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.