URBANDALE, Iowa - The future of water quality in the Boone River watershed is looking up, as many farmers in the area are working alongside several public and private sector partners to improve water quality here. Recently, the partnership met and discussed the progress being made.

Area farmer Arlo Van Diest is one of the farmers involved in the project. Van Diest knows the work is important to the community, but it’s important to him personally as well. “As a local farmer, I want to leave my land as good as I can for my kids and my grandkids, so I supported the Boone River Watershed Project and, when I had a chance, I got involved. Now, I can see how it’s helping me with my bottom line, but I know the work will help the environment, too. And I like seeing the agencies and other organizations who are all cooperating to work with farmers and for the good of the environment.”

Farmers like Van Diest realize that they are stakeholders in the environment and are voluntarily participating in programs like the Boone Watershed Project to learn more about maximizing their production efficiency and enhancing environmental quality. In fact, across the state, the Iowa Soybean Association now has more than 400 farmers evaluating their crop production practices, with the goal of improving economic return and lessening environmental impact.

Jim Cooper of Prairie Rivers of Iowa RC & D is the local coordinator for the Boone River project. Cooper says local involvement is the philosophy behind the approach and is key to making progress. “Prairie Rivers of Iowa RC&D is working to promote community-based stewardship. Our goal is to improve the quality of life here — both economically and environmentally. Raising public awareness about wise use of the environment and promoting our natural resources will improve the vitality of our community.”

Todd Sutphin is State Watershed Coordinator for the Iowa Soybean Association. Sutphin says that the role of ISA is to provide leadership in watershed planning and farm management evaluation. “One of the things about this project is that there are a lot of partners at the table, and have been for as long as we’ve been working on this project – three years, going on four. We’re working to find practices that perform better, and we’re teaching farmers how to evaluate practices for themselves — from the field to the entire farm.

“The Iowa Soybean Association's watershed programming is centered around the collection of data from the farm field and in the streams and rivers running through the watershed. The goals are to measure, evaluate and investigate farming practices for their potential impacts on production, profitability and water quality. And three years of evaluation here are starting to tell a story. We’re learning what happens to nutrients applied here in this terrain and in this topography and it’s getting easier for farmers to zero in on better nutrient management on their soil, on their farms.”

John Askew, Regional Administrator for Region 7 of the EPA was at the meeting, too. Askew related to the group that he thought the Boone River work was a great model project. “Efforts like this should be replicated across sites across the entire Midwest. The most interesting thing about this approach is that it goes beyond compliance. And that’s one of the questions we’ve been pondering — how to get people to move beyond a compliance mentality, and into a performance mentality.”

“The EPA is talking to farmers, and working to understand what it takes to get to solutions here on the landscape. The reality is that if it wasn’t for farmers and others doing these evaluations, we couldn’t create a workable solution. The emergence of biofuels is going to have an impact on the way land is managed in Iowa, so we’re looking at ways to adapt to the things we see happening. Projects like this are a good way to work at the farm level with the help of a trusted ag association like the Iowa Soybean Association.”

Although local in nature, the work being done here is going to have far-reaching implications as well. Iowa Soybean Association Environmental Programs Director Roger Wolf said that there is multi-level interest in the project — from local organizations to state and federal agencies. “The Boone River project has many exciting elements and we’re learning from it. One of the things we’re learning is simply the complexity of the problems in watersheds, even across county lines. Each one is different and unique. Each one needs local leadership, research and its own set of solutions.”

“We need to learn how to understand watersheds better. So we’ve used the work here to help create a program initiative called ‘Discovery Watersheds.’ Discovery Watersheds is currently under consideration for inclusion in the next Farm Bill. The initiative would establish a demonstration program of 30 watershed projects like this one, designed to evaluate the cost and performance of different management techniques and impacts on water quality.”

Cooper says that initiatives like that mean the work is paying off for all the partners. “While the work is being done locally and we are seeing local impact in improved farming efficiency, we’re also seeing statewide and even national implications because the approach has been successful. When it’s all said and done, this work may figure prominently in the big picture. I think that’s a great accomplishment.”