Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

Accomplishments

Objective 1: Identify and Develop Typologies of Catalysts for Change in Conservation Behavior, Resource Management, and Governance in a Water Context.

Objective 2: Determine the mechanisms and conditions by which catalysts are translated into individual, collective, and institutional action.

Objective 3: Understand and develop typologies of individual, institutional, and collective actions and social and ecological outcomes.

Objective 4: Synthesize and assess conceptual frameworks and analytical models of catalysts, conditions, and potential outcomes.

Objective 5: Identify, develop, and evaluate adaptive strategies to achieve desired actions and capacities to protect water resources.

OUTPUTS:

PUBLICATIONS

Arbuckle, J. Gordon Jr. and Gabrielle Roesch-McNally. 2015. Cover crop adoption in Iowa: The role of perceived practice characteristics. Journal of Soil and Water Conservation 70:419-434.

Arbuckle, J. Gordon Jr. 2015. Investigating Opportunities for Enhancing Adoption of Strategically Targeted Prairie Strips in Iowa Technical Report No. 1040. Ames, IA: Iowa State University Extension Sociology.

Arbuckle, J. Gordon Jr. 2016. Iowa Farm and Rural Life Poll: 2015 Summary Report. Extension Report PM3075. Ames, IA: Iowa State University Extension. (12 pp.)

Babin, Nicholas L., Nathan D. Mullendore and Linda Stalker Prokopy. 2016. Using Social Criteria to Select Watersheds for Non-point Source Agricultural Pollution Abatement Projects. Land Use Policy, 55: 327-333.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264837715001994

Bonnell, J. and A. Baird. 2015. Social indicators for watershed leadership. Ohio State University Extension Bulletin #967.

Bonnell, J., C. Cook, E. Olson, J. Latimore, M. Illes, B. Fredrickson, L. Prokopy, L. Wright-Morton, M. Burbach, B. Broz, A. Lewandowski, R. Power, P. Ollervides. 2016. Watershed management: Developing leadership capacity in collaboration and civic engagement for collective action. Final report to the North Central Region Water Network.

Burbach, M.E., Reimers-Hild, C., & Cramer, J. (2016). 2015 Nebraska Water Leaders Academy – Final report. School of Natural Resources, University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Open-File Report 127.

Busse, Rebecca, Jessica Ulrich-Schad, Lyn Creighton, Sara Peel, Ken Genskow, Linda Stalker Prokopy. 2015. Using Social Indicators to Evaluate the Effectiveness of Outreach in Two Indiana Watersheds. Journal of Contemporary Water Research and Education, 156: 5-20.

Carlton, J. Stuart, Amber S. Mase, Cody L. Knutson, Maria Carmen Lemos, Tonya Haigh, Dennis P. Todey, Linda S. Prokopy. 2016. The Effects of Extreme Drought on Climate Change Beliefs, Risk Perceptions, and Adaptation Attitudes. Climatic Change, 153(2): 211-226.

Chloe B. Wardropper, Sean Gillon, Amber S. Mase, Emily A. McKinney, Stephen R. Carpenter, Adena R. Rissman. 2016. Local perspectives and global archetypes in scenario storyline development. Ecology and Society. 21(2):12

Church, S.P. and L.S. Prokopy (2015). Indian Creek watershed project: Key takeaways for watershed success. Purdue Extension: FNR-511-W.

Church, S.P., N. Babin, B. Bentlage, L.S. Prokopy (Producers). A. Doenges (Editor). (2015). Indian Creek Watershed Project – Keys to Success: Partnerships and People. Purdue Forestry and Natural Resources Extension: http://tinyurl.com/IndianCreekSuccess.

Church, S.P., N. Babin, B. Bentlage, L.S. Prokopy (Producers). A. Doenges (Editor). (2015). Indian Creek Watershed Project – Keys to Success: Partnerships with Agribusinesses. Purdue Forestry and Natural Resources Extension: http://tinyurl.com/IndianCreekRetailers.

Czap, H.J., Czap, N.V., Lynne, G.D., & Burbach, M.E. (2016). Farm Bill 2014: An experimental investigation of conservation compliance. Journal of Sustainable Development, 9(3), 23-38.

Czap, N.V., Banerjee, S., Czap, H.J., Burbach, M.E., & Franti, T. (2015). Empathy conservation: A field experiment on encouraging farmer’s participation in the Nebraska Conservation Stewardship Program. School of Natural Resources, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Open-File Report 129.

Czap, N.V., Czap, H.J., Lynne, G.D., & Burbach, M.E. (2015). Walk in my shoes: Nudging for empathy conservation. Ecological Economics, 118, 147–158.

Davenport, M.A., Perry, V. Pradhananga, A., & Shepard, J. (2016). Community capacity for stormwater management: A social science assessment in three Twin Cities Metro Area watersheds. St. Paul, MN: Department of Forest Resources, University of Minnesota. 126 pp.

Dunn, Michael, Jessica Ulrich-Schad, Linda Stalker Prokopy, Robert L. Myers, Chad R. Watts, Karen Scanlon. 2016. Perceptions and Use of Cover Crops among Early Adopters: Findings from a National Survey. Journal of Soil and Water Conservation, 71(1): 29-40.

Dunn, Mike, Nathan Mullendore, Silvestre Garcia de Jalon, Linda Stalker Prokopy. 2016. The Role of County Surveyors and County Drainage Boards in Addressing Water Quality. Environmental Management, 57:1217-1229.

Gao, Yuling, Nicholas Babin, Allison J. Turner, Cheyenne R. Hoffa, Sara Peel, Linda S. Prokopy. 2016. Understanding Urban-Suburban Adoption and Maintenance of Rain Barrels. Landscape and Urban Planning, 153: 99-110.

Kennedy, S.M., Burbach, M.E., & Sliwinski, M. (2016). Sustainable grassland management: An exploratory study of progressive ranchers in Nebraska. Sustainable Agriculture Research, 5(2), 103-113.

Mase, Amber Saylor, Nicholas L. Babin, Linda Stalker Prokopy, Kenneth Genskow. 2015. Trust in Sources of Soil and Water Quality Information: Implications for Environmental Outreach and Education. Journal of the American Water Resources Association, 51(6): 1656-1666.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1752-1688.12349/abstract

Pradhananga, A. & Davenport, M.A. (2015). Landowner motivations for civic engagement in water resource protection. Journal of the American Water Resources Association, 51(6), 1600-1612. DOI: 10.1111/1752-1688.12346.

Pradhananga, A., Davenport, M.A. & Perry, V. (2015). Groundwater management: Capacity assessment at the local level: A survey of Minnesota Association of Soil and Water Conservation Districts. St. Paul, MN: Department of Forest Resources, University of Minnesota. 75 pp.

Prokopy, Linda Stalker, Kenneth Genskow. 2016. Social Indicator Variations Across Watersheds: Implications for Developing Outreach and Technical Assistance Programs. Society and Natural Resources, 29(5): 617-627.

Rissman, Adena R. and Sean Gillon. 2016. Where are ecology and biodiversity in social-ecological systems research? A review of research methods and applied recommendations. Conservation Letters. DOI: 10.1111/conl.12250

Rissman, Adena R. and Stephen R. Carpenter. 2015. Progress on nonpoint pollution: barriers and opportunities. Daedalus (Journal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences). 144(3): 35-47.

Savage, J., and M. Ribaudo.  2016.  “Improving the Efficiency of Voluntary Water Quality Conservation Programs,” Land Economics 92(1):148-166.

Smith, J.W., Seekamp, E., McCreary, A., Davenport, M.A., Kanazawa, M., Holmberg, K., Wilson, B., & Nieber, J. (2016). Shifting demand for winter outdoor recreation and tourism along the North Shore of Lake Superior under variable rates of climate change: A finite-mixture modeling approach. Ecological Economics, 123, 1-13.

Thompson, Aaron and Linda S. Prokopy. 2016. The Role of Sense of Place in Collaborative Planning. Journal of Sustainability Education, 11.

Ulrich-Schad, J.D., Babin, N., Ma, Z., & L.S. Prokopy. 2016. Out-of-state, out of mind? Non-operating farmland owners and conservation decision making. Land Use Policy. 54

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264837716301594

Widhalm. 2016. Climate Change and Agricultural Extension; Building Capacity for Land Grant Extension Services to Address the Agricultural Impacts of Climate Change and the Adaptive Management Needs of Agricultural Stakeholders. Technical Report Series: Findings and Recommendations of the Climate and Corn-based Cropping Systems Coordinated Agricultural Project. Vol 3 of 5. CSCAP Publication no. CSCAP-0192-2016.

Wolfson, L., J.E. Bonnell, J. Frankenberger, J. Latimore, A. Lewandowski, F. Sleeper. 2016. Developing capacity for local watershed management: Essential leadership skills and training approaches. Journal of Contemporary Water Research and Education. 150. (pp.86-97).

Wright Morton, L., L.S. Prokopy, J.G. Arbuckle, Jr., C. Ingels, M. Thelen, R. Bellm, D. Bowman, L. Edwards, C. Ellis, R. Higgins, T. Higgins, D. Hudgins, R. Hoorman, J. Neufelder, B. Overstreet, A. Peltier, H. Schmitz, J. Voit, C. Wegehaupt, S. Wohnoutka, R. Wolkowski, L. Abendroth, J. Angel, T. Haigh, C. Hart, J. Klink, C. Knutson, R. Power, D. Todey, and M.

PRESENTATIONS:

Arbuckle, J. Gordon Jr. and Gabrielle Roesch-McNally “Iowa Farmers’ Perspectives on Soil Health.” Soil Health Conference: Strategies for Building Soil Health, Ames, IA, February 2, 2016.

Arbuckle, J. 2016. “Iowa Farmers’ Perspectives and Actions on Nutrient Loss Reduction: Results from the Iowa Farm and Rural Life Poll.” National Association of Conservation Districts North Central Region Meeting. Maxwell, IA, April 26, 2016

Arbuckle, J. Gordon Jr. “Iowa Farmers’ Perspectives on the Nutrient Reduction Strategy and Soil Health.” Invited presentation at the Sustaining Our Iowa Land (SOIL): The Past, Present and Future of Iowa’s Soil and Water Conservation Policy, Drake University, Des Moines, IA, November 19, 2015.

Arbuckle, J. Gordon Jr. “Iowa Farmers’ Use of Information Sources and Preferred Ways of Receiving Information.” North Central Cropping Systems Academy. Omaha, NE. December 22, 2015.

Arbuckle, J. Gordon Jr. “Iowa farmers’ willingness to take action in support of the Iowa Nutrient Reduction Strategy.” Iowa Water Conference, Ames, IA, March 23, 2016.

Burbach, M. “Citizen Participation & Collaborative Resource Management.” Water Leaders Academy, Valentine, NE, May 20, 2016.

Burbach, M.E. “Collaborative Watershed Management: Research Overview.” North Central Regional Water Network conference, Lincoln, NE, March 21, 2016.

Burbach, M.E. “Full Range Leadership for Leaders in the Water Arena.” Nebraska State Irrigation Association, Water Leaders Academy, Lincoln, NE, January 28, 2016.

Burbach, M.E. “Personal Empowerment – Continuing to Develop Your Leadership Capacity.” Nebraska Water Leaders Academy, Nebraska City, NE, November 19, 2015.

Burbach, M.E. “Tapping into Your Motivation to Serve and Inspiring Others in Their Service.” Nebraska Water Leaders Academy, Nebraska City, NE, November 19, 2015.

Bonnell, J. 2015. Building the perfect watershed leaders: A review of research and education programs from the upper Midwest. Presented at the Water Management Association of Ohio Annual Meeting. Columbus, Ohio. November.

Church, S.P. and L.S. Prokopy. (2015). “Capacity development through producer-led conservation practices: An evaluation of the Indian Creek Watershed conservation project”. Oral presentation. 21st International Symposium on Society and Resource Management (ISSRM). Charleston, SC, June 13-18, 2015.

Church, S.P. (2015). “Social Science Evaluation of the Indian Creek watershed project, Livingston County, Illinois.” Invited webinar presented to the Alphabet Soup Group. Illinois Farm Bureau, December 17, 2015.

Davenport, M.A. (2015). Climate and coastal recreation resources: Adaption narratives from Northern Minnesota, USA. Seminar presented at School of Natural and Built Environments, University of South Australia, Mawson Lakes, SA, Australia, November, 25, 2015.

Davenport, M.A. (2016). Climate vulnerability and community readiness on the North Shore of Lake Superior. Seminar presented at the University of Minnesota's Water Resources Sciences Seminar, St. Paul, Minnesota. February 19, 2016.

Katz, K., Davenport, M.A., Seekamp, E. (2016). Climate change adaptation perspectives in tourism-dependent communities on Lake Superior’s North Shore. (poster). 2016 Minnesota Climate Change Adaptation Conference, Minneapolis, Minnesota. January 28, 2016.

Katz, K., Davenport, M.A., & Seekamp, E. (2016). Climate readiness on Lake Superior's North Shore: Perspectives on preserving place in a changing climate. Heart of the Continent Partnership Science Symposium, International Falls, Minnesota. March 10, 2016.

Kaufman, E. K. (2015, October). “Strengths-Based Leadership for Senior Design Teams.” Guest lecture for Biological Systems Engineering capstone class (BSE 4125) at Virginia Tech.

Kaufman, E. K. (2015, September). “The Leaders’ Toolshed and Strengths-Based Leadership.” Virginia Cooperative Extension Master Gardener District Leadership Training.

McCreary, A., Smith, J.W., Seekamp, E. Davenport, M.A., & Kanazawa, M. (2015). Climate models, place meanings, and risk perceptions: Understanding the influences on nature-based tourism in coastal communities. International Congress on Coastal and Marine Tourism, Kailua-Kona, Hawaii’. November 10, 2015

McCreary, A., Seekamp, E., Smith, J.W., Davenport, M. (2016). Social values & social media: Understanding place meanings in coastal regions through the Instagram lens. Social Coast Forum 2016, Charleston, South Carolina. February 9, 2016.

Perry, V., Davenport, M.A. (2015). The luxury of participation: Urban water resource decision making and stakeholder engagement. Minnesota Water Resources Conference, October 12, 2015, St. Paul, MN.

Pradhananga, A., Pfeifer, S. & Davenport, M. (2015). Soil and Water Conservation District capacity to address groundwater issues. Minnesota Association of Soil and Water Conservation Districts Board Meeting, November 4, 2015, St. Paul, MN.

Prokopy, Linda and Mike Dunn. October 2015. “Using Survey Results to Inform Indiana’s Nutrient Management Strategy,” USEPA Webinar.

Prokopy, Linda. December 2015. “Designing Effective Communication for Positive Behavior Change,” The Nature Conservancy, Indiana Chapter, All Staff Meeting, Indianapolis, IN.

Prokopy, Linda. November 2015. “Adaptation Challenges for the Central U.S. to a Changing Regional Climate,” Workshop on Arctic Change, Lincoln, NE.

Prokopy, Linda. November 2015. “Lessons Learned Evaluating the Useful to Usable Project,” Agronomy Society of America, Minneapolis, MN.

Prokopy, Linda. October 2015. “Co-Production and Agriculture,” Pennsylvania State University Graduate Seminar, College Station, PA.

Prokopy, Linda. October 2015. “Moving the Needle on Conservation Practice Adoption in the Agricultural Midwest,” Iowa State University Graduate Seminar, Ames, IA.

Prokopy, Linda. Two panels on survey methods at the International Symposium on Society and Resource Management (ISSRM) in June 2016 in Houghton, Michigan.

Ribaudo, M. 2016. “Improving the Efficiency of Conservation Programs:  The Value of Geospatial Data.”  Invited presentation at NRCS Geospatial Conservation Planning Operations Meeting, Fort Worth, TX, April 5-6.

Ribaudo, M.  2016.  “Incentivizing producers to take cost-effective conservation actions.”  Invited presentation at Conference of the Future of Stream Restoration and Preservation, Frederick, MD, April 2.

Ribaudo, M., N. Key, and S. Sneeringer.  2015.  “Assessing Nutrient Compliance as a Tool for Helping Mitigate Gulf Hypoxia.”  Poster at AAEA annual meeting, San Francisco, CA, July 26-28.

Ribaudo, M.  2016.  “Water Quality Trading:  What is Success.”  Invited presentation at CLEAN annual meeting, Fort Collins, CO, February 22-23.

Rissman, Adena R. Private land conservation: roles, responsibilities, and responses to environmental change. Lincoln University, IUCN Symposium. April, 2016. Lincoln, New Zealand.

Rissman, Adena R. Private land conservation: roles, responsibilities, and responses to environmental change. New Zealand Department of Conservation. Wellington, New Zealand. April, 2016.

Rissman, Adena R. Private land conservation: roles, responsibilities, and responses to environmental change. University of Minnesota. April, 2016. Minneapolis, MN.

Rissman, Adena R. Trends in private land conservation: conservation easement terms,  adaptation to environmental change, and spatial data. Leopold Foundation. Baraboo, WI. January, 2016.

Sliwinski, M., Burbach, M., Powell, L., & Schacht, W. “Examining Landscape Heterogeneity and Understanding Ranchers’ Perceptions of Heterogeneity in the Northern Great Plains. Nebraska Chapter of the Wildlife Society, Annual Meeting, Kearney, NE, 8-10 March 2016.

Sliwinski, M., Burbach, M., Powell, L., & Schacht, W. “Understanding Ranchers’ Perceptions of Heterogeneity in the Northern Great Plains (poster).” Prairie Conservation and Endangered Species Conference, Saskatoon, SK, Canada, 16-18 February 2016, Saskatoon, SK, Canada.

Tomer, Mark, Janet Buchanan, Joe Magner, Susan Stephan, Linda Prokopy. April 2016. “Agricultural Conservation Planning Framework: An Overview and Experience in Beargrass Creek and Silver Creek Watersheds.” USEPA webinar.

Wilson, B., Holmberg, K., Nieber, J. Davenport, M.A., Smith, J.W., Seekamp, E., McCreary, A. &, Kanazawa, M. (2015). Climate change in Minnesota’s North Shore. (poster). University of Minnesota’s Department of Bioproducts and Biosystems Engineering Annual Fall Showcase, St. Paul, Minnesota. October 8, 2015.

Ulrich-Schad, Jessica D., Sarah P. Church, and Linda S. Prokopy.   “Measuring Farmers’ Sense of Place in the Context of Conservation Decision-Making.”  Midwest Sociological Society Annual Meeting; Chicago, IL.

Ulrich-Schad, Jessica D., “Understanding Farmers Awareness, Attitudes and Practices related to Nutrient Management in Indiana.”  Environmental Protection Agency Webisode 28.

WEBSITES:

Building Climate Readiness on Minnesota’s North Shore. Northshoreclimate.com

Chesapeake Catfish. http://www.chesapeakecatfish.com/

Fusality for Stream and Field (Polys, Sforza, Scott, Hession, Kim, Munsell, Nease; Virginia Tech)

https://sites.google.com/a/vt.edu/fusality-for-stream-and-field/people-involved

Nebraska Water Leaders Academy. http://waterleadersacademy.org/

Ohio Watershed Network. Ohiowatersheds.osu.edu

Reducing Antibiotic Resistance from Farm to Fork (Vallotton, Gugercin, Pruden-Bagchi, Archibald, Drape, Hession, Knowlton, Krometis, Ponder, Xia; Virginia Tech)

http://www.hort.vt.edu/args/index.html

StREAM Lab Visualization (Hession, Scott; Virginia Tech)

http://stroublesvideos.weebly.com/

Water Sustainability and Climate in the Yahara Watershed. https://wsc.limnology.wisc.edu/

Yahara in situ. https://yaharawsc.wordpress.com/

Outcomes

Several projects are underway in Minnesota (M. Davenport) that address aspects of objectives 2, 3, & 5. The Building Climate Readiness in Nature-Based Tourism-Dependent Coastal Communities project goals are to (1) assess vulnerability and adaptive capacity in recreation and tourism dependent communities and (2) engage decision makers and actors in assessment, discussion, and action planning to build climate readiness. Six presentations were given at professional conferences and one journal article accepted for publication. Team also completed and submitted an interim report to funder. The Community Capacity Assessment for Storm Water Management Project examines drivers of and constraints to community capacity to engage in storm water management in the watersheds, values, beliefs and norms associated with water resources and water resource management, perceptions of existing water resource programs, water resource programming most likely to influence future conservation behavior. The project team has conducted more than 50 interviews is designing a resident survey, and completed and submitted an interim report to funders. The Community Capacity Assessment, Governance and Program Evaluation is assessing (1) landowner/resource user values and beliefs about their communities, the environment, water quality issues and water resource conservation; (2) current and future conservation actions; and (3) who or what influences conservation decisions. The project was also designed to evaluate existing or potential conservation programs including a watershed planning and management approach, collaborative farmer decision making, and farmer-led councils. Conducted more than 50 interviews with farmers, farmland owners and water resource and land use planners/managers and administered a landowner survey to 1,000 property owners in 5 subwatersheds. Completed and submitted four project reports to funders, gave multiple invited seminars and workshops statewide, had one journal article accepted for publication. The Social Measures for Clean Water Funds Effectiveness Tracking project tracks the social outcomes of Clean Water Funds through a social measures monitoring system to assess the impacts of clean water projects on community capacity.

Several Iowa projects made progress toward objectives. LW Morton collected data and published papers on changing climate in the Mississippi River Basin, farmer practices and management decisions and riverine flooding in leveed agricultural landscapes. Received $50,000 from Midwest Climate Hub to gather social science data on Great Lake specialty crop growers on impacts of precipitation and changing climate on soil and water resources and production practices. Conducted Nutrient Reduction Research for $175,000 grant titled Social-Economic Research on Iowa Nutrient Reduction. Continued to work with two NE Iowa farmer-led watershed groups funded by $21,000 watershed Improvement grants. Farmer identity work focused on relationships between identity and social biophysical environmental context, consultation with Wisconsin watershed groups developing a survey using farmer identity theory but modifying for applications to dairy producer, preliminary collaboration with Kansas State University developing farmer identity instrument for use with beef producers in KS, OK, & IA as part of SARE proposal. A second farmer identity analysis in preparation as it relates to the role of farmer identity in addressing agricultural water quality within the US Corn Belt utilizing Sustainable Corn CAP survey data. Gathered identity data as part of NOAA-SARP grant with Purdue project interviewing 24 Iowa farmer advisors around agronomic, financial, conservation themes associated with water and soil management (in conjunction with Nebraska, Indiana colleagues) Coding of 40+ transcripts begun.

Arbuckle’s 2015-16 research in Iowa has examined the relationships between a major catalytic event: the implementation of the Iowa Nutrient Reduction Strategy to address nutrient loss from Iowa farms and reduce surface water impairments and Gulf Hypoxia; and shifts in farmers’ water quality awareness, attitudes, and behaviors. In 2016, he conducted a second round of a five-year survey that is tracking changes in farmer awareness, attitudes, and actions in support of Iowa’s Nutrient Reduction Strategy. He published several articles and reports that contributed to the body of knowledge on factors associated with farmer attitudes toward and actions in support of water quality improvement. He gave numerous presentations on research findings to key stakeholder groups.

At the US Forest Service, K. Floress secured funding to analyze regional social indicators data to build models of individual behavior. She is working with L. Prokopy and others to conduct innovative, integrative model building that will provide findings leading regional recommendations on catalyzing positive water quality behaviors.

A. Rissman A. Rissman developed two new analyses: 1) an examination of uncertainty in phosphorus measurement and modeling in the YaharaWins Wisconsin Adaptive Management Option, a water-quality-trading-like program and 2) a survey of soil and water conservation district employees about their use of water quality information and adaptation to large storm events. She also published several NC1190-related papers. One, which received significant local media coverage, focused on the long-term changes in policy and drivers of water quality in the Yahara Watershed, Wisconsin (Gillon et al. 2015 listed above) and examines the reasons that improving water quality outcomes has been difficult despite significant institutional and collective action. Another examined barriers to targeting high-phosphorus yielding areas, demonstrating a disconnect between spatial areas of policy implementation and areas of high phosphorus yield and examined the barriers including institutional fragmentation responsible for that disconnect. A third paper summarizes the challenges in both producing and using science to improve water quality.

Indiana NC1190 members N. Babin and L. Prokopy analyzed agricultural industry trade articles and interviews with agricultural advisors on both adaptation to climate risk as well as the adoption of conservation practices as a result of the 2012 drought. They also evaluated the maintenance and diffusion of rain barrels in several Indiana watersheds, the results of which will contribute to our understanding of the adoption and maintenance of water quality and climate change BMPs in urban and sub-urban landscapes within the Lake Michigan region, a topic about which we have very little scientific understanding. Other efforts included a paper focused on baseline social capacity and other conditions that are necessary for catalysts to lead to change, to help identify watersheds that have baseline conditions that may lead to more successful outcomes, and the potential for proximate concerns (e.g., local species of concern such as mussels) vs. distant concerns such as Gulf hypoxia to catalyze farmer behavior change.

Jessica Ulrich-Schad successfully surveyed and conducted interviews with a small population of Amish farmers in a watershed in NE Indiana about their conservation practices and attitudes; she will be analyzing those data soon and providing recommendations to local conservation practitioners so that they can improve their relationships with Amish farmers in the area and increase their uptake of conservation practices. She also analyzed data and wrote two papers on nutrient management decision-making and conservation practices among agricultural landowners (absentee) and producers in Indiana. She is also in the process of analyzing pre-post social indicator survey data from two watersheds in Indiana; this will provide a sense of whether local water conservation outreach efforts were effective among both agricultural and urban/lake residents. She has collaborated extensively with Linda Prokopy and Nick Babin on some of these efforts.

M. Burbach, K. Floress, and E. Kaufman collaborated on research showing that water-related leadership development programs should be theory based and provide assessment, challenge, and support; and offer a variety of developmental experiences and the opportunity to learn from experience.

E. Kaufman continued to explore eco-leadership as a mechanism and condition for translating catalysts into action. Observed relationships between community groups’ leadership style, group cohesion, and community project engagement. Significant factors included idealized attributes and inspirational motivation.