Over 500 scientists and professionals attended the 2009 National Water Conference held in St. Louis, Missouri (February 8-12, 2009). This conference included over 300 oral and poster presentations and seven major symposia. USDA-NIFA and the nation’s land grant institutions jointly sponsored this conference. Sponsoring institutions included Northwest Indian College, Oregon State University, University of Alaska, University of Idaho, and Washington State University in the Pacific Northwest. 2009 symposia topics included: (1) Applications of Climate Information at the Intersections of Agriculture and Water, (2) Protozoan Water Pathogens: Cryptosporidium and Giardia, (3) Biofuels and Community Needs for Outreach Programs, (4) Making the Most of Your Monitoring Data, (5) Extension Youth Water Education: Expanding Community-based Outreach Efforts, (6) Green Development: LID and Beyond, and (7) Setting Sustainable and Acceptable Levels of Off-Field Nutrient Losses. McClure Tosch, graduate student at the University of Idaho, is pictured with his poster about water quality on Clear Creek in Idaho County, Idaho. Brian Chaffin, graduate student at the University of Idaho, is pictured with his poster on citizen views of water issues in the Pacific Northwest. Over 30 graduate students participated in the 2009 Student Poster Competition at the National Water Conference. The officials that judged the contest noted that all entered posters were of high quality and represented outstanding research and extension efforts in water resources. The first place poster, “Changing Homeowner’s Lawn Care Behavior to Reduce Nutrient Losses in New England’s Urbanizing Watersheds: The Role of Social Science” was presented by Nicholas Stevenson from Plymouth State University. Mark Davis from Kansas State University placed second with “Effects of Conservation Practices on Erosion in Cheney Lake Watershed.” Keely Davidson-Bennett from The Ohio State University placed third in this competition with “Water Quality in the North Fork of the Sugar Creek Watershed.” McClure Tosch and Brian Chaffin, graduate students from the University of Idaho, are pictured with their posters in this Update. McClure and Brian both did outstanding jobs! The National Water Conference had its beginning back in 2002 in Boise, Idaho. Eighty-five scientists, who served as water quality coordinators at land grant universities across the country, attended this initial meeting. In the ensuing seven years this annual conference has grown to attract over 500 professionals working in water research and extension programs across the country. We also enjoy participation from professionals that work outside the university system (government, consultants, NGOs). This meeting has become the professional meeting of choice for many water scientists across the country. In 2009 every single paper presented dealt with a water resource issue.

Pacific Northwest Regional Water Quality Coordination Project Partners Land Grant Universities Alaska Cooperative Extension Service Contact Fred Sorensen: 907-786-6311 http://www.uaf.edu/ces/water/ University Publications: http://www.alaska.edu/uaf/ces/publications/ Idaho University of Idaho Cooperative Extension System Contact Bob Mahler: 208-885-7025 http://www.uidaho.edu/wq/wqhome.html University Publications: http://info.ag.uidaho.edu/Catalog/catalog.html Oregon Oregon State University Extension Service Contact Mike Gamroth: 541-737-3316 http://extension.oregonstate.edu/ University Publications: http://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalog/ Washington Washington State University WSU Extension Contact Bob Simmons: 360-427-9670 ext. 690 http://wawater.wsu.edu/ University Publications: http://pubs.wsu.edu/ Northwest Indian College Contact Charlotte Clausing: 360-392-4319 cclausing@nwic.edu or http://www.nwic.edu/ Water Resource Research Institutes Water and Environmental Research Center (Alaska) http://www.uaf.edu/water/ Idaho Water Resources Research Institute http://www.boise.uidaho.edu/ Institute for Water and Watersheds (Oregon) http://water.oregonstate.edu/ State of Washington Water Research Center http://www.swwrc.wsu.edu/ Environmental Protection Agency EPA, Region 10 The Pacific Northwest http://www.epa.gov/r10earth/ Office of Research and Development, Corvallis Laboratory http://www.epa.gov/wed/ For more information contact Jan Seago at 206-553-0038 or seago.jan@epa.gov
	The Project Land Grant Universities, Water Research Institutes and EPA Region 10 have formed a partnership to provide research and education to communities about protecting or restoring the quality of water resources. This partnership is being supported in part by the USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA). Our Goal and Approach The goal of this Project is to provide leadership for water resources research, education and outreach to help people, industry and governments to prevent and solve current and emerging water quality and quantity problems. The approach to achieving this goal is for the Partners to develop a coordinated regional water quality effort based on, and strengthening, individual state programs. Our Strengths The Project promotes regional collaboration by acknowledging existing programs and successful efforts; assessing program gaps; identifying potential issues for cross-agency and private sector collaboration, and developing a clearinghouse of expertise and programs. In addition, the Project establishes or enhances partnerships with federal, state and local environmental and water resource management agencies, such as by placing a University Liaison within the offices of EPA Region 10.
	Specific water track sessions at the National Water Conference included the following topics: (1) agricultural best management practices, (2) conservation resource management, (3) rural environmental protection, (4) watershed assessment and restoration, and (5) the human dimension of habit change. The Pacific Northwest states were well represented at this national water meeting. We had a one-day workshop covering water issues in our region on the first day of the conference. In addition, approximately 20 papers were presented by professionals from Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington. Scientists who have received competitively funded National Research Initiative (NRI) Projects from the United States Department of Agriculture also met at this meeting to share ideas and their latest findings. USDA-NIFA scientist Mary Ann Rozum led this meeting. Rozum is in charge of the NRI Water Program. The University of Idaho (Dr. Ron Crawford) and the University of Alaska (Dr. William Schnabel) both have NRI funded projects that investigate pathogens in water. Scientists participating in the USDA-led Conservation Effects Assessment Program (CEAP) also attended several special sessions at this national conference. CEAP is a program that is evaluating the effectiveness of agricultural cost share programs that have been implemented on over 500,000 farms across the USA in the last 40 years. Specific CEAP presentations from the Pacific Northwest were provided by Oregon State University (Dr. William Gerth) and the University of Idaho (Dr. Jan Boll). The proceedings of the 2009 USDA-NIFA National Water Conference can be found at: http://www.usawaterquality.org/conferences/2009/default.html. A complete index as well as all abstracts and posters presented at this meeting are available at this site.
	National Water Quality Program Areas The four land grant universities in the Pacific Northwest have aligned our water resource extension and research efforts with eight themes of the USDA's National Institute of Food and Agriculture. Animal Waste Management Drinking Water and Human Health Environmental Restoration Nutrient and Pesticide Management Pollution Assessment and Prevention Watershed Management Water Conservation and Agricultural Water Management Water Policy and Economics
	This material is based upon work supported by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, U. S. Department of Agriculture, under Agreement No 2008-51130-4734.

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HOME | About | Calendar | Contacts | Links | PNW Water Updates | Sitemap NIFA National Water Quality Program This material is based upon work supported by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture, under Agreement No. 2008-51130-04734. all external sites will open in a new browser window page last modified on April 15, 2009