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The article offers information on the history, purpose and significance of the U.S. federal soil and water conservation programs such as the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP). It informs that these programs deliver effective changes to values of agricultural landscapes thereby providing an opportunity to conserve soil, water and wildlife on private lands. It discusses the significance of the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) in supporting agriculture.

The article focuses on enhancing multifunctionality to offer ecosystem services for the agicultural landscape in the U.S. It says that the methods from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) are used to accomplish the enhancement of ecosystem services. It notes that landscape ecological planning and design that maximizes the provision of cost-effectiveness and ecosystem services are difficult to conduct due to problems such as manpower skills.

The USDA Farm Bill conservation programs provide landowner incentives to remove less productive and environmentally sensitive lands from agricultural production and reestablish them in natural vegetation (e.g., native grasses, trees, etc.) to achieve conservation objectives. However, removal of arable land from production imposes an opportunity cost associated with loss in revenue from commodities that otherwise would have been produced. Recent Farm Bills have increasingly emphasized targeted practices to achieve specific environmental outcomes that maximize environmental benefits relative to cost. The Habitat Buffers for Upland Birds practice (CP-33) under the continuous Conservation Reserve Program is an example of a targeted conservation practice that has produced measureable outcomes (increased bobwhite and grassland bird populations) with relatively minor changes in primary land use. However, establishing conservation buffers on profitable farmland may be incompatible with the economic objectives of landowners/producers. Precision agriculture technologies provide a powerful conservation planning tool for identifying environmental and economic opportunities in agricultural systems. Precision implementation of conservation practices, such as CP-33, is the foundation of strategic conservation planning and is essential for optimization of environmental and economic benefits. Toward this end, we developed a geospatial decision support tool (Arc GIS tool) to inform this decision-making process. We illustrate the geoprocessing workflow of the tool and demonstrate the conditions under which precision implementation of conservation practices can concomitantly increase whole-field profitability and environmental services for an example farm in Mississippi. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the use of agricultural lands and soil carbon in the U.S. It mentions that land management and productivity were restored after the Dust Bowl and the World War II including the use of agricultural chemical, the improvement in crop varieties and the greater mechanization. It also underscores the development of several land conservation programs such as the Soil Bank Program in 1956. The role of soil organic carbon in the country's agricultural land is also explored.

The article reports on the science-based plan vision of the Conservation Effects Assessment Project (CEAP) initiated by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Natural Resources Conservation Service (NCRS). CEAP's science-based plan is designed to help meet the conservation and technology challenges of the future through multi-agency assessment, research, and outreach-extension program. It aims to enhance natural resources and ecosystems through effective conservation and better management of agricultural landscapes. It is also designed to examine the management of agricultural landscapes for environmental quality.

Soil erosion is one of the biggest contributors to nonpoint source pollution in the United States. Soil loss rates from construction sites are 10 to 20 times that of agricultural lands. The use of surface applied organic amendments has been shown to reduce runoff and erosion through enhanced vegetation growth and soil quality characteristics. The objective of this study was to evaluate the vegetation growth and soil quality effects from compost blanket and hydroseed applications to soils disturbed by construction activities. Four types of compost blankets, two hydroseeded treatments (silt fence and mulch filter berm) and a bare soil (control) were applied in field test plots. Treatments were seeded with common Bermuda grass (Cynodon doctylon). Vegetative growth (percent cover and biomass of weeds and grasses) and soil quality characteristics were evaluated periodically over one year and 18 months, respectively. Results showed compost blankets provided an average of 2.75 times more vegetative cover than hydroseed after three months. After one year, cover was similar, but hydroseed had significantly greater weed biomass than compost and a greater ratio of weed biomass relative to Bermuda grass biomass. One type of compost blanket increased surface soil extractable organic carbon, and another type increased organic matter in o to 15 cm (0 to 6 in) soil depths relative to hydroseed treated soils. A one-time application of hydroseed that included mineral phosphorus (P) fertilizer elevated surface soil P after 18 months. On construction sites where disturbed soils are prone to erosion and vegetation establishment is required, compost applications will promote quicker vegetation cover with less weed growth than hydroseeding. Some compost erosion control blankets have the ability to increase soil quality characteristics relative to hydroseed applications within 18 months of application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]