Journal of Soil and Water Conservation back issues from November 2002:
Quantifying conservation: a viewpoint from the Soil and Water Conservation Society's executive director. (Home Front).(Editorial)
Nov 01, 2002; ... Think for a minute about where we'd be without USLE or RUSLE. These tools have enabled us to quantify the risk of erosion under different management, in different landscapes, and on different soils. Conservationists using USLE or RUSLE, can present landowners and managers with a suite of ...
Raise your voice: your forum to react to published articles, to exchange ideas, and describe innovative approaches to conservation including legislation. (Your Letters).(Letter to the Editor)
Nov 01, 2002 ... Partnerships make for success Thank you for the recent article, "Modern Day Roosevelt," concerning the Hackberry Flats project in Oklahoma. It has been a tremendous success and Mr. Crawford has been influential to the overall effort and vision of Hackberry Flats. Further ...
Soil Quality Institute. (On the Web).(http://soils.usda.gov/sqi.)(Brief Article)
Nov 01, 2002 ... * The Soil Quality Institute website has moved. The ...
Vadose Zone Journal. (On the Web).(www.vadosezonejournal.org.)(Brief Article)
Nov 01, 2002 ... * New electronic journal dedicated to vadose zone research has been launched at www.vadosezonejournal.org. Through December 2002, you have access to the free-trial Vadose Zone Journal, giving peer-reviewed ...
U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). (On the Web).(http://water.usgs.gov/waterwatch)(Brief Article)
Nov 01, 2002 ... * U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has launched its new, Water Watch website that gives real time state of the Nations waters. At ...
Wildlife stamp to generate money for wetlands. (Notebook).(Brief Article)
Nov 01, 2002 ... The National Wildlife Refuge System is celebrating 100 years of conservation success. On March 14, 2003, a wildlife stamp by artist Ron Louque, depicting two snow geese in flight with the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge lighthouse in the background, will be available for sale. It is ...
USDA seeks comments on Farm and Ranch Lands Protection Program. (Notebook).(Brief Article)
Nov 01, 2002 ... The proposed rule establishes eligibility criteria, state ranking considerations and guidelines for program administration. USDA encourages written comments on the proposed rule from individuals as well as governmental agencies and nongovernmental organizations during the 60-day comment ...
First Environmental Indicators Initiative report released. (Notebook).(Brief Article)
Nov 01, 2002 ... One year after announcing a new initiative to quantify the status and trends in environmental conditions and their impacts on human health, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is releasing a report as the key product of the initiative. November 2002, the Environmental Indicators ...
Augmenting the Certified Forester[TM] program. (Notebook).(Brief Article)
Nov 01, 2002 ... The Society of American Foresters is enhancing its Certified Foresters program by instituting an examination component. Beginning January 1, 2003, all forestry professionals wishing to become certified under the program will need to pass an exam. "The public wants its ...
Urban agriculture has a future. (Notebook).(Council for Agricultural Science and Technology report)(Brief Article)
Nov 01, 2002 ... Agriculture makes a number of contributions to urban communities and these are hoped to form a basis for a partnership to achieve shared goals says a new report from the Council for Agricultural Science and Technology (CAST). Urban and Agricultural Communities: Opportunities for Common ...
AG field management model now better faster. (Notebook).(agricultural)
Nov 01, 2002 ... Soil erosion is a major concern to farmers, so many have adopted reduced-tillage or no-till practices that help retain residue on fields and conserve soil moisture. Although mulching has become common in the real world, the effect of doing so has not been included in a computer ...
Factoids-looking at the world as a village: if the world were a village of 1,000 people. (Notebook).(demographic and ecological statistics)(Brief Article)
Nov 01, 2002 ... * 610 would be Asians * 130 would be Africans * 110 would be Europeans (including the former Soviet states) * 80 would be Latin Americans (including the Caribbean) * 60 would be North Americans * 10 would be Australians, New ...
Resource for exploring soil science at the introductory level. (Notebook).(Brief Article)
Nov 01, 2002 ... A new website, www.pedosphere.com, has launched to provide interactivity for learning and exploring soil science at an introductory level. The user can custom design sample ...
Innovative land sale separates timber rights with surface rights. (Notebook).(Brief Article)
Nov 01, 2002 ... In the first conservation project of its kind in the United States, the timber estate and the surface rights for property, located 40 miles northwest of Knoxville, Tennessee were sold to different buyers. The deal will protect 75,000 acres of forestland on the Cumberland Mountains and ...
Sprawl linked to declining coastal health. (Notebook).(Brief Article)
Nov 01, 2002 ... More than one-half the number of Americans live along the coasts, which comprise only 17 percent of the nation's area. The report, Coastal Sprawl: The Effects of Urban Design on Aquatic Ecosystems in the United States, describes why such trends are a prescription for severe ecological ...
New program offers money for forest and grassland work. (Notebook).(Brief Article)
Nov 01, 2002 ... The National Forest Foundation (NFF) is starting a new program, the NFF Community Assistance Program, where they will give start-up money to newly formed community groups to deal with natural resource management issues on and around national forests and grasslands. Proposals will be ...
Falling short on sustainability goals for the world. (Notebook).(Brief Article)
Nov 01, 2002 ... Sustainability is a large factor in the equation of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals--global targets that the world's leaders set at the Millennium Summit in September 2000. In October, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan warned the world was falling short in meeting ...
Closing the conservation gap. (Notebook).(The World Food Prize International Symposium, 2002)(Brief Article)
Nov 01, 2002 ... A conservation gap exists between what we know we could be doing and what we actually are doing to manage agriculture's effects on water resources. Closing that gap is what the Soil and Water Conservation Society's Executive Director Craig Cox spoke about at The World Food Prize ...
Book describes historical significance of the U.S. Soil Survey. (Notebook).(Profiles in the History of the U.S. Soil Survey)(Book Review)
Nov 01, 2002 ... Just a little over a century ago, soil scientists conducted the first soil surveys that became the foundation of the U.S. soil survey that we know today. Developed for the purpose of aiding farmers with better soil management methods and to increase crop productivity, the earliest official ...
Agroforestry: mapping the way with GIS.(geographic information systems)
Nov 01, 2002; ... The advent of agricultural monocultures in the United States has not only contributed to the decline in water and soil quality, wildlife habitat, and other natural resources, it's also reduced profit margins for many farmers and ranchers (NRC, 1993). Marketing uncertainties, increasing ...
Conservogram: Soil and Water Conservation Society in action.
Nov 01, 2002 ... Chapter turns 50! This past October, the Ontario Chapter of the Soil and Water Conservation Society celebrated their 50th Anniversary. A highly successful dinner with guest speaker, Rt. Hon. Herb Gray, the Canadian Chair of the International Joint Commission (IJC) Canada - USA, ...
Essentials of a national nitrate leaching index assessment tool: a guest research editorial by conservation professionals. (Research Editorial).(Editorial)
Nov 01, 2002; ... Several authors have reported a correlation between land use patterns and higher nitrate-nitrogen ([NO.sub.3]-N) concentrations of underground water resources (Hallberg 1989; juergens-Gschwind 1989; Fletcher 1991; Wylie et al. 1994; Hall 1996). These authors have identified excess nitrogen ...
Assessment of concentrated flow through riparian buffers. (Research).
Nov 01, 2002; ... Riparian buffers are an accepted management practice for reducing runoff of pollutants from agricultural fields to streams. Riparian buffers are strips of perennial vegetation between fields and streams that intercept field runoff and trap pollutants before they can enter ...
Soil quality of two Kansas soils as influenced by the Conservation Reserve Program.
Nov 01, 2002; ... Continuous cultivation and addition of ammonical fertilizers are generally thought to decrease soil quality by altering soil acidity, depleting soil organic matter, disrupting soil structure, and reducing biological activity (Staben et al. 1997, Hill 1990, Lal et al. 1994). In addition, ...
Assessment of runoff and sediment yield using remote sensing, GIS, and AGNPS.(Agricultural Nonpoint Source Pollution Model)
Nov 01, 2002; ... Prediction and assessment of runoff and soil loss from a watershed is important for watershed management. During the last two decades, hydrologic modeling has received considerable attention, and applied research on prediction of soil loss has been widely used by managers. Today, large ...
Modification and performance of the Coshocton wheel with the modified drop-box weir.
Nov 01, 2002; ... Sediment, water-chemistry, and runoff data are often needed for water-quality studies on erosion plots and small watersheds. Research objectives for these studies often require flow measurement under nonstandard channel conditions for typical flow-measuring devices, and/or when large ...
GIS-based spatial indices for identification of potential phosphorous export at watershed scale.(geographic information systems)
Nov 01, 2002; ... Land-use planning for environmentally sustainable agricultural production is a process that demands the availability and processing of large amounts of spatial information in support of decision-making. Assessing land qualities specific to the location of agricultural production systems ...
Soil phosphorus status under restored plant covers established to control land degradation in the Red Soil Region of South China.
Nov 01, 2002; ... The hilly region of red soil spreads widely over seven southern provinces in China. Irrational exploitation has brought about serious consequences, causing severe soil erosion and loss of soil productivity. However, because the region possesses favorable hydrothermal conditions, ...
Nutrient management in the United States. (Special Section).
Nov 01, 2002; ... SPECIAL SECTION INTRODUCTION The following pages of the Journal of Soil and Water Conservation include papers presented at two symposium events held at the 2001 annual conferences of the Soil and Water Conservation Society (SWCS) and the Soil Science Society of America (SSSA) ....
Quantifying the loss mechanisms of nitrogen.
Nov 01, 2002; ... Nitrogen (N) is a key component of the deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), ribonucleic acid (RNA), essential amino acids, and proteins needed for life and growth. Plant and animal production respond significantly to N inputs that correct for N deficiencies. Since N is removed in large quantities ...
Quantifying phosphorus losses from the agricultural system.
Nov 01, 2002; ... Although Phosphorus (P) is one of the least mobile plant nutrients, it is transferred from agricultural lands to water bodies dissolved in surface runoff, attached to eroded sediment, and leached through the soil profile. A large mechanism for losses of P is off-site transport by sediment ...
Nitrogen fate and transport in agricultural systems.
Nov 01, 2002; ... Nitrogen (N) is among the most important elements required in agricultural systems, central to the production of all crop plants, and required for the survival of all living things. Elemental dinitrogen ([N.sub.2]) gas accounts for 78% of the atmosphere and is the most mobile element found ...
The fate and transport of phosphorus in agricultural systems.
Nov 01, 2002; ... Reducing the delivery of phosphorus (P) from agricultural sources to surface and groundwater is the focus of water quality efforts in many watersheds (Sharpley et al. 1994; Carpenter et at. 1998). Water quality problems associated with excess P relate to accelerated eutrophication of ...
Nitrogen modeling for soil management.
Nov 01, 2002; ... Management of nitrogen (N) in agricultural settings has become critical for maintaining crop yields while controlling environmental pollution from nitrate ([NO.sub.3]-N) leaching, nitrous oxide ([N.sub.2]O) greenhouse gas emissions, ammonia ([NH.sub.3]) volatilization, and surface runoff ...
Modeling phosphorus transport in agricultural watersheds: processes and possibilities.
Nov 01, 2002; ... Phosphorus (P), an essential nutrient for crop and animal production, can accelerate freshwater eutrophication (Carpenter et al. 1998; Sharpley 2000). Recently, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA 1996) identified eutrophication as the most ubiquitous water quality impairment ...
Phosphorus indexing for cropland: overview and basic concepts of the Iowa phosphorus index.
Nov 01, 2002; ... An increasing concentration of animal production in certain areas of Iowa and other states has led to increased application of manure to agricultural fields. Often, the manure is applied at frequencies and rates that exceed the phosphorus (P) required to optimize crop yield or to offset P ...
Evaluation of phosphorus-based nutrient management strategies in Pennsylvania.
Nov 01, 2002; ... Optimal soil phosphorus (P) levels must be maintained to maximize crop production. However, when P moves from the site of application into surface and groundwater flow; it can accelerate eutrophication of receiving fresh water bodies (Carpenter et al. 1998). Recently, the U.S. ...
Carbon and nutrient cycles.
Nov 01, 2002; ... The continuing world population growth is increasing pressure on soil and water resources. Productive soils are being affected by erosion and nutrient losses via surface transport and/or leaching. Baligar et al. (2001) reported that even though the use of nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and ...
Accounting for season at nitrogen mineralization: an overview.
Nov 01, 2002; ... Methods to predict the amount of inorganic N made available for crop use via N mineralization ([N.sub.min]) of native soil organic matter (SOM) are needed to accurately assess crop fertilizer requirements. But the interaction between soil type, climate, and management, all highly variable ...
Mineralization of manure nutrients.
Nov 01, 2002; ... The optimal amount of manure to be applied to a field depends on its composition, the soil nutrient availability, the crop grown, and the environmental conditions. When manure is used as a source of a particular nutrient, knowledge of the mineralization rate under field conditions is ...
Nutrient variability in manures: implications for sampling and regional database creation.
Nov 01, 2002; ... Land-grant universities throughout the United States recommend that farmers sample and analyze animal manure to determine its nutrient content prior to land application. Nutrient management recommendations are dependent on accurate manure nutrient information. Many universities provide ...
Soil testing for different phosphorus pools in cropland soils of the Great Plains.
Nov 01, 2002; ... Phosphorus plays a crucial role in both plant nutrition and environmental water quality (Ozanne 1980, Cooke and Williams 1973, Sharpley et at. 1994). Unlike nitrogen (N) and sulfur (S), which can exist in gaseous forms, P quantity and fate are completely associated with the terrestrial ...
Principles for managing nitrogen leaching.
Nov 01, 2002; ... Controlling nitrogen (N) leaching presents a major challenge for nutrient managers. Nutrient management strategies regarding rate and time of N applications must be developed for the specific soils, hydrology, and crop-tillage systems of individual fields. However, leaching is only one of ...
Management effects on nitrogen leaching and guidelines for a nitrogen leaching index in New York.
Nov 01, 2002; ... Great improvements in water quality were made from regulation of point sources in the 1970s, and the majority of states now cite agriculture as the primary contributor to water-quality impairments. Besides causing nuisance aquatic vegetation, nutrient contamination of surface waters has ...
Managing soil denitrification.
Nov 01, 2002; ... The annual world consumption now exceeds 85 Tg (93.7 million t) of N, and the United States consumed 11.2 Tg (12.3 million t) of fertilizer N in 1999 (FAO 2001). Unfortunately, fertilizer sources are not used efficiently in agricultural systems, and plant uptake of fertilizer N seldom ...
Use of site-specific management zones to improve nitrogen management for precision agriculture.
Nov 01, 2002; ... Baligar et al. (2001) reported that, although worldwide use of nitrogen (N) is increasing, N-use efficiencies (NUE) are about 50%. Nitrogen is a key input in maximizing yields and economic returns to farmers, but these unaccounted N recoveries of 50% are equivalent to losses of billions of ...
Remote sensing for nitrogen management.
Nov 01, 2002; ... Current nitrogen management practices for most crops consist of a single application of a uniform rate of N fertilizer over whole fields and, frequently, whole farms. These practices contrast sharply with a substantial and growing body of research that shows that optimum N rate can vary ...
Nutrient losses in surface irrigation runoff.
Nov 01, 2002; ... Irrigation is important for reliable food production. Only 15% of the harvested cropland in the United States is irrigated, but almost 40% of the crop value is produced on the 20 million hectares (50 million acres) of irrigated land (National Research Council 1996). Half the irrigated land ...
Managing runoff following manure application.
Nov 01, 2002; ... Manure produced in animal production facilities can provide an excellent source of plant nutrients such as nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K). Nutrients and organic matter contained in manure can improve soil characteristics, including infiltration, porosity, and ...
Variable-source-area controls on phosphorus transport: bridging the gap between research and design.
Nov 01, 2002; ... Phosphorus (P) accumulation on farms throughout many areas of the United States has increased soil P levels to the extent that they commonly exceed crop needs (NRC 1993, Sharpley et al. 1998). Phosphorus loss in surface runoff from these high-P soils has little direct economic importance ...