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Farming as Conservation-based Agriculture
Conservation-based agriculture must take place on a landscape scale.
Optimizing conservation values on individual properties is essential. These
individual efforts become multiplied, however, when practices are integrated on
a regional or watershed basis. Such community bridge-building may start with farmers, ranchers, conservationists, agency staff, and consumers visiting farms
and discussing the important attributes of any given area, forming management
teams, and learning from one another. From there, communities of willing
landowners, scientific experts, and concerned citizens can begin to identify the
models, goals, and benchmarks that lead to regional action.
In the best of all worlds, agriculture would take place within a matrix of different habitat types in any given ecoregion. This will require conducting ecological assessments to determine what habitat types have been disproportionately affected. Ideally, goals will be set to provide at least 30 percent of undisturbed habitat type throughout the ecoregion by:
1. Preventing the conversion of any intact habitat for production; and
2. Restoring already disturbed areas.
Habitat conservation programs may also be initiated by resource agencies and nonprofit organizations working together to develop watershed, ecoregional, or state-level conservation strategies. For example, The Nature Conservancy has developed ecoregional plans for most areas in the United States. All state fish and wildlife agencies completed state wildlife action plans by October 2005.
Incorporating farmland restoration into broader strategic planning efforts has a number of important advantages. We have already mentioned that nearly two-thirds of the land is in some form of grazing, haying, or row-cropping. In many areas, agricultural land values remain very low, and many lands are in a somewhat restorable condition. Farmers, ranchers and conservationists all have a common interest in preventing or controlling the spread of weeds and other non-native invasive species, which are widely recognized as one of the biggest threats to native biodiversity. Farmers and ranchers are on the front line of defense in many areas and the good ones can and do play a critical role in keeping these invaders out of native habitats. In addition, working with farmers and ranchers will be necessary to achieve the scale required to reap the ecological benefits of suitable natural area protection.
A redirection of annual Farm Bill subsidy payments could help make such goals economically possible, and help to achieve the landscape scale necessary to reap the ecological benefits of habitat protection. As a result, emphasizing the conservation incentive programs and eventual appropriations of the next Farm Bill should be a top priority of conservation-minded citizens.
In this section. . .
There is a direct correlation between our grocery lists and the endangered species list.
Practices such as pasture-based meat production, diversified land use, habitat buffers along river systems, and protecting critical natural areas on farms and ranches help to establish a sense of fluidity or permeability on the agricultural landscape.
Conservation-based agriculture must take place on a landscape scale, and optimizing conservation values on individual properties is essential.
Criteria that define biodiversity protection on organic farms and ranches, and potential benefits and challenges to landowners.
