Forum For engaging readers across disciplines

Excerpt

“Multidisciplinary” has become an important concept in many agencies, universities, and businesses, affecting everything from organizational structure to funding criteria to strategic direction. When a multidisciplinary approach works well, people from different backgrounds and specialties can produce more effective, innovative solutions than typically possible through single-discipline efforts.

Soil and water conservation is and has been a multidisciplinary endeavor involving the collective effort of researchers in numerous fields, policy makers, conservation advocates, agency administrators, program managers, technical assistance providers, landowners, producers, educators, and many others.

As I settled into my new office at the Soil and Water Conservation Society, I took a little time to browse through some of the many cabinets and shelves filled with interesting materials that have been collected here over the years. From the society's very beginning in the 1940s, it has published materials that engage readers from diverse occupations and perspectives around a common goal—advancing sustainable natural resource management.

The research findings reported here, for example, help fill in our understanding of the complex relationships between human activities and the environment and the resulting impact on the quality and quan-tity of our soil, water, and related natural resources. This improved understanding, in …