Field borders for agronomic, economic and wildlife benefits (2008)

New 11/08/5M

FAPRI Environmental Projects 2000

Since 1995, the Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute at the University of Missouri (FAPRI) has been providing analytical support in several areas around the state as communities try to come to grips with various water quality issues thought to derive from production agriculture's two underlying facts of life. This report provides a summary of the lessons learned as the unit has looked at and worked with these communities. It also discusses the specific projects underway in the unit, again focusing on issues directly related to the interface problem.This project is a cooperative effort of the Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute at the University of Missouri and the Natural Resource Conservation Service. The work is supported by EPA grant X997396-01, Region VII U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, under section 104 (b) (3). The Missouri Department of Agriculture appropriated funds to support the work in this report

Positive Approaches to Phosphorus Balancing in Southwest Missouri: Animal Manure Phosphorus Recycling Initiative

Document presented on July 12, 2001 at Crowder College, Neosho, MO and on November 6 & 7 at Water Quality Research in the White River Basin Conference in Springfield, MO.Opportunities exist to create value added animal waste fertilizer products that can be used in crop production, reducing import demands for phosphorus, and relocating phosphorus from areas of excess supply to areas of need for crop production. This paper focuses on opportunities to recycle poultry litter in southwest Missouri.This project is a cooperative effort of the Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute at the University of Missouri and the Natural Resource Conservation Service. The work is supported by EPA grant X997396-01, Region VII U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, under section 104 (b)(3). The Missouri Department of Agriculture appropriated funds to support the work in this report

Grassland Establishment for Wildlife Conservation

Establishing grasslands has important implications for wildlife, especially in areas historically rich in grasslands that have since been converted to row crop agriculture. Most grasslands established under farm conservation programs have replaced annual crops with perennial cover that provides year-round resources for wildlife. This change in land use has had a huge influence on grassland bird populations; little is known about its impacts on other terrestrial wildlife species. Wildlife response to grassland establishment is a multi-scale phenomenon dependent upon vegetation structure and composition within the planting, practice-level factors such as size and shape of the field, and its landscape context, as well as temporal factors such as season and succession. Grassland succession makes management a critical issue. Decisions on how frequently to manage a field depend on many factors, including the location (especially latitude) of the site, the phenology at the site in the particular year, the breeding-bird community associated with the site, and weather and soil conditions. The benefits for a particular species of any management scenario will depend, in part, on the management of surrounding sites, and may benefit additional species but exclude others. Thus, the benefits of grassland establishment and management are location- and species-specific

Species distribution models to inform at-risk species status assessments in the southeastern US

The USFWS is working collaboratively with State Wildlife Agencies, Universities, Non-profits and others in the southeast to address the National Listing Workplan. The USFWS needs up-to-date information on current status and the likely impact of future changes to develop Species Status Assessments (SSAs), which help inform listing decisions. States, Universities and other partners are providing species expertise, location data, analytical support and logistical support (e.g. surveys). However, a significant knowledge gap remains in understanding potential species distributions, from which status surveys can be more strategically implemented. This project provides a bridge between species location information and the SSAs by developing empirically-driven, high resolution information on distributions of species, as well as their likely responses to landscape changes. Here we provide ensemble distribution model results for several species: Papaipema eryngii, Macbridea caroliniana, Scutellaria ocmulgee, Balduina atropurpurea and Rhynchospora crinipes. The raster files can be used in combination of other datasets in GIS for further species and landscape management

Data Archive: Using a Coproduction Approach to Map Future Forest Retention Likelihood in the Southeastern United States

Supporting data for publication titled: Using a Coproduction Approach to Map Future Forest Retention Likelihood in the Southeastern United States; Journal of Forestry, 2020, 28–43 doi:10.1093/jofore/fvz06

Appendix B. Maps of ranked model outputs from each modeling approach.

Maps of ranked model outputs from each modeling approach

Understanding Alignments in Spatial Conservation Planning in the Southeast

Conservation planning products should enable organizations to achieve focus, coordination, and increased effectiveness to maximize ecological benefits. The increasing availability of large-scale geospatially-explicit data has greatly enhanced the ability to develop spatial planning resources and decision-support tools. However, the increasing number of tools and resources has also increased the awareness that independently created tools have the potential to misalign priorities within the same geography, i.e., assign different levels of priority to the same location or resource. In the southeastern United States, the largest conservation planning projects are partnership-driven and landscape-oriented, including Migratory Bird Joint Ventures and the Southeast Conservation Adaptation Strategy (SECAS). Despite SECAS and Joint Ventures operating with many of the same partner agencies and organizations, the planning products created by them are largely derived independent of one another. The purpose of this project was to assess the degree of alignment between Joint Venture and SECAS planning products and to identify opportunities for increased efficiency and communication of priorities. We developed a framework for quantitative and qualitative assessment of alignment using methods that include logistic regression, rank correlation, and overlap analysis. This project focused on prioritization tools created by the Lower Mississippi Valley and the East Gulf Coastal Plain Joint Ventures within the Middle Southeast subregion of the Southeast Conservation Blueprint 2020. Informed by specific case studies and examples, this project culminates in a list of best-management practices that conservation planners may refer to when designing future or updating current spatial models. We highlight how variation in programmatic objectives, inclusion of the conservation estate, size of evaluated planning unit, and terrestrial vs. aquatic priorities as potential drivers of alignments in the geography. Though misalignments in planning tools pose several risks and challenges, alignments promote convergence in priorities that could strengthen conservation efforts and highlight areas of greatest opportunity