Bundling in-field and off-field nutrient practices to reduce nutrient export, improve drinking water quality, and address hypoxia in the Gulf of Mexico

This project will provide landowner outreach and education to increase understanding and stimulate enrollment in innovative conservation practices and programs and implement an adaptive nutrient management program and quantify its environmental performance. The project will also develop and refine replicable and transferable methods for producing watershed maps of tile-drained areas and apply watershed tile maps to guide locations for strategic outreach, wetland placement, and monitoring. It will also construct wetlands and quantify their environmental performance. Additionally, the project will quantify the environmental performance of a nutrient management program that bundles in-field and off-field practices for increased nutrient use efficiency and reduced nutrient export and develop and evaluate a watershed-scale management program for sustainable nutrient reduction that integrates ecosystem services (i.e., payment for services) with the nutrient management program developed during this project, previous research, existing watershed plans and current NRCS conservation programs.