Relationships Matter: Using relationships, storytelling, and maps to increase conservation awareness and adoption among farmers

Commodities

Practices

• Education and Training: focus group, participatory research
• Production Systems: agroecosystems, integrated crop and livestock systems

Farmland demographics are shifting in the North-Central SARE region. In the 2022 Census of Agriculture, military veteran, beginning, and specialty crop, and other farmers make up significant and growing proportions of farmers in Wisconsin. Yet, these farmers have often not participated in conservation programming and are less likely to use technical and financial resources available for conservation than others. Prior work has focused on building safe, relationship-oriented spaces where these farmers feel accepted and able to explore conservation. Our project seeks to creatively build on this by demonstrating the power of relationships, storytelling, and maps in conservation programming.

In partnership with five farmers/landowners in Wisconsin, we will co-host five workshops for small communities of farmers/landowners and conservation practitioners that demonstrate how using storytelling and maps can increase awareness and use of conservation practices and the technical and financial resources available. Using what we learn from the workshops and feedback from participants, we will develop, make available, and promote a how-to toolkit for other conservation practitioners working with farmers/landowners. Providing farmers with conservation programming tailored to meet their needs can foster improved ecological resilience on their farms and in their communities, increase on-farm economic viability, and strengthen relationships among communities of farmers.

• Create, convene, and empower five groups of farmers and conservation practitioners in Wisconsin (50-75 participants). 

• Facilitate five workshops, featuring and co-hosted by each of the five farmer/landowner partners to demonstrate the power of relationships, storytelling, and maps in conservation awareness and adoption. 

• Learn from each workshop, participants’ feedback, and our shared experiences to develop a how-to toolkit for conservation practitioners to use to increase conservation programming that frames conservation using stories and maps.  

• Reach 400+ conservation practitioners by hosting webinars, using existing outreach networks and participating in local and national outreach to share the toolkit and learning.