Technical Guide
Section V
Minnesota Field Office Technical Guide – Section V
Methods and Procedures
Conservation Effects Guide Sheet
USDA-NRCS-MN
July 2002
Technical Guide
Section V
The primary purpose of this section is to assess the effects of conservation practices in order to assist Minnesota’s land users in making informed landuse decisions. By considering conservation effects, natural resource planners can formulate a suitable Conservation Management System (CMS) to protect the resource base and to address both the land user’s and society’s social, cultural resource, and economic objectives.
A secondary purpose of this section is to serve as a source of appropriate procedures and methods for collecting, analyzing, and displaying conservation effects data. Collecting conservation effects data is a long-term effort to be undertaken by each field office as part of the follow-up effort in the planning process. Section V has some examples of how these effects can be displayed.
Section V is divided into three parts:
Section V-A – “Effects for CMS Formulation”
Section V-B – “Effects for Decision Making”
Section V-C – “ Procedural References”
Section V-A – Effects for CMS Formulation
Provides information on the effects for individual conservation practices on the six resources and considerations in the formulation of CMS. The mainstay of this section is the Conservation Practice Physical Effects (CPPE) Matrix.
The CPPE Matrix displays the likely effects that various conservation practices will have on the five resources of soil, water, air, plants, and animals (SWAPA). A human component will be added in the future. The effects and magnitude of effects shown in these documents are not site specific. Accordingly, it will be necessary to interpret the matrix, after considering the individual planning site involved.
Section V-A-1 – General Effects Data – Soil, Water, Air, Plants, and Animals
This section contains the Conservation Practice Physical Effects (CPPE) Matrix for the five resource concerns. The purpose of the CPPE Matrix is to help the planner develop and communicate the effects of individual practices on the soil, water, air, plant, and animal resources.
Section V-A-2 – Effects for Guidance Documents
This section contains refinements of the CPPE Matrix including site specific data with quantified or narratively described effects.
Understanding the Conservation Effects Process
Introducing CPPE
Planning the soil, water, air, plant, and animal resources and their interrelationships has increased the complexity of assisting decision makers. The Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) can no longer provide alternatives and assistance that address individual problems without considering the effects on all six resources.
As a technical agency, NRCS must constantly strive to improve methods for evaluating the potential effects of conservation practices on the resources. When providing technical assistance, it is necessary to determine the physical effects relevant to each resource during the planning process. Just because a conservation practice has a positive effect on one resource concern does not necessarily mean it will also have a positive effect on other resources.
Effects Concept
The natural resource planner needs to recognize the effect of applying conservation practices in order to select combinations of practices that solve the identified or potential concerns without creating additional resource problems. The Effects Concept is applicable for formulation of CMS alternatives for specific fields, conservation treatment units (CTUs) or other planning areas. It can also be used to assist in explaining resource problems and displaying treatment options. (The entire effects process will be needed when working with each decision maker. Only unique or complex situations would warrant documentation of the complete Effects Concept.)
What is the CPPE Matrix?
The CPPE Matrix details, in subjective language, the physical effects that conservation practices have on the five resource concerns. This document becomes the foundation for developing guidance documents in Section III. The estimation of physical effects is based on professional experience and available technical information. Each resource may have multiple problems, represented by the various columns on the CPPE Matrix. Practice physical effects may be greater if they are associated with a land use change.
The key question that should be asked when reviewing the CPPE Matrix is “If this practice is applied, what effect will it have, not only on the identified or potential target resource concerns/considerations, but also on all the other resource concerns/considerations?”.
What is the Purpose of the CPPE Matrix?
The purpose of the CPPE Matrix is to emphasize:
A. The realization that resources are interrelated and the treatment of one resource also affects other resources;
B. The importance of formulating CMS by providing a process that:
1. Considers all the effects of conservation practices into potential RMS alternatives
2. Facilitates the combining of conservation practices into potential RMS alternatives
3. Helps to evaluate the potential planned alternatives against the quality criteria for achieving a RMS, or for the quality criteria needed to develop an Acceptable Management System (AMS) in the event an AMS is an allowable option.
Section V-B – Effects for Decision Making
Section V-B provides a storage area for case studies and/or producer experiences. Case studies display the effects on all of the decision maker’s concerns, not merely those that are related to resolving resource problems. They are developed from observations and document the experiences of the planner as well as those of the decision maker. The section stores data gleaned from real world experiences as opposed to modeled results.
Section V-B-1 – Producer Experiences
This section contains case studies of resource situations where conservation systems have been successfully applied. It contains comparisons of situations before and after conservation application that develop and add to the body of knowledge in the community. Potential clients may base their decisions and actions on the successes and failures of their neighbors.
Natural resource planners will be able to accumulate case studies that represent most of the source situations found in their area. Over time, the effects of the conservation treatment options will be documented as to the outcome. The difference between those effects and the effects of the benchmark system (present system) will be noted as the impacts of the conservation treatment option.
Completed case studies can be used to illustrate what the conservation treatment option can do for the resources on a particular soil type, resource enterprises, and/or similar conditions.
Section V-B-2 – Other Effects Information
Initially, there may be few or no case studies included in Section V. Other potential sources of valuable data include watershed documents, experiment station research reports, field trials, demonstration farms, and government or university research. These may provide effective information while case studies are being accumulated, and will always be useful references.
Section V-C – Procedural References
Section V-C provides a place to file or reference software programs, models, spreadsheets, or other techniques that allow the planner to complete complex procedures. Instructions and explanations for use of these procedures, and whom to go to for help are also stored in Section V-C.
Currently there is one spreadsheets listed in Section V-C. It is the CPPE Matrix spreadsheet, which allows planners to easily determine the effects of specific conservation practices on all resource concerns. The CPPE Matrix Model that allows planners to input the benchmark situation and develop three RMS options will be added in the future. A spreadsheet containing the effects of practices on human resource concerns (economic, social, and cultural) will also be added. Based on the benchmark situation and the RMS options, the model will list the associated affects of the conservation practices listed in each option on the resource concerns for the specific operation. Instructions and explanations for use of these tools are included in Section V-C
Section V-C-1 - Procedural References
Section V-C-1 is the “how to do it” section. It includes instructions and technical notes for developing case studies, identifying and documenting Acceptable Management Systems (AMS), and for following the Conservation Effects for Decision Making (CED) procedures.
Minnesota Field Office Technical Guide – Section V
General Conservation Effects
In the CPPE Matrix, the major effects of an individual conservation practice on resource problems are expressed.
It is assumed the practice is installed according to standards in Section IV. The definitions and explanations of the effects are listed in the Glossary and Explanation Section. In addition, the effect may be beneficial or adverse to each resource. Modifiers for clarity may follow the given effect. The application of a practice with a negative effect may be overcome through the application of another practice(s) that has a greater positive effective.
The point of reference for the CPPE Matrix is that there is an existing or potential problem with the resource, previously treated or not. The CPPE Matrix addresses broad, general effects that may be expected from the application of the practice. The effects shown in the CPPE Matrix and their magnitudes are not site specific. Accordingly, interpretation of the effects, after considering unique site characteristics, is necessary.
Carefully read the wording shown for each practice in the CPPE Matrix. Remember the effect shown is that of applying a specific practice to the resource problem. For example, if practice 314, Brush Management, is applied to the resource concern “sheet and rill erosion,” the effect states “slight to moderate decrease because of increase in vegetative cover.” This means there is a decrease in the amount of sheet and rill erosion, so the effect of the practice is positive, thus erosion is reduced.
Minnesota Field Office Technical Guide – Section V
Conservation Management Systems: Glossary and Explanations
The glossary contains the following: special terminology, rating effects, and column heading definitions and explanation.
SPECIAL TERMINOLOGY
Adsorption: The process by which materials are held or bound to the surface in such a manner that the chemical is only slowly available. Clay and high organic soils tend to adsorb pesticides in many instances.
Benthic: This refers to the bottom of any water body. Benthic organisms would be those organisms associated with the bottom of the water body.
Biomagnification: The active concentration of a given chemical such as DDT or DDE in living issue, in excess of the prevailing media concentration, through a trophic web (food chain)
Component levels: This concept means that Federal, State, or local laws and regulation may establish component contaminant levels in units such as mg/1, ppm, tons/acre, tons/year or waste load allocations.
Crops grown cover or green manure; or applied manure, litter, mulch, and other organics: These action may be considered as soil improving practices to provide residue amounts to meet or exceed that need for the maintenance of soil tilth and erosion reduction.
Enrichment ratio: This is the chemical fraction of an nutrient chemical or practical size in offsite sediment, divided by the chemical fraction of the same component in an equal mass of inplace soil.
Essential practice: A practice that singly, or in combination with other practices or management measures, is required to solve the identified or anticipated resource problems to the quality criteria established in Section III of the FOTG, or that is required for a system to meet its intended purposes.
Euthrophication: The natural or artificial process of nutrient enrichment where by a water body becomes filled with the aquatic plants resulting in low oxygen content.
Facilitating practice: Practices that may be companion with or support other practices necessary to achieve a desired treatment, such as a fence. Mainly associated with management practices but can be used to support structural practices. Some of these practices may stand-alone. The effects of facilitating practices are described generally in reference to the main practice (management and structural) being supported.
High residue producing crops: This refers to those crops typically producing adequate amounts of residue that can be managed for erosion control and soil tilth under the local soils and climate conditions.
Interflow: Water which infiltrates the soil surface and moves laterally and vertically through the soil profile or vadose zone until it enters a stream channel, or seeps from the soil or vadose zone as a spring. This has also been called subsurface storm flow and represents water that moves more slowly than the runoff water, to the stream channel or seep after a storm.
Metabolite: A compound derived by chemical action upon the chemical within a living organism (plant, insect, higher animal, etc.). The action varies (oxidation, reduction, etc.) and the metabolite may be either more toxic or less toxic than before. The same derivative may in some cases develop upon exposure of the chemical outside a living organism.
Partition coefficient: This is a measure of the distribution of a solute between two liquid phases in which it is soluble.
Potentiometrick (piezimoetric) surface: An imaginary surface representing the total head of ground water and defined as the level to which water rises in the penetrating well of a confined aquifer. The water table is a particular potentiometric surface for confined aquifers.
Scoured areas: The scoured areas under the column heading of “roadbanks, construction sites, and scoured areas” refers to areas where out of streambank flow scours the flood plains.
Sediment delivery ratio: This is the percentage relationships between the sediment yield at a specified measuring point in a watershed and the gross or total erosion occurring in the watershed upstream from that point.
Sediment porewater: This is the water occupying the pore space between grains in a sediment deposit.
Sediment yield: The quantity of sediment arriving at a specific location. Usually expressed per unit area.
Soil depleting crops: This refers to those crops that do not produce adequate amounts of residue needed for the maintenance of soil tilth and erosion control.
Soil improving crops: This refers to those crops producing sufficient residue amounts needed for the maintenance or improvement of soil tilth and control of erosion. Soil improving crops include deep-rooted plants or legumes.
Surface water: Surface water in the CPPE refers to perennial, intermittent, and ephemeral streams, and to water bodies.
Synergistic effect: The total effect is greater than the sum of the effects taken independently.
Vadose zone: This is the unsaturated zone above the water table. It includes, by some definitions, the entire unsaturated zone above the saturated zone. In other words it will include: (1) soil root zone; (2) any intermediate region of unconsolidated material, or rock, where the moisture content remains at an unsaturated condition; and (3) the capillary fringe zone above the water table. If the water table is close to the surface, the capillary fringe above the water table and the soil moisture zone may overlap.