Leadership for Midwestern Watersheds brings together watershed project directors and other stakeholders to compare notes and share lessons learned about watershed projects.  Sand County Foundation, American Farmland Trust, Iowa Soybean Association, and the North Central Region Water Network sponsor LMW meetings to encourage the exchange of information and improve the performance of watershed projects in the Midwest.

A longer-term objective of LMW is to develop a “community of practice” – a group of conservation practitioners who know how to improve water quality through projects applied at a watershed scale.  LMW meetings focus on specific subjects essential to successful watershed projects, using formal presentations to support the facilitated discussions that form the core of the meetings.

Opportunities to use watershed-scale approaches to address agriculture-related water quality issues expanded when Congress created the Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP) in early 2014.  Leadership for Midwestern Watersheds provides guidance to leaders of new RCPP projects and helps to distill lessons learned from these and other emerging initiatives.

Download summaries and presentations of LMW meetings by clicking on the links below.

• Meeting #8 (November 1-2, 2017, Butterworth Center, Moline, IL): Social Science and Farm-Level Decision Making
  • Proceedings
  • Barriers and Solutions in Working with Land Managers to Promote Conservation – Bret Shaw, University of Wisconsin-Madison
    
  • Engaging Middle Adopter Decision Making Farmers – Ryan Stockwell, National Wildlife Federation
    
  • Effective Communications between Farmers and Service Providers - Al Bennett, Compeer Financial
    
  • Lyons Creek Watershed Project: Lessons Learned from Partner & Participant Reflections - Andrew Stephenson and Mitch Avery, University of Northern Iowa
  • EPA updates: Gulf Hypoxia Task Force and 319 Grant Program - Katie Flahive, Environmental Protection Agency
  • Strategies for “Getting to Scale”: Expanding Successful Approaches from a Few Watersheds to Many – Rebecca Power, University of Wisconsin Environmental Resources Center
• Meeting #7 (November 2016, Dubuque, IA): Economic drivers in agriculture and watershed management
  • Proceedings
  • Farm Economics 101 – Chat Hart, Iowa State University
  • Phosphorus Adaptive Management Project – Dave Taylor, Madison Metro Sewerage District
    
  • Environmental vs. Economic Performance: Are They Really Competing? – Dave Muth, AgSolver
  • The Resource Stewardship Evaluation Tool – Marty Adkins, NRCS
  • Incorporating Economic Efficiency into Watershed Planning – Adam Kiel, Iowa Soybean Association
  • Connecting Watersheds: Economic Resources, Projects and Partnerships – City of Dubuque
• Meeting #6 (March 2016, Milan, IL): Implementing state nutrient reduction strategies: RCPP and soil health
• Meeting #5 (January 2015, Sycamore, IL): Beginning Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP) projects
• Meeting #4 (November 2013, Madison, WI): Project organization and governance
• Meeting #3 (November 2012, Ankeny, IA): Engaging farmers and scaling up lessons learned from watershed projects
• Meeting #2 (November 2011, Ankeny, IA): Measuring results
• Meeting #1 (March 2011, La Crosse, WI): Goals, project design, and the Mississippi River Basin Initiative (MRBI)