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ARS Home » Northeast Area » University Park, Pennsylvania » Pasture Systems & Watershed Management Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #124145
Title: CONCERNS AND RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE WORKGROUPS

Author
item WOLF, ANN - PENN STATE UNIVERSITY
item Sharpley, Andrew
item RESSLER, LEON - PA STATE COOP. EXT. SERV.
item ESSER, TONY - NRCS
item LANYON, LES - PENN STATE UNIVERSITY

Submitted to: CRC Press
Publication Type: Book / Chapter
Publication Acceptance Date: 5/20/2000
Publication Date: 8/20/2000
Citation: Wolf, A., Sharpley, A.N., Ressler, L., Esser, T., Lanyon, L. 2000. Concerns and recommendations of the workgroups. CRC Press. 11 p.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: During the recent Conference "Agriculture and Phosphorus Management: The Chesapeake Bay," delegates broke into four groups to discuss their concerns and opinions and develop recommendations for future policy and research needs. The groups were: soil P testing for environmental risk assessment, nutrient management planning, Best Management Plan development and implementation, and strategic initiatives for managing P. Each workgroup was charged with identifying the main areas of concern and issues within their assigned topic. This paper summarizes the deliberations of each group. Overall, it was felt that: 1) Tools for understanding the extent of agricultural impacts will involve performance measurement (soil tests, magnitude of agricultural production, nutrient balance) and evaluation (normative comparisons of watershed characteristics, agricultural production, and water quality expectations). 2) Tools for change must be multi-scaled and standardized to the perceptual dimensions of watersheds and the functional relations of the ecosystems that overlay them. 3) Robust nutrient management tools must have the capacity to transcend relations among the jurisdictional units that protect the public health, safety, and welfare; incorporate the emphasis of overlaying commercial marketsheds; and reconcile the limitations of our traditional experience- based ethical framework by which human interactions with future needs are interpreted. 4) The current focus on computerized planning tools for farms, research models, and the adoption of stewardship ethics by farmers recognizes only a limited frontier of the evolving relations among environmental perceptions, ecological functions, and the human will to respond.