June 13th NFWF Project Spotlight: Soil Health from Outreach to Implementation

Date: June 13, 2019

Time: 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm

Register: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/4159931173938447116

Please join us on Thursday, June 13th at noon for a NFWF Project Spotlight, “Soil Health from Outreach to Implementation.”

Join NFWF and our grantees from Virginia Tech and Stroud Water Research Center who will share lessons learned from grant projects that incorporated outreach to producers about soil health practices as well as funding for implementation techniques to improve the capacity of crops and soils to reduce runoff and increase nutrient uptake.

The discussion will include project challenges and lessons learned as well as the similarities and differences of working in different geographies and agricultural systems for the increased adoption of soil health practices.

Soil health received special emphasis in NFWF’s 2019 Chesapeake Bay Stewardship Fund RFP with the goal of funding projects that will increase the adoption of practices to improve water quality including improved tillage and pasture management, cover crops, crop and livestock rotations, etc. For those interested in some of the opportunities and challenges of advancing soil health work in different parts of the watershed, this Project Spotlight is for you!

The projects being spotlighted are:

  • Collectively Improving Watershed Health and Nutrient Balance (VA) supported by US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Chesapeake Bay Program’s Innovative Nutrient and Sediment Reduction Grants Program. This project aimed to improve health and nutrient pollution across the Shenandoah and Rappahannock River basins by finding common ground around water quality improvement, soil health, and farm-to-table connections.
  • Several Stroud Water Research Center grants supported by US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Chesapeake Bay Program’s Innovative Nutrient and Sediment Reduction and Small Watershed Grants Programs. These projects all had a component of soil health training to increase practice adoption and facilitation of peer-to-peer learning among producers.

The presentation will be held as a webinar:

https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/4159931173938447116

We hope you can join us and feel free to forward to anyone else you think might be interested!

The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation’s Project Spotlight series is an effort to share lessons learned, challenges and opportunities in implementation through discussions with grantees who have recently completed a grant project. Grantees with expertise in a common topic join together to reflect on their experiences and answer audience questions.

The US Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Chesapeake Bay Program (CBP) has a long‐standing partnership, through a cooperative agreement, with the National Fish and Wildlife (NFWF) to provide direct financial support to accomplish both:

‐ The Small Watershed Grant (SWG) program that promotes community‐based efforts to develop conservation strategies to protect and restore the diverse natural resources of the Chesapeake Bay.

‐ The Innovative Nutrient and Sediment Reduction (INSR) grant program that support efforts with the Chesapeake Bay watershed to accelerate nutrient and sediment reductions through collaborative and sustainable regional-scale partnerships and networks of practitioners that have a shared focus on restoring, protecting and improving the water quality in the Chesapeake Bay watershed.