“Way more than a donut and a PowerPoint”: Women agricultural landowner learning circles and conservation outreach

Abstract

Women’s conservation learning circles were designed to address the barriers facing women agricultural landowners and have been shown to benefit these landowners in multiple ways. However, how the resource professionals involved in the learning circle outreach method view the method is as of yet unknown. We use interview data from 35 resource professionals, including those from the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and soil and water conservation districts (SWCDs) to gain insight on their views of the learning circle outreach method. Our findings reveal that resource professionals believe these meetings were successful in multiple ways: by engaging women landowners in conservation topics, providing contacts for resource professionals and agency visits, and as a catalyst for conservation implementation. Our findings also reveal what these resource professionals liked most and what they believe could be improved with the meetings.