitoring, creating public
ownership and involvement. This program is expected
to be a public involvement effort, modeled after similar
and highly successful efforts that are part of the Chesapeake
Bay Restoration Program.
- Agricultural and Best Management
Research. This program will look specifically at how
best management practices vary in their applicability
and effectiveness as physical environmental conditions
vary. This will also include evaluation of the variability
in environmental conditions (soils, climate, slope,
etc.). The driving assumption is that not all practices
are effective or appropriate in all places. That we
need information to support that goal of implementing
the best practice in the best places.
This research effort will also address the issue of
urban contributions, its magnitude, management, and
future significance.
- Economic Agricultural Research.
This program will look at current economic and market
trends for agriculture. It will use this information
primarily to assess farmers risk in participation in
incentive programs. It will also be used in the outreach
and communication to build a public awareness of the
changing agriculture environment, its risks and potential
societal impacts, and the future trends it presents
for agriculture.
- Aquatic Nutrient and Sediment
Transport Research. This program will look at the relationship
between specific agricultural management practices and
water quality in streams, lakes, and rivers. It will
be used to help define priority management area and
practices in those areas. It will look at the relationship
between transport processes at each increasing aquatic
system scale (for example from tile, to stream, to river,
to the Mississippi River).
- Integrative Modeling. This
effort will integrate results from all research and
monitoring efforts to describe the benefits and significance
of each increment of management on the specific watershed,
its related river system, the Mississippi River, and
ultimately the Gulf of Mexico. It will be used to assess
progress in achieving local and regional goals. To related
the amount of investment and resulting sediment and
nutrient reductions to the Mississippi River and inputs
to the Gulf.
- Grant Program. The Grant Program
will provide funds to develop new ideas, crop systems,
management practices, etc., that can result in economic
agricultural sustainability and reducing sediment and
nutrient loss to the aquatic systems of the Mississippi
Basin.
Results for this planning phase will
result in an Initiative implementation plan, and legislation
reflecting all input to date. Currently, we expect to use
a draft legislative framework as a tool to input results from
the above process. That the draft framework for Congress to
starting working on will be available in March 2000, and would
reflect output of the Partnership Development step of the
Pre legislation planning phase. That date reflects the objective
of having legislation drafted for consideration by the 107th
Congress.
II. Post Appropriation Phase 2 (years
1-3)
Once the Initiative is Authorized and subsequently funds are
appropriated, each component will be implemented. They will
include the technical components plus a new planning effort
occurring during the last year of this Phase. Based on what
is learned during the monitoring, research, outreach and communication,
grants, etc. the Advisory Council will formulate a strategy
for delivering new technical assistance resources, within
targeted areas, to achieve the Initiatives sediment and nutrient
reduction goals.
III. Post Appropriation Phase 3 (years
4-10)
This is the point where the Initiative begins to do what it
is designed to do, provide targeted technical assistance to
reduce sediment and nutrient reductions within the Mississippi
River Basin. The following will occur:
- The Advisory Council will oversee
and advise the administering Federal, State, and local organizations
on the Initiative’s implementation.
- Coordination will continue as
a support function for the Advisory Council.
- Outreach and communication will
continue as in Phase 2.
- All research will begin a phase
out. It is assumed that key data gaps will be filled and
the need for continued research will diminish.
- Modeling will continue as an operation,
planning and assessment tool. Developed models will be updated
and maintained. Significant new modeling efforts are not
expected.
- The Grant Program will continue
with outcomes continually evaluated by the Council and administering
Agencies.
- The Department of Agriculture
will make a significant increase in technical assistance
using a targeted, adaptive, and accountable approach to
their implementation, application, and assessment. The Department
will fully involve the Council and partner agencies in the
subsequent implementation and assessment.
What will the Initiative cost? The
Ten year budget is $1.1 billion. As a comparison to the South
Florida Restoration Program, it represents less than 10% per
acre investment.
What do we need to
do next?
The next and most important
steps in the Stewardship Initiative’s development are
meeting with stakeholder groups, defining their concerns and
expectations, reflecting those concerns in the Initiative’s
design, identifying leaders within the stakeholder groups
that can provide guidance to the Initiative’s development
and subsequent implementation. Leaders that can ensure that
the Initiatives guiding principles, goals and objectives are
being met in its administration and implementation. The stakeholder
groups need to meet and develop consensus on a common purpose,
attainable goals, what would be the best use of existing talents,
develop mechanisms for effective communication, and finally,
develop a flexible organization to support all of the above.
Formation of this support, advisory, and communication organization
is one of the highest priorities. That process will allow
stakeholders that are potential partners, to discuss their
issues and concerns. To develop a relationship with other
stakeholders and make a decision as to whether or not they
can become partners in developing common goals and subsequently
work together to oversee the Initiative’s implementation.
This step is crucial to the Initiative’s success.
Following partnership and program
development, individual Initiative components must be scoped
out as to their specific objectives, where and how they should
be accomplished with the best use of existing talents.
How do I get additional
information?
For additional information
please contact Barry Drazkowski at the Resource Studies Center,
phone (507) 457-6925, e-mail bdrazkow@smumn.edu, and FAX (507)457-6604.
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