“Ten Years of Watershed Assessment in CEAP: Insights and Lessons Learned”

Please join us as we review insights and lessons learned from the past 10 years of USDA’s Watershed Assessments in the Conservation Effects Assessment Project (CEAP). CEAP addresses USDA’s need to quantify the effects and benefits of agricultural conservation practices. The goal of CEAP Watershed Assessments is to develop scientific understanding of and quantify conservation practice effects at watershed scales. The projects are focused on understanding how the suite, timing, and spatial distribution of conservation practices influences their effect on local water quality outcomes. Modeling, monitoring and human dimensions approaches were utilized in CEAP Watershed projects.

This webcast will highlight accomplishments and knowledge gained from CEAP Watershed Assessments over the last 10 years as well as related science. Presentations will include recent findings and developments, discuss some applications of CEAP Watersheds results, synthesize lessons learned to guide watershed-scale conservation addressing water quality and soil concerns, and propose opportunities for continued advances. Topic areas will include a recently published overview of key findings from ARS CEAP projects as well as new conservation insights related to nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment concerns and will review various approaches to targeting. These insights can be used to help refine conservation and watershed planning and assessment to increase effectiveness and enhance outcomes of restoration.

CEAP Watersheds component is based on a collaborative partnership among USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), Agricultural Research Service (ARS), National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA), and Farm Service Agency (FSA), universities and others including EPA, USGS, NOAA, and numerous state, watershed and local conservation partners and agricultural producers.

The Webcast presentation will be posted in advance at www.epa.gov/watershedwebcasts. Also, webcast participants are eligible to receive a certificate for their attendance.

Speakers:

• Lisa Duriancik, M.S., CEAP Watersheds Component Leader, USDA NRCS, Resource Assessment Division
• Dr. Mark Tomer, Research Soil Scientist, USDA-ARS National Laboratory for Agriculture and the Environment
• Dr. Deanna Osmond, Professor and Dept. Extension Leader, Soil Science Department, North Carolina State University
• Dr. Douglas R. Smith, Research Soil Scientist, USDA-ARS Grassland, Soil and Water Research Laboratory in Temple, TX
• Dr. Roger Kuhnle, Hydraulic Engineer, USDA-ARS National Sedimentation Laboratory, Watershed Physical Processes Research Unit in Oxford, MS
• Dr. Claire Baffaut, Research Hydrologist, USDA-ARS Cropping Systems and Water Quality Research Unit