Collaboration with Agriculture and Watershed Management

The land that farmers and agriculture workers use to produce food and crops often comes into close contact with waterways and other areas that are under the stewardship of watershed management associations. When agriculture workers and watershed managers collaborate, they can contribute to improving ecosystems.   

This microcredential will introduce watershed managers to the value and impact of collaboration between watershed management and workers and stakeholders in the agriculture sector. It will focus on the ecology of watersheds and how they interact with agro-ecosystems and will cover topics such as: soil and water conservation practices, sustainable land use management practices, crop management, and nutrient and pest management. 

This course will provide students with the tools and knowledge to effectively collaborate with agriculture for watershed management. 

Learners will examine the relationship between watersheds and agriculture, and explore topics such as crop management, soil erosion, precision agriculture, fertilizer applications, pest management, and protecting natural assets from a collaborative lens. Learners will identify opportunities for growth and design a strategy for both sectors to work together toward a more resilient agro-ecosystem. 

By the end of this training, learners will create a plan that will foster greater collaboration between their watershed management organization and agriculture partners.  

You will learn to: 

• Differentiate between the roles of farmers, farm workers, and service providers and their role in decarbonization
• Explore best practices in building and maintaining collaborative relationships
• Apply best practices in project management, through goal setting, rationale development, project implementation, and success measurement 
• Examine the opportunity for collaboration between watershed management employees and volunteers with that of farmers, farm workers, and farm service providers
• Critique best practices of climate adaptations in farm operations that have led to significant gains for watershed management
• Analyze potential gains made in soil and water conservation, sustainable land management practices, crop management, and nutrient and pest management that have supported the building of a resilient ecosystem

Successful completion of the microcredential will require participants to: 

• Evaluate strategies that have been successful in key areas such as soil and water conservation, sustainable land management practices, crop management, and nutrient and pest management
• Design a collaborative project, relevant to learners’ watershed area related to an issue such as crop management, soil erosion, precision agriculture, fertilizer applications, pest management, and protecting natural assets

This training will examine the impacts of high population growth, population density, a changing climate, land use changes and the use of natural resources on our ecosystem.