On June 2 and 3 the College of Agricultural Sciences joins forces with the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture and the Penn State Institutes of Energy and Environment to convene a statewide working conference, Agriculture and Environment: Achieving Balance. The conference will be held at the Sheraton Harrisburg-Hershey, Lindle Road, and is designed to identify new solutions to the old, yet challenging, issue of nutrients in the environment.

The event is coined a working conference because participants will be invited to help cultivate a vision for Pennsylvania’s future where agriculture is in balance with the environment. In preparation for the working conference, the conference planning committee held a one-day retreat that brought together agriculture and environmental leaders to create a draft “vision” defining a future for Pennsylvania’s agriculture. This vision will be “unpacked” at the conference with the goal of seeking ways to remove barriers and identify new solutions for addressing nutrient-related pollution.

Mahantango Creek watershed near Klingerstown, Pennsylvania. The combination of land use, soil properties, and hydrogeology largely determine vulnerability of surface and groundwater contamination by agricultural activities.  Photo by Scott Bauer.  USDA ARS Photo Library.

In addition, conference participants will screen a documentary developed by Penn State Public Broadcasting that portrays the diverse sources of and issues surrounding nutrients, including management and impacts to the environment. Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, Penn State CAS leadership, agricultural and environmental scientists, municipal wastewater treatment plant operators, farmers, regulators, and others will describe the challenges of managing, monitoring, and capturing nutrients in the environment.

Extension’s presence at this conference is paramount! Why? From Extension specialists to the educators, science and outreach combined are essential for clear and concise communication of the problem and the solutions (view video clip from Extension Annual Meeting 2007). For years, farms have employed best management practices, seeking the silver bullet for reducing the escape of nutrients into the environment. Some technologies have worked well in certain landscapes or situations, and not in others. More often, the policies or availability of resources have limited farmers’ ability to effectively reduce nutrients released to the environment. Extension has an essential role on-the-ground at the farm level as well as through applied research and policy education to finding solutions. For this reason, Extension educators and specialists working in agriculture and natural resources are strongly encouraged to attend this conference.

The Invitation
Registration will be managed by the College’s Cvent web site. From the web site:

You are invited to join….leaders from throughout Pennsylvania’s agricultural and environmental community to become a part of the solution. Agriculture and Environment: Achieving Balance will engage attendees in a vision for Pennsylvania’s future.

The conference is designed to tap the collective wisdom of those who are engaged in farm- and natural resource management in identifying the opportunities for improving the state’s water quality. This two-day conference will bring together the state’s foremost experts to find new strategies for better stewardship of the land and waters for which we have responsibility…

This conference brings together the wide range of voices and interests throughout Pennsylvania that are devoted to ensuring the future viability of agriculture in the Commonwealth in hand with the protection of environmental resources. Don’t miss this unique opportunity to have a direct impact on the environmental challenges facing Pennsylvania today.

Background
Nutrient-related pollution has plagued the states that drain to the Chesapeake Bay for years. And the problem isn’t confined to the Bay watershed. Nutrient-related pollution from municipal and agricultural has been linked to stream, river and lake impairments in the Ohio River-, Delaware River-, and Great Lakes watersheds as well.

Summer/Fall 2007 issue of PennState Agriculture Magazine featured story Out of Balance, Scientists Grapple With Excess-Nutrient Problem in the Susquehanna River Watershed The Summer/Fall 2007 issue of Penn State Agriculture highlighted this topic in the article “Out of Balance,” describing Penn State’s research and Extension efforts to proactively address the excess nutrient issue in the Susquehanna River basin. Penn State researchers in the field and lab have experienced tremendous success in the development and application of technologies for effectively reducing nutrients in feed and field, yet the load of nutrients originating from agriculture and other sources continue to find their way to the Bay.

More Information
For more information about the conference, please contact Mary Seaton in College Relations at (814) 863-5846 - email mbs13@psu.edu - or Kristen Saacke Blunk at (814) 863-8756 - email ksaackeblunk@psu.edu.

Kristen Saacke Blunk
Sr. Extension Associate and
Director of Agriculture and Environment Science and Policy Center