This blog was originally published forFood and Ag Policy2015年2月25日。

上个月，超过50个分水岭项目经理；联邦，州和地方官员；非政府组织的代表聚集在伊利诺伊州的西卡莫尔（Sycamore）Leadership in Midwestern Watersheds (LMW) forum。The diverse stakeholders attending this meeting share a common goal: improving water quality by reducing agricultural runoff in targeted watersheds.

尽管我总是在这个论坛上喜欢自己，但这次会议特别是电动的。美国农业部（USDA）刚刚宣布了新的项目的115个项目清单区域保护伙伴关系计划（RCPP）, which Secretary Vilsack has called “a new era in American conservation efforts.” The RCPP is especially exciting because it’s a departure from the typical federal conservation program. Most USDA programs aim to solve water quality, water quantity, or wildlife problems on individual farms—the RCPP aims to do so on multiple farms within a specific watershed or region to achieve landscape-level outcomes. In short, it’sdesigned to concentrate “the right conservation practices, in the right places, at the right scale, and at the right time,” in order to measurably improve stream, lake, or bay water quality, water quantity and wildlife populations.

挑战是，我们如何帮助确保这种新方法成功？

尽管水质改善是水质项目成功的最佳指标，但论坛上的RCPP项目负责人表示担心监测有时可能需要很长时间才能显示结果，尤其是在大型流域中。其他人则指出，他们想报告超出通常的行政指标（即安装的保护习惯和花费的美元）成功指标。一位参与者说：“每个人都想看到结果，但是我们都在绊倒是为了弄清楚什么和方法。”

为此，论坛与会者对RCPP和其他水质项目经理如何跟踪其项目的成功提出了一些建议。例如：

  • For the most sought-after environmental outcomes—water quality improvements—project leaders underscored the importance of selecting the right water quality indicators to monitor (e.g., nitrate, phosphorus, sediment, dissolved oxygen, algae, etc.) at the right scale (e.g., at the edge-of-the-field, in tile drains, in streams, at the watershed outlet) to reflect each watershed’s specific situation in order to see results as soon as possible.

  • Others suggested that a variety of nutrient and soil erosion estimation tools—like the Phosphorus Index, the Hydrology Characterization Tool (HCT), and nutrient management planning software—can be used to evaluate pollution-reduction outcomes before and after implementation of conservation practices on the field.

  • 还有一些人分享说，他们将使用社会科学调查和访谈来衡量社会成果，例如农民的观点，信念和行为的变化。这些调查应在项目的开始和结束时进行。

  • Though the group didn’t directly discuss economic criteria for success, these are also important to consider. Project managers could either calculate a quantitative estimate of cost-effectiveness, such as dollars per pound of nitrogen reduced, or they could provide a narrative description of why focusing on certain practices or land uses are likely to generate more bang for the buck.

These recommended metrics dovetail nicely with the criteria for success specified by the USDA’s Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS):

“NRCS will invest in projects that generate near-term results that are measurable from environmental, economic, and social perspectives. Both partners and NRCS staff will be involved with documenting the outcomes of these conservation investments through collecting environmental resource data designed to measure the results of projects.”

At the end of the day, the members of the LMW forum and all the agricultural and environmental members of the conservation community are thrilled to be working in this new partnership with NRCS. We will share a longer version of this list of metrics with NRCS to encourage the agency to disseminate these suggestions to the other RCPP project leaders. In so doing, we hope to help others report on a variety of outcomes soon.

The Leadership in Midwestern Watersheds annual meetings started in 2011 and are the result of a partnership among the following organizations; for more information, please contact迈克·贝斯（Mike Baise）的美国农田信托,Todd Sutphin的爱荷华大豆协会,Rebecca Powers的North Central Region Water Network, orJoseph Britt的Sand County Foundation， 和The Nature Conservancy。有关推荐指标的更多信息，请联系Michelle Perez。