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ARS Home » Midwest Area » Columbia, Missouri » Cropping Systems and Water Quality Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #234710
Title: Utiliizing Vegetative Buffer Strips to Remove Dissolved and Sediment-Bound Herbicides from Surface Water Runoff

Author
item Lerch, Robert
item LIN, CHUNG-HO - UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI
item GARRETT, HAROLD - UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI

Submitted to: North American Agroforestry Conference
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 5/15/2009
Publication Date: 6/1/2009
Citation: Lerch, R.N., Lin, C., Garrett, H.E. 2009. Utiliizing Vegetative Buffer Strips to Remove Dissolved and Sediment-Bound Herbicides from Surface Water Runoff [abstract]. North American Agroforestry Conference, May 31-June 3, 2009,Columbia, Missouri. p. 41.

Interpretive Summary: Performance-based incentives consist in payments attached to a specified environmental performance measure, for example reduction in nutrient, sediment, pesticide, or bacteria loss from a field or reduction in loading at the mouth of a watershed. The evaluation of the performance requires the definition of a performance measure used to calculate the payments. This paper provides information to enable rational comparison of this proposed approach to conventional approaches. In particular, we discuss issues related to the selection of a measure: scale at which the performance is measured, modeling versus monitoring, and using the measure as an education and assessment tool. Performance measures adopted or considered by watershed stakeholders in several states and for different environmental issues are presented. Watershed managers, policy makers, and extension agents can consider this information to make informed choices among proposed approaches toward improving water quality in streams affected by agricultural nonpoint source pollution.

Technical Abstract: Current federal and state soil and water conservation programs consist primarily of cost-sharing or compensating farmers for implementing a set of pre-defined best management practices which do not consider specific environmental outcomes or cost-effectiveness of the program at the farm or watershed level. An alternative approach, performance-based incentives consists in payments attached to a specified environmental performance measure, for example reduction in nutrient, sediment, pesticide, or bacteria loss from a field or reduction in loading at the mouth of a watershed. The evaluation of the performance requires the definition of a performance measure used to calculate the payments. In this paper, we provide information to enable rational comparison of this proposed approach to conventional approaches. In particular, we discuss issues related to the selection of a measure: scale at which the performance is measured, modeling versus monitoring, and using the measure as an education and assessment tool. Performance measures adopted or considered by watershed stakeholders in several states and for different environmental issues are presented. Watershed managers, policy makers, and extension agents can consider this information to make informed choices among proposed approaches toward improving water quality in streams affected by agricultural nonpoint source pollution.