Nine steps for conservation planning

HENRY, Ill. — Planning and implementing a conservation practice could appear to be a daunting task, but resources and professional help is in place to provide the assistance needed.

In north-central Illinois, the Marshall-Putnam Soil and Water Conservation District, Marshall-Putnam Natural Resources Conservation Service and The Wetland Initiative recently hosted an educational program to inform farmers and landowners of the process.

“Conservation planning seems like a long process, but is not very difficult with the staff we have. We have a well-trained staff that will assist along the way and make it very easy to implement a good conservation plan on your farm,” said Dick Marshall, NRCS soil conservationist for Marshall and Putnam counties.

“We have resources here at our local Soil and Water District and at the local NRCS office to provide information to meet your conservation needs for today, tomorrow and the future.”

The Nine-Step Conservation Planning Process

Marshall presented the nine steps of planning and implementing conservation practices on farmland.

1. Identify problems and opportunities. Identify existing resource problems and concerns and potential opportunities in the planning area. This is the step where we always want to get out into the field, get boots on the ground, get a feel of the land.

We’ll have an aerial map, topography map and soils map. The soils and the topography map will give us a general feel of how the lay of the land and what type of practices we can implement.

One of the things with the soils map is the type of soil. Is it a loam, does it have a lot of clay matter, would a certain conservation practice work, is it sandy soil?

We will look at those types of soil textures that can determine what type of structure conservation practice we use. We may have a vegetative practice that may be better suited for a loam soil rather than a sandy soil.

2. Determine objectives. During this step, the farm operators and landowners identify their objectives. A conservationist guides the process so that it includes their needs, values, the resources uses and on-site and off-site ecological protection.

The objectives may need to be revised and modified as new information is learned later in the inventory and analysis stages.

Alternatives are formulated and evaluated and then decisions are made. The objective may not be finalized until Step 4 of the planning process.

3. Inventory resources. Inventory and document the natural resources and their current on-site conditions and effects, as well as the economic and social consideration related to resources.

As part of the collection of analysis, we may be, for example, documenting how wide and long a gully is, where it starts and ends.

We can overlay that on our topography map and then determine what would be best there, like a grass waterway or a water sediment control basin, for example. That depends on where the land is located and on the producer’s objectives, too.

We will then make sure it meets standard specification, and we also see what the conservation practices are doing out there.

4. Analyze data. Study the resource data and clearly define existing conditions for all the natural resources, including limitations and potential for the desired use. This step is crucial to developing plans that will work for a landowner and their land.

It also provides a clear understanding of the baseline conditions and will help evaluate how effective a project is after it has been implemented.

Referring back to the gully as an example and options of a grass waterway or water sediment control basin, the producer may not want to take that much land our of production, so they could have a water sediment basin that can control the gully erosion.

Another factor to consider is there may not be as much maintenance with one alternative over the other. Those are some things we analyze in providing those alternatives.

5. Formulate alternatives. Achieve the goals for the land by solving all identified problems, taking advantage of opportunities and meeting the social, economic and environmental needs of the planning projects.

We’d be looking at that gully erosion and if there’s any runoff that is concerning for potential nutrient management. The producer may say they don’t get a lot of yield in a part of the field because there’s timber there and it has shade problems.

We could put a potential grass practice there that you wouldn’t need to farm, and that is an economic opportunity in one sense because it enhances the soils there and also lessens the cost of the producer to put crop out there that’s not going to produce a good return-on-investment.

6. Evaluate alternatives. The producer is always involved in this process. Any possible positive or detrimental side effects practices of each alternatives are considered.

The NRCS provides no less than two alternatives and what fits the current situation. It depends on the management, how involved the producer needs to be and also the economical piece.

7. Make decisions. NRCS assists the client in making decision. Advantages and disadvantages of each alternative is discussed, timelines for implementation, such as fall versus spring, and obtaining the necessary documents to proceed to this stage, the engineering and conservation plan.

8. Plan implementation. This is the process of carrying out the conservation treatments that make up the planned conservation system — opportunities, planner roles and customer roles.

Opportunities provided are what type of practices you want to do, what’s going to benefit the current situation.

The planner prepares a basic map of the conservation practices, soil map and topography map. We also provide a conservation plan, project design and an outline of the timeline.

In Illinois, the customer’s role is to contact JULIE if any digging is needed. They also hire the contractor — we usually provide a list of several contractors they can call to get bids — and keep up the operation and maintenance of the practice once it’s installed.

9. Evaluate the plan. Conservation planning is an ongoing process that continues long after implementation of a conservation practice.

By evaluating the effectiveness of a conservation plan or a practice within a plan, stakeholders can decide whether to continue with other aspects of an overall area-wide plan.