Hello, and welcome to the Talking Crop Podcast. I'm Kathryn Seebruck, Commercial Agriculture Educator with University of Illinois Extension serving Jo Daviess, Stephenson, and Winnebago Counties. Talking Crop is a seasonal crop production podcast with episodes occurring every other week during the growing season between May and September. In each episode, I bring on a guest speaker to discuss topics related to their areas of expertise. In today's episode, I'm joined by Nicole Haverback, who is a Watershed Outreach Associate with University of Illinois Extension.

Nicole and I discussed the nutrient loss reduction strategy, including information on priority watersheds, how we're doing in meeting the goals of the nutrient loss reduction strategy, and how farmers are affected by and can contribute to the goals of the nutrient loss reduction strategy with various management practices. This is a great follow-up to the last episode as some of these practices can be partially covered by cost share programs that we discussed with Katie Peterson of the Winnebago County Soil and Water Conservation District. In the video description for today's episode, you can find links to the Nutrient Loss Reduction Strategy Biennial Report, the Nutrient Loss Reduction Strategy podcast and blog, and more that we discuss throughout the episode. And as always, you can find a link to the evaluation for this podcast in the video description as well. The evaluation takes only a couple of minutes, and it helps me tailor this podcast to you by enabling me to bring you the topics and speakers that you want to hear from.

The next episode of Talking Crop will release on Wednesday, August 21, and I will be joined by Dennis Bowman, the Digital Agriculture Specialist with University of Illinois Extension, to discuss technology and agriculture and how it can benefit farmers. Without further ado, please enjoy this episode of Talking Crop, Talking Nutrient Loss Reduction with Nicole Haverback. Nicole, welcome to the Talking Crop podcast. Thank you so much for being here today and taking the time to speak with me.

Yeah thanks for having me, Kathryn.

Absolutely. Nicole, you are a Watershed Outreach Associate with University of Illinois Extension and that's an interesting job title. I don't know if I've ever heard anything like that. Could you describe for the listeners what that position entails?

Yeah, I serve as a Watershed Outreach Associate, and I'm a part of what we call the Nutrient Loss Reduction Implementation team with Extension. My office is located in Galva, which is about fifteen minutes from where I grew up, but the position is watershed based, which can sometimes get confusing. The watersheds I work in are the Lower Rock River, and the Mississippi North Central, or the Flint Henderson Watersheds. This is in Northwestern Illinois, and it covers areas that are in 13 counties from Boone and Winnebago Counties up at the Illinois Wisconsin border, to Hancock County down in West Central Illinois. These watersheds are identified or referred to as the two nitrogen priority watersheds that were identified in the original Illinois nutrient loss reduction strategy when it was first developed.

How would you define a Watershed? Where do these watersheds and the things that happen within them, where did that all end up? I'm assuming they're all interconnected, is that the case?

We all live in a watershed, and a watershed is basically just an area of land that drains to a common body of water. In this case, for example, the Lower Rock River watershed would drain to the Rock River.

Okay, gotcha. And you said you are in the Nitrogen Priority Watershed. What does that specifically mean? That nitrogen is the priority for that watershed.

Yeah, there are two nitrogen priority watersheds and two phosphorus priority watersheds that are served by Watershed Outreach Associates with Extension. I have a counterpart, her name is Emma Eldridge, who serves the two phosphorus priority watersheds, which are the Embarras and the Little Wabash River watersheds in East Central Illinois. I'm in the Nitrogen Priority watersheds, like I said, in the Northwestern part of the state, so nitrogen or nitrate nitrogen moves more easily with water. I'm located where there's more tile drainage, basically.

With the priority watersheds you said nitrogen and phosphorus, and were these identified in that both of those types of watersheds or those watershed areas have specifically increased levels of nitrates and phosphorus in each respective watershed? Is that how they identified these as priorities?

Yeah, the priority watersheds are those that are expected to have the greatest capacity to reduce the highest volumes of nutrient losses each year. While all watersheds are important and are important for reaching our goals, the nutrient loss reduction strategy priority watersheds are more closely monitored and are targeted for watershed based planning efforts, funding, outreach, and implementation programs. A little bit about what that means and the work that we do is that we work towards coordinating watershed and planning activities in these areas, and we provide education and outreach on the Illinois nutrient loss reduction strategy and agricultural conservation practices that are outlined within the strategy. We have a podcast, we have a blog. Another example of things I do, like today, I did a youth water quality activity at Galva Farm in The Park in my watersheds. Then another specific example of a project that we're working on within these priority watersheds is a grant that is funded by the Illinois Soybean Association, where we are providing free cover crop seed to farmers who are new to planting cover crops in three different counties within these priority watersheds.

That's a really great kind of incentive. That's interesting that you cover both youth programming but also obviously adult programming too. It's important to start them young, so they realize that these things are out there and something to care about in the future. That's really cool. You mentioned your podcast and your blog, what we can do is I can actually include links to those in the video description. Anyone listening, if you're interested in hearing the podcast, reading the blog, we can definitely put that up there. Nicole with that free cover crop program is there potentially a link that we could include for that as well?

No. Okay no that's no problem but it's program that we can look forward to then is that the case?

Yeah, we work with the Soil and Water Conservation Districts in three of the counties that we work in to distribute the seed so most of that goes through them.

Okay great. Thank you for clarifying that and I'm glad you brought that up because in our last episode I spoke with a woman named Katie Peterson who works for the Winnebago County Soil and Water Conservation District and I don't think that's one of the counties that's involved in this program, but we did talk about how the different cost share programs that they have for these different practices do contribute to nutrient loss reduction. I'm especially glad that you joined me today because it's a great follow-up to that discussion, and we'll talk about that a little bit later as well. But you mentioned the Illinois nutrient loss reduction strategy and that's the overarching theme of this conversation, kind of like the elephant in the room that we haven't addressed yet. Can you talk about what that is? I'm assuming it's not just Illinois that has some sort of strategy, right?

Right, right. The USEPA required the 12 of the highest nutrient contributing states that are draining to the Mississippi River, and ultimately contributing to the Gulf Hypoxic Zone to produce plans on how to reduce the amount of nutrients that are being lost within their state. Illinois is one of the 12 states that have developed these strategies as members of the Gulf Hypoxia Task Force. In Illinois, the strategy is steered by the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, the Illinois Department of Agriculture, and the University of Illinois Extension, as well as a multi stakeholder policy working group. The strategy is a collaborative effort, and ultimately the goal is to improve water quality both locally and downstream by reducing the amount of nutrients, particularly we're trying to reduce the amount of nitrogen and phosphorus that are entering our waterways coming from point sources and non point sources.

Okay, what is the distinction between a point source and a non point source?

Yeah, so point sources, point source pollution is coming from a single identifiable source. think like wastewater treatment and industry. Those are regulated and easy to trace back to. Where non point source pollution is far harder to identify and trace back to, as it comes from multiple sources like runoff from urban and ag areas.

Okay, gotcha. So one's kind of easier to pinpoint and the other one not quite as easy because it might be coming from kind of a conglomeration of areas, right?

Exactly.

With the nutrient loss reduction strategy for Illinois, what are the goals of that strategy?

Yeah, ultimately the strategy directs efforts to reduce nutrients from these point and non point sources in a coordinated, but primarily voluntary way. The end goal is to reduce total nitrogen and phosphorus losses by 45%, And then there's an interim goal to reduce nitrate nitrogen loss by 15%, and a 25% decrease in total phosphorus by 2025.

Those are pretty significant goals, excuse me. Are we on track to reach those goals? Like how are we doing in terms of achieving those goals?

Yeah, those are definitely some pretty significant goals. In the most recent 2023 biennial report that we use to track our progress towards meeting these goals, monitoring data showed that from 2017 to 2021, the five year average values for nitrate nitrogen and total phosphorus are still higher than the interim target, with a 4.8% increase in nitrate nitrogen, and a 35% increase in total phosphorus. But even though the overall loads remain high, the point source sector has actually reduced their total phosphorus loads by 34%, but the non point source sector is still increasing. There is a lot of research that is going on that is studying how different factors may play a role in this, like legacy nutrients, stream bank stabilization, and climate variability.

Okay, gotcha. I can imagine that that's something, especially with those non point sources, that there's a lot of it's probably coming from a lot of different places, whether you know they're easily identifiable or well known or maybe not so much. For instance, I believe there is some research going on from University of Illinois looking at stream bank erosion and how stream bank erosion is contributing to I think its phosphorus loss into the environment, specifically waters. So yeah, I'm sure there's lots to learn. It does make sense that we're not making as much progress just because we're still learning about how all those things have that interplay with with one another and the environment.

Yeah, exactly. We actually just had Dr. Andrew Margana on our latest podcast episode where we talked about some of his stream bank stabilization research.

Yeah perfect, yep that's exactly who I was thinking of. So yeah always something new to learn. I think you mentioned briefly the Biennial Report. Is this something that comes out obviously it comes out biennially but is it something that gets published that people can find and take a look at?

Yeah, the 2023 report and the previous reports, including the original strategy, can be found on the IEPA's Nutrient Loss Reduction Strategy website. We can provide the link for that as well.

Okay perfect. I will throw that link in the video description so that we can provide listeners with that information should they want to go find it. I looked at it actually not too long ago. it is a pretty hefty report. There's a lot to read but the table of contents is very well broken down so if there's any particular areas that you want to go to they're very easy to find and just click and you're right there which is really nice. Nicole I want to shift gears just a little bit. We have a lot of really great information in our back pockets now about what the Nutrient Loss Reduction Strategy is, the Watersheds that you work in, you talked about Extension's role in the Nutrient Loss Reduction Strategy, and for me as a Commercial agriculture educator and someone who works directly with farmers, and since this podcast is for farmers, I want to talk specifically about how this strategy affects farmers. One thing that you might get asked, and maybe you have been asked this by a farmer but I'm sure this sentiment might be it crosses different areas, why should a farmer care about the nutrient loss reduction strategy or really why anybody care about it?

What is the significance? Why is this something that is being addressed? I know you mentioned the hypoxic zone, but what is the significance of that, and why should folks care about it?

Yeah, so I think that's a great question. I think it's important to show that there is work being done to try to meet these goals, and try to improve our water quality, both locally and downstream, like you mentioned the hypoxic zone. But not only that, I think that there are also many benefits that are associated with a lot of these conservation practices that are outlined within the Nutrient Loss Reduction Strategy, both economically, and also just in terms of being good stewards of the land. Keeping these nutrients where they should be, yes, it helps the environment, but it can also lead to cost savings for farmers, just by keeping these nutrients where they should be. One thing that always sticks out in my mind, is the impact that soil loss and erosion has on nutrient loss, and it can be very costly to farmers.

One stat that always sticks with me, and that I like to reference, is a study that found that US corn growers actually spend a half million dollars on fertilizer to make up for soil erosion?

Yeah, if you're spending all that money, obviously it's a conglomeration of everybody, right? But we all know that input costs are not necessarily low, know they fluctuate sometimes they're higher than others, and it's important that you know where you're putting that money that it stays, right? Well exactly what you were saying that you wanted to stay where it is so that your crops are actually utilizing it. So it's not necessarily yes of course it's important to protect our waters, but at the same time if you talk to a farmer a lot of it comes down to the return on investment and if you're putting something there that just goes away very very quickly you're not reaping those benefits and you're not getting that return. So I very much agree that's a really important point And with that, are there certain practices that farmers can implement or like more specifically is there any like reference of these practices?

Is there maybe a document that lists them out that maybe lists specifics of, this practice is better than this one? Is there any sort of information out there for farmers to access?

Yeah. We at Extension have created a fact sheet that includes all of the agricultural conservation practices that are outlined within the strategy, but some specific examples, some practices that are included in that are things like nutrient management. Using tools like the Maximum Return to Nitrogen Calculator or the MRTN, using different infield practices like cover crops or no till, or installing edge of field practices like buffer strips, wetlands, or bioreactors.

Okay, gotcha. Yeah and I know something like cover crops, that's one that's pretty common. Obviously it's something that's not necessarily up and coming, but more and more people I think are talking about it and at least thinking about it if they haven't implemented that already. I know I mentioned earlier that in our last episode I spoke with someone from Soil and Water Conservation and we talked about how they have these cost share programs available to be able to implement these types of practices, a few of which you just mentioned. That should hopefully provide that incentive for farmers to implement those practices and make it a little bit easier on their pocketbook, so to speak.

For instance, I just actually spoke with a farmer the other day at a farm visit and we were talking about how something like a cover crop, for example, that's something that you're putting in the ground that you know that you are going to actively terminate later on so it kind of makes you think okay well what's the benefit and obviously there are those environmental benefits and the benefits of reducing nutrient loss but for them it's a little bit easier to think about the impact financially. So those cost share programs I think are really, really great, and I think it's an awesome tie in to the Nutrient Loss Reduction Strategy.

Yeah, for sure. Conservation is not cheap, so cost share opportunities are definitely awesome.

Yeah, for sure. With that, I wondered, are there any events coming up that you want to mention? You talked earlier about how you do a lot of outreach and education. Are there any that you wanted to throw out there for the listeners in case they might be in the area and want to learn more and attend an event to talk about this more in-depth?

Oh yeah, we do produce a blog and a podcast each month, but for in person events, there is a Farmer Panel that will be in Effingham that is on August 29.

Okay, August 29. Perfect. Will that be where someone's leading a discussion with a panel of farmers to talk about practices that they've implemented before?

Yes, yes. This specific farmer panel, I believe, will be focused on cover crops.

Okay, perfect. Yeah, that's great. Those events are awesome. I think it's really helpful to be able to learn from others who have been successful at these things. Like we talked about, implementing cover crops is something that's being done more and more, but it's also something that I always like to say that every decision a farmer makes is a risk, right? It's really, I think, helpful to be able to talk with like minded people who have done these things successfully so that it makes it a little bit easier of a decision if you're in that position of trying to do something like this. That's great and I will include information about that panel in the video description as well. Like we mentioned before, we'll include the links to your guys's podcast and your blog. And you also mentioned that fact sheet of practices. Is there a link that we could provide for that also?

Yes there is.

Okay awesome. So yeah all of that will be provided. I think all of that will be really great information of course along with that Biennial Report. Yeah for any listeners that are interested you'll have a slew of information at your hands in the video description that you can take a look at at your leisure. Nicole, is there anything else that you have for me before we close out?

Not that I can think of, but I really appreciate you having me.

Awesome, yeah absolutely no problem. I appreciate you being here. Thanks again for joining me, and I'm sure we will connect again in the future.