Heartland Nutrient Management: Facilitating Regional Cost Effectiveness of BMPs Events & Activities

The Heartland Nutrient Management (NM) Team facilitates multi-state and inter-agency communication to promote the use of agricultural best management practices (BMPs) to reduce nonpoint source pollution. The team chose to set their 2009 focus on a priority issue in the region, the cost effectiveness of BMPs. The team began to address this issue by facilitating two events: 1) A roundtable in March consisting of mainly researchers, and some state and federal environmental agency specialists, and 2) A larger workshop in June that included University and ARS research and extension faculty, state and federal agency personnel, resource managers and advisors, and watershed and conservation groups from each of the four states that make up the Heartland Region (Iowa, Kansas Missouri and Nebraska). These events were designed to share information and tools for the enhancement of cost effectiveness, as well as adoption of BMPs within the Region. At the suggestion of event attendees, this information was shared nationally in September by webinar, in which five presentations were shared and are now archived for on-line access. Several of the event resources people plan to co-author a regional extension publication addressing cost effectiveness of BMPs in the Heartland Region. Much information from these events, including most presentations in a downloadable PDF format, is available at http://www.oznet.ksu.edu/waterquality/W&E.htm.