2020 Accomplishments
The Indiana Conservation Partnership
The Indiana Conservation Partnership is comprised of eight Indiana agencies and organizations who share a common goal of promoting conservation. To that end, the mission of the Indiana Conservation Partnership is to provide technical, financial and educational assistance needed to implement economically and environmentally compatible land and water stewardship decisions, practices and technologies.
ICP entities that work with private landowners to provide direct technical and/or financial assistance for conservation projects share data with necessary formal agreements in place (1619 compliance, MOU’s, etc.) to exchange information while always protecting personally identifiable information.
This report serves as a compliment to Indiana’s Nutrient Reduction Strategy, which can be found online at http://www.in.gov/isda .
For more information, contact the Indiana State Department of Agriculture. ISDANutrientReduction@isda.in.gov 317.232.8770
Key Highlights
In 2020, the Indiana Conservation Partnership installed a record number of new conservation practices. Over 32,000 conservation and farm best management practices were implemented, outpacing the previous record in 2013 by over 1,000. 17,191 of these practices were modeled to quantify reductions of sediment and nutrients entering Indiana’s waterways. 282,000 cover crop acres were also modeled to quantify carbon sequestration equivalents.
1,076,400 tons of sediment were saved from entering Indiana's waterways, which is equivalent to a football field covered to a depth of 467 feet, which is 37 feet taller than the Great Pyramid of Giza.
2,253,200 lbs. of Nitrogen were kept out of Indiana's waterways, enough to fill 11.3 fifty-foot freight cars. One would need 27 billion gallons of water to dilute this amount of nitrogen to meet drinking water standards.
1,126,700 lbs. of Phosphorus were saved from entering Indiana's waterways, enough to fill 5.6 fifty-foot freight cars. This reduction is enough to prevent over 560,000,000 pounds of surface algae from growing.
Cover crops planted with ICP assistance in 2020 sequestered 147,695 tons of carbon, which is equal to the emissions of 28,960 cars.
Methodology
Water Quality Outcomes
Members of the Indiana Conservation Partnership (ICP) use the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s (USEPA) Region 5 Nutrient Load Reduction Model to determine the impact of completed conservation practices implemented by the ICP on Indiana's water quality. The ICP adopted the Region 5 Nutrient Load Reduction Model to analyze conservation practices funded by local, state, and federal programs. View further methodology .
As part of Indiana’s Nutrient Reduction Strategy, this modeling effort illustrates the continued success and challenges of conservation and serves as a tool to help set watershed priority and reduction targets, manage conservation resources, and to further stakeholder involvement across Indiana.
Carbon Sequestration
Soil conservation practices go beyond preventing soil loss and can enrich soil with nutrients such as soil organic carbon (SOC). One such practice is the seeding of cover crops, which has been shown to sequester SOC in agricultural soils. The sequestration of SOC is not only important for the health of agricultural soils, but also can serve as a carbon sink to help reduce greenhouse gases (GHG), which are a main contributor to Global Climate Change. Research by C. Poeplau and A. Don has shown a mean annual SOC sequestration value of 0.14 ± 0.04 t/ac/y from cover crops. The approximate mass of carbon dioxide (CO2) removed from the atmosphere by the sequestration of SOC can be calculated based on the stoichiometric mass ratio of CO2 to carbon.
Identifying Trends to Customize Conservation Delivery
The ICP utilizes multiple trend analysis techniques to identify rates of conservation practice implementation on the watershed, county, and state levels to identify adoption rates, most popular practices, newly emerging practices, practices dwindling in use, policy, weather, and economic effects on practice adoption, conservation culture, etc. These trends allow the ICP to target resources and adapt conservation delivery geographically based on landowner needs and attitudes while preparing for spikes or dips in conservation demand due to weather and economic drivers. Visit the Cover Crop and Conservation Tillage Transect Data web page to view trends in the use of No-till, Conservation Tillage and Cover Crops in your county.
Incorporating Other Data Sources
The ICP leads many other efforts that measure practice adoption, social trends, edge of field and in stream water quality in addition to working with partners in the private agricultural industry on various projects. Many of these data sources are used to track progress toward the goals of the Indiana Agriculture Nutrient Alliance .
For more information about other data sources, please see the story maps highlighting Indiana's Commitment to Water Quality .
Collaboration with Other States
As a member of the Gulf of Mexico Hypoxia Task Force and participant in Indiana’s Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement (GLWQA) Domestic Action Plan (DAP) and Great Lakes conservation (Tri-State Watershed Alliance), Indiana is proud to collaboratively work with other states in the Midwest and across the country to improve water quality and grow adoption of science based, nutrient runoff reducing, Best Management Practices which build soil health. The ICP is hungry to learn what is working in other states and willing to share their own experiences.
Indiana is part of 3 major basins. Click the buttons below to highlight them.
Conservation Implementation Data
The practices highlighted in this report were completed via voluntary conservation efforts from private landowners in Indiana with support from the Indiana Conservation Partnership. This report does not capture the many unassisted in field and edge of field practices landowners install and pay for themselves. Reductions in dissolved nutrients, such as dissolved reactive phosphorus (DRP) and nitrate (NO3), are not accounted for by the Region 5 Model.
Conservation Programs
Click on the buttons below to see conservation programs that were active in 2020.
Click below for printable maps.
Multiyear Benefits
Load reductions continue for the life of the practices modeled (e.g., grassed waterways are designed to be 10- year practices, while cover crops are 1-year practices, established annually). Some ICP practices were not modeled because they were not associated with sediment loss, and therefore not covered by the EPA Region 5 Model.
Click on the buttons below to see multiyear load reductions by watershed. In the map, click on individual watersheds, for more details.
Click below for printable maps.
2020 Conservation Implementation
Click on the buttons below to see 2020 conservation implementation. In the map, click on individual watersheds or counties, for more details.
Note: This report highlights only assisted, completed practices, while noting some practices underway near completion. It does not detail the many new contracts initiated or practices approved to begin construction. Carbon sequestration figures are calculated only from ICP assisted cover crops.
Click below for printable maps.
Other Reporting Metrics
Positive Impacts to Drinking Water Sources and Targeting Conservation Efforts
The ICP focuses on reporting the positive impacts of conservation practices to key drinking water sources throughout the state that have significant percentages of agricultural land use within their watershed. To identify what watershed you live in, find out the positive impacts farmers are having on water sources, and to learn about the most popular conservation practices visit Indiana’s Nutrient Reduction Strategy website .
Click below for printable summaries of conservation in significant watersheds and waterbodies.
Financial Investments
The ICP shares financial data for all conservation practices at the county level, on an annual basis, per conservation program published online. Find out how much local, state, and federal conservation dollars came into your county on the ICP Reports Web Map . Total public conservation funding in 2020 totaled $114,270,582.
The primary value in ICP adoption of a collective reporting mechanism lies in benchmarking conservation impact and management of conservation resources across the state. As an additional result, the Indiana State Department of Agriculture has tied Key Performance Indicators and Performance Measures to the Indiana State Office of Management and Budget. On a larger scale, The ICP utilizes this model to set program/project goals, quantify impacts and estimate load reductions before a project ever begins.
Resources
Supporting Tabular Data: View tabular data for all maps included in this report, as well as program funding descriptions
Methodology - USEPA Region 5 Load Reduction Modeling of Completed Conservation Practices in Indiana: View methodology used to compile this report.
Information about Indiana’s Nutrient Reduction Strategy can be found online: https://www.in.gov/isda/divisions/soil-conservation/indiana-state-nutrient-reduction-strategy/
