Advancing conservation professional's skills at the agriculture and conservation interface

Commodities

Practices

• Education and Training: extension, mentoring, networking, technical assistance, workshop
• Natural Resources/Environment: biodiversity, habitat enhancement, wetlands, wildlife
• Production Systems: agroecosystems
• Sustainable Communities: leadership development, partnerships, public participation, sustainability measures

Conservation professionals in the public and private sectors serve at the front lines helping farmers, ranchers, and landowners make decisions on their land that have impacts far beyond farm and field borders. Often trained in environmental disciplines such as water or wildlife conservation, range management, or forestry, these professionals are crucial partners in farm operations and are essential for supporting  effective stewardship of natural resources for the benefit of all. However, they often and increasingly have little first-hand experience with agriculture, which can constrain their ability to connect to farmers, ranchers, and landowners. The Land Stewardship Leadership Academy seeks to ameliorate that constraint by immersing four cohorts of  20-25 early-career conservation professionals that work on private lands in a 16-week program to learn about farmers and farming. Our work plans to improve and grow an innovative program, the Land Stewardship Leadership Academy, by offering additional courses in Iowa and expanding to Indiana. Program participants will learn from one another, from agricultural educators at Iowa State University and Purdue University, and from dedicated farmer-teachers in a mix of online, on-farm, and classroom instruction and discussions. Program evaluation will measure changes in participant knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors using a mixed method approach to measure success in achieving our intended outcomes. We anticipate that graduates of the program (estimated 40-50 per state) will be more effective in their work in agricultural conservation by gaining a greater appreciation for the complexities of agricultural operations and gaining new competencies in interpersonal, communication, and leadership skills.

There will be two types of outputs from our project. The first of these is a detailed curriculum for the Land Stewardship Leadership Academy, which will be formally documented in a program Instructional Guide. That Instructional Guide will then guide the development and delivery of the second output, which are four completed offerings of the program for four unique cohorts.

The curriculum and associated Instructional Guide will be developed in collaboration with all project PI’s ahead of the implementation of the first two Cohorts in year 1 and then revised throughout the granting period based on experiences in each cohort. The Guide will outline techniques for recruitment of the cohort, implementation of the course, and program evaluation. Detailed descriptions of each instructional modality will be outlined in the Guide. Example agendas for in-person sessions as well as facilitator instructions for activities to be used at each session will be developed and included. The Guide will have instruction on best practices for delivery of the online materials, including use of a Learning Management System, development of asynchronous lectures, and instructions for facilitating participant dialog online. The guide will have instructional resources for all the facilitator-led sessions, including orientation materials, leadership modules, and behavior change modules. Finally, the Guide will have instructions on topics to cover in farmer- and specialist-led sessions and instructions on helping facilitate conversation and learning during those sessions.

The second output will be the development and delivery of 2 LSLA cohorts in Indiana and Iowa over 2 years (4 total cohorts). Each cohort offering will have 3 two-day in-person sessions, four farmer-led online sessions, and 8-10 specialist- or facilitator-led online sessions delivered over a 16-week period each year. Each cohort will have 20-25 participants, for a total of 80-100 graduates over the grant period. Cohort participants will be recruited as described in the Activities heading.