Evaluating Conservation Potential On Farms Enrolled in An Eco-Label Certification Program.

Privately-owned agricultural lands include remnant natural ecosystems that support a diversity of species and provide important ecological services. The primary challenge in managing natural resources on these lands is in balancing production and conservation objectives, while providing managers with the resources necessary to make informed decisions. Agricultural landscapes tend to be patchy and variable, and effective means of measuring on-farm ecological diversity are needed for conservation planning. We tested a multi-scale Modified-Whittaker sampling methodology for estimating plant community diversity on Wisconsin vegetable farms enrolled in an ecolabel certification program. We then evaluated current efforts to manage ecosystems based on survey results.

Plant community data demonstrate that all of the enrolled farms, regardless of size and intensity of agricultural production activities, contain plant communities of conservation value. The relative impact of ecological restoration on the farms was both variable and correlated with the landscape context, resources available for restoration planning or implementation, and size of farms. We then interviewed enrolled farm managers to elucidate opportunities and constraints growers face when implementing conservation activities. We also gauged their interest in conservation of biological diversity and ecosystem services.

Plant community survey results combined with grower interviews indicate that the farms in this study have high conservation potential. Farm-specific data are important in providing a scientific framework for guiding effective conservation planning. To maximize conservation impact and landowner participation, and given the ecological and economic variation that exists within the agricultural sector, it is important that sustainability programs are flexible and adaptive to both farm and landscape scale factors. Programs that involve landowners in the decision-making process and prioritize management action that considers not only on-farm ecosystem health, but also the surrounding environs, will yield the greatest conservation benefits.