GSS Hosts Minnesota Agricultural Conservation Professionals

In early November, GSS staff Kevin Stark, Jeff Knopf, Eric Lindquist, and Andy Robertson hosted a meeting with agricultural conservation professionals. The group was represented by staff from the MN Dept. of Agriculture (MDA), MN Pollution Control Agency (MPCA), and two local soil and water conservation district (SWCD) staff from Fillmore County and Root River. The gathering took place at GSS’s Winona offices, where participants toured the facilities and attended presentations in the scenic third-floor conference room of SMU’s Aquinas Hall.

In cooperation with the Fillmore County Soil and Water Conservation District and the MN Dept. of Ag., GSS staff are piloting a GIS mapping and targeting technique that will involve identifying existing conservation practices on farm fields and an off-site assessment process that will help Dept. of Ag and SWCD staff target fields that will benefit from additional conservation practices installations. This information will help local SWCD staff with meaningful offsite data that will assist them in their field walk-overs when they approach farmers about the potential to expand upon their existing conservation efforts. The meeting introduced attendees to the concepts in this pilot project, talked about the benefits of such a project, and even explored what it would look like to potentially scale up the work to involve a large area such as southeast Minnesota. GSS spoke about the organization's capacity and competency to take on large projects like this, demonstrated by decades of expansive mapping project work and local partnerships and projects that support agricultural conservation planning.

GSS hosts Ag Professionals in one of the unique spaces of SMU’s Aquinas Hall.