New center to promote agricultural conservation in Pennsylvania

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — As part of an ongoing effort to promote soil and water conservation on farms, Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences has launched the Center for Agricultural Conservation Assistance Training in partnership with the Pennsylvania State Conservation Commission and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS).

The new center, which will be coordinated by Penn State Extension, is aimed at helping Pennsylvania farmers, agricultural landowners and conservation professionals implement best practices, meet appropriate technical qualifications for those practices, leverage funding and partnerships, and ensure the health of land and water in communities.

“Penn State has a long history of partnering with state agencies, USDA and the agricultural community to research and disseminate best practices that will help producers to protect our water and soils,” said Rick Roush, dean of the College of Agricultural Sciences. “This new center will provide a focal point for the kinds of technical assistance farmers need so they can adopt science-based conservation measures that can enhance water quality and soil health, which is a high priority for the college.”

The center is funded by the State Conservation Commission through its new Agriculture Conservation Assistance Program, which was created through the Clean Streams Fund established in the fiscal 2022-23 state budget.

“The Agricultural Conservation Assistance Program provides historic funding for Pennsylvania farmers to install conservation practices on farms,” said Doug Wolfgang, executive secretary of the commission. “Farmers are some of the best stewards of the land and want to improve water quality and soil health, while making farms more productive and sustainable for future generations. The center will be instrumental in building the technical assistance capacity that is needed to carry out this important work.”

Additional support is provided by USDA-NRCS through its Conservation Technical Assistance Program.

“The new center will ensure consistent training for NRCS, conservation district and nongovernmental employees,” said Denise Coleman, USDA-NRCS state conservationist. “It will also assure all conservation practice implementation meets a quality standard.”

The center’s mission is to increase the capacity to deliver conservation training and technical assistance so that agricultural conservation professionals can meet the demand of farmers and forest landowners who seek to address natural resource concerns such as water quality and soil loss while promoting productive farming.

Penn State Extension, USDA-NRCS and the State Conservation Commission all currently are seeking to fill a variety of positions related to the center. Penn State Extension water resources team leader, Jennifer Fetter, has been named the center’s interim director.

“Our center is dedicated to promoting best practices in Pennsylvania and utilizing funding from sources such as government agencies and nongovernmental organizations,” Fetter said. “However, selecting and designing these conservation practices requires technical expertise currently in short supply. Our goal is to provide the training and technical assistance to fill this gap.”

Fetter explained that the center will offer a wide variety of training and support for producers and conservation professionals. Like Penn State Extension and its partners, the center’s team will be spread across Pennsylvania for easy access to all parts of the commonwealth. She noted that this approach will enable team members to conduct site visits, provide on-the-job training, and assist farmers and conservation professionals throughout the state. It also allows the center to leverage the vast expertise and resources across Penn State Extension’s programs.

“One of our main goals is to improve ag literacy in the conservation professional community,” Fetter said. “Many conservation professionals lack agricultural backgrounds. As a result, they may not know much about farms and rural landscapes. Penn State Extension is known for providing excellent ag literacy education, and we aim to continue this mission at the new center.”

Through the center, people can learn about how farms operate and how to balance environmental impacts with farmer impacts.

“For instance, how might a particular change in practice affect the farmer’s production, profits or crop yields?” Fetter said.

Increasing the number of technical trainings so that more of the conservation workforce can develop critical skills more quickly is another goal of the center, Fetter noted.

“The community of conservation professionals includes not only staff at county conservation districts and NRCS, but also the private sector and, increasingly, nongovernmental organizations,” she said. “Our center seeks to continue efforts that broaden training opportunities to the entire range of public and private partners offering conservation technical services to farmers. This will increase the efficiency of delivering those services to farmers who need them to meet stewardship and productivity goals for their operations.”

The center also will provide a quality assurance component with dedicated conservation professionals assisting in-field colleagues with inventories, designs and other technical conservation practice components. 

The center currently offers workshops, webinars and training sessions led by extension educators, NRCS and the State Conservation Commission. Several other projects are in progress, such as developing educational materials, certification training workshops, an annual training conference and a newsletter titled “Ag Conservation Currents: News That Infiltrates and Transpires.” This monthly newsletter provides information on publications, videos and upcoming online and in-person events.

“The newsletter’s name is a play on words, as we want water to infiltrate and transpire back into the atmosphere through plants, rather than becoming runoff that carries pollutants into our streams,” Fetter said. “We hope our newsletter can similarly infiltrate and transpire information to help our audience make positive changes.”

In addition, the center will assist in the effort to recruit and train future conservation professionals by offering undergraduate classes and experiential learning opportunities to develop requisite skills and knowledge for careers in the field.

“We want today’s and tomorrow’s conservation professionals to learn that there is a unique and exciting opportunity for a career in land and water conservation in Pennsylvania,” Fetter said. “It’s a chance to partner directly with our farmers who are growing a safe and abundant food supply for all of us, while also stewarding our land and water resources. With Pennsylvania’s robust mix of agricultural and natural resources, we have a chance to be a national hub for these rewarding jobs.”

More information is available on the Penn State Extension website.