Research report to the Oregon Processed Vegetable Commission
Jeffrey Jenkins and Philip Janney
OSU Environmental and Molecular Toxicology
We report on the status of our collaboration with the Marion SWCD, NRCS, Wilco, and others to refine the USDA ARS model SWAT as a decision aid for producers in the Zollner Creek watershed to evaluate alternative site‐specific land use practices that meet both production and environmental protection goals with an emphasis on water quality. Our goals were to use SWAT to better understand of the relationship between pesticide use practices and surface water loading in the Zollner Creek watershed, and to evaluate alternative use practices/BMPs. To achieve these goals we proposed objectives: (1) assemble local knowledge of land use practices in the Zollner creek watershed (2) use SWAT as a decision aid to evaluate alternative agronomic practices and mitigation measures, (3) conduct outreach efforts that demonstrate the utility of SWAT as a decision aid, (4) evaluate the transferability of SWAT as a decision aid in evaluating alternative agronomic practices and mitigation measures in other Oregon watersheds. We report the following progress: (1) as of December 2013, collaborating with the Wilco, we have identified 69% of the Zollner Creek watershed land use during 2010-2011; we continue to collaborate with Wilco and Marion SWCD to characterize the remaining 31%. Through collaboration with Wilco, we have developed 17 crop management timelines for the Zollner Creek watershed, (2) Using this local knowledge we have begun parameterizing the SWAT model. Initial results will be presented at the OPVC grower meeting in January, (3) we plan to conduct outreach describing SWAT as a decision for evaluating water quality BMPs at grower meetings in 2014, (4) considering feedback from producers we will evaluate the transferability of SWAT as a decision aid in evaluating alternative agronomic practices and mitigation measures in other Oregon watersheds.
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