The Back 40

A recent study in the journal, Water Policy, compares the water supply histories of four major cities: San Diego, Phoenix, San Antonio, and Adelaide, Australia. The major conclusion of the report was that urban water conservation, recycling, and desalination can’t nearly come close to the level of water conservation that can be provided by upstream farmers. [...]

Soil conservation experts in Maryland recently discovered that the level of conservation practices on farmland in their state has been underestimated by as much as 40 to 50 percent. A major reason for the discrepancy is some farmers are engaging in efforts to enhance soil, water, wildlife habitat, and vegetation without assistance from state and [...]

Farmers, crop consultants and watershed association leaders have a unique opportunity to delve into nutrient management issues in the Mississippi River basin and explore the latest on hypoxia – the low-oxygen “dead zone” in the Gulf of Mexico – on the 2012 Conservation In Action Tour in Clarksdale, Miss., on May 30 and 31. “Nutrient [...]

By: Joseph Britt As communities across the nation look for options to ensure clean water for their residents, Sand County Foundation is honored to participate in a new water quality project of national significance. Madison, Wisconsin has begun the first Watershed Adaptive Management Option (WAMO) pilot project in a subwatershed north of Lake Mendota. The [...]

Reflections in the wake of  Earth Day 2012 By: G. Tracy Mehan, III, American Spectator Earth Day is getting interesting. Discussions on conservation and environmentalism have gone cosmic. Some argue that much of the contentiousness of environmental politics, especially the divide between economics and environmentalism, represents the New Holy Wars. Since the days of Gifford [...]

By: Joseph Britt Edith Munro had a fine, accessible summary of nitrate reduction practices, recently published in Corn and Soybean Digest, that deserves comment. The Digest piece has good descriptions of five nitrate control practices:  cover crops, controlled (or managed) subsurface drainage, shallow drainage, subsurface bioreactors, and constructed wetlands.  Sand County Foundation, through its Agricultural [...]