Excerpt
As we move into the 21st century, the soil and water conservation profession of tomorrow will be very different from that of today.
These differences will reflect both changes in the natural resources issues needing attention and changes in our society.
First of all, the soil and water conservationist of tomorrow will have a more comprehensive overview and be working on many different natural resource issues. The natural resources issues impacting agricultural land management have evolved from the more traditional, single problem oriented issues such as soil erosion to more complex, interrelated environmental issues involving layers of multiple natural resources. While still including soil and water conservation, these more complex environmental issues include agricultural non-point source pollution control, fertilizer and pesticide management, and biodiversity. These environmental issues are outlined in the excellent publication by the National Research Council called Soil and Water Quality: An Agenda for Agriculture.
In the 21st century, the natural resources professional will be working on these complex environmental issues from a broader perspective or a systems perspective. Resource management will need an ecosystem and/or a watershed management perspective. While still working with the land manager or landowner on specific field and farm level plans …
Footnotes
Sarah Fast is the director of staff in the soil and water conservation in the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, Jefferson City, Missouri. She has been a member of the Soil and Water Conservation Society since the 1970s.
- Copyright 1995 by the Soil and Water Conservation Society
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