Right Practice, Right Place: Development and deployment of a conservation planning toolkit and improved incentive strategies to reduce nutrients in HUC 12 watersheds in the Upper Mississippi River Basin

The goal of the project is to bring an innovative approach to improving water quality by increasing the effectiveness and implementation of drainage water management and vegetative filter practices. Our project will bring to the table critical innovations to improve conservation outcomes through effective selection and placement of these priority practices and stronger, more diverse economic incentives for practice adoption. We will develop a suite of user-friendly analysis and modeling tools that will enable planners to design effective conservation scenarios and allow stakeholders to evaluate and optimize the environmental and economic impacts of alternative scenarios. These tools will allow NRCS and other agencies to map a new course for conservation across the UMRB that maximizes water quality improvements while maintaining or even enhancing agricultural productivity and net farm income to the extent possible.