Windbreaks and ecosystem-based assistance in the Natural Resource Conservation Service

Excerpt

The Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) is currently integrating a combination of social and physical factors in the design and implementation of its windbreak assistance activities. In an effort to describe, assess, and underscore the need for this integration, as called for in ecosystem based assistance, a preliminary field assessment was conducted during the spring of 1993.

The results of the preliminary assessment describe the perceptions and behaviors of farmers and program managers relative to the establishment and maintenance of windbreaks. Findings from the assessment will serve as a basis for recommendations to improve NRCS' current windbreak assistance activities.

The sample

During spring 1993, a preliminary field assessment was conducted by NRCS' Rural Sociologist, who provides technical assistance to states in the Midwest. Technical assistance includes, in part, the collection, evaluation and dissemination of social data as it pertains to the adoption of windbreaks. Twenty-nine farmers were contacted by phone in six Midwestern states: Ohio, North Dakota, South Dakota, Missouri, Michigan, and Wisconsin. The number of respondents ranged from a high …