J O U R N A L O F S O I L A N D WATER

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On the Cover Illustration by Jui lshida

CON S E RVAT I 0 N YOUR SWCD: AN AGENT OF CHANGE OR A MILLSTONE? Tips on how to reinvigorate your Soil and Water Conservation District . By Stephen B. Lovejoy

AFGHANISTAN'S ENVIRONMENT RAVAGED BY WAR With the liberation of Iraq underway, what can we learn from what war has done to the Afghan landscape? Photos by UNEP

REMOTE SENSING TECHNOLOGIES CHANGING NATURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT Changes in remote sensing technologies will change how conservation ist s make decisions. By Chris Johannsen, Gary W. Petersen, Paul G. Carter, and Mark T. Morgan

DEPARI 'MENTS HOME FRONT A Viewpoint from the Soil and Water Conservation Society Executive D i recto r

VIEWPOINT A Global Perspective by Maurice G. Cook

RAISE YOUR VOICE Letters to the Editor

NOTEBOOK Conservation News You Can Use

CONSERVOGRAM The Soil and Water Conservation Society in Action

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A COMPARISON OF THREE VISUAL ASSESSMENTS FOR RIPARIAN AND STREAM HEALTH T.A. Ward, K.W. Tate, E.R. Atwill, D.F. Lile, D.L. Lancaster, N. McDougald, S. Barry, R.S. Ingram, H.A. George, W. Jensen, W.E. Frost, R. Phillips, G.G. Markegard, and S. Larson

ON-FARM EVALUATION OF A PHOSPHORUS SITE INDEX FOR DELAWARE

A.B. Leytem, J.T. Sims, and F.J. Coale

EVALUATION OF EROSION CONTROL PRODUCTS USING NATURAL RAINFALL EVENTS S.R. Benik, B.N. Wilson, D.D. Biesboer, B. Hansen, and D. Stenlund

APPLICATIONS OF LAND EVALUATION AND SITE ASSESSMENT (LESA) AND A GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEM IN EAST PARK COUNTY, WYOMING B.M. Hoobler, G.F.Vance, J.D. Hamerlinck, L.C. Munn, and J.A. Hayward

ECONOMIC IMPACT OF SHELTERBELTS ON GROUNDNUT (ARACHIS HYPOGAE 1.) PRODUCTION IN THERILANDS: A DECOMPOSITION ANALYSIS V.N. Veeramani, L.J. Maynard, and C. Murugappan

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I O U R N A L O F S O I L A N D WATER

CONSERVATION PUBLISHER I Soil and Water Conservation Society

Craig Cox, Executive Director

EDITOR I Deb Happe

RESEARCH EDITOR 1 Jorge Delgado, USDA-Agricultural Research Service

ASSOCIATE RESEARCH EDITORS Grant Cardon, Colorado Stute University

Tom Davenport, €PA Michael Dosskey, USDA-National Agroforestry Center

Eric Harmsen, University of Puerto Rico Madhu Khanna, University of Illinois

Bradley King, University of ldaho Peter Kleinman, USDA-Agricultural Research Service

David Lobb, University of Manitoba Birl Lowery, University of Wisconsin

Maurice Mausbach, USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service

Jeffrey Novak, USDA-Agricultural Research Service Kenneth Potter, USDA-Agricultural Research Service Clint Truman, USDA-Agricultural Research Service

John White, University of Florida John Williams, USDA-Agricultural Research Service

ADVISORS Lynn Betts, USM-Natuml Resomes Consemtion Service Warren Busscher, USDA-Agricultuml Research Service Mary Cressel l S M - W m l Resources &nsenubbn Senice

ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT I suzi Case

DESIGNER I Beth Runcie, Conyers Design, Inc.

Chris Johannsen, Gary W. petersen, Paul G. Carter, Mark T. Morgan

A-PAGE CONTRIBUTING WRITERS I Stephen LOVejOy,

AWERTISING REPRESENTATIVE I Tom SmUll

BOARD OF DIRECTORS Myron Senechal, President & Northern Plains

Deborah Cavanaugh-Grant, Vice Pres & At-large Ross Braun, Secretary &West North Central

Becky Fletcher, Treasurer & East North Central Bob Eddleman, At-lurge

Rod Goode, South Central Jackie Pashnik, Northeustern

Gary Sick, Southeastern Steven Smarik, Western

Laurens van Vliet, Canada Jeffrey Vonk, At-large

Larry Wright, Southwestern Jay lung, Student representative

Journal of Soil and Water Conservation (ISSN 0022-4561) is published bimonthly by the Soil and Water Conservation Society. Editorial, execu- tive, advertising, and membership offices: 945 SW Ankeny Road, Ankeny, Iowa 50021-9764; (515)289-2331 or pubs@swcs.org. Periodicals postage paid at Ankeny, Iowa and additional mailing offices.

POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Journal of Soil and Water conservation, 945 SW Ankeny Road, Ankeny, Iowa 50021-9764. Copyright 2002 by the Soil and Water Conservation Society. Subscription is by membership in the Soil and Water Conservation Society or by subscription. Membership dues are $75 per year (additional $15 outside the United States and Canada); sub- scriptions are $75 per year ($95 outside the United States). Page charges are assessed to authors in pages other than the A-section.

The loumal ofsoil and Water Conservotion assumes no respon- sibility for statements and opinions expressed by contributors.

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YOUR FORUM TO REACTTO PUBLISHED ARTICLES, TO EXCHANGE IDEAS, AND DESCRIBE INNOVATIVE APPROACHES TO CONSERVATION INCLUDING LEGISLATION

Landscape concert I found the article “Agroforestry: Mapping the Way With GIs” (NovembedDecember 2002) both enlightening and informative. The authors &d a great job in showing how GIS technology can be used in pro- moting and planning agroforestry.

My letter isn’t about the article, but about agroforestry. I am not referring to agroforestry as a practice, but rather as a diverse, sustainable land use system that combines agriculture and forestry tech- nologies. Many of the ills that face mid- western agricultural landscapes have been aggravated by the move to large field monocultures. I am very concerned about the degradation of soil quality, the exorbi- tant use of agrichemicals, and the contam- ination of both surface and groundwater by our present agricultural practices. Properly designed agroforestry systems can help to reverse the degradation of these hghly productive landscapes.

Conservation planners need to look beyond just applying a few practices that try to treat the symptoms of resource degradation. They need to promote eco- nomically viable land use systems that not only sustain our natural resources, but also begin to restore the natural process- es and functions that are vital to the health of the ecosystem. This will require a diversification of crops and an integra- tion of landscape elements that work in concert to create a viable landscape. Agroforestry has the potential to achieve these goals.

The article showed how technology could be used to help plan agroforestry systems. However, there are still many hurdles facing the adoption of agro- forestry.The primary one being the lack of markets and distribution systems for woody products. T h s may require gov- ernment incentives or programs such as the Resource Conservation and Development Program (RC&D) to help build local net-

works and markets. It is encouraging to see t h s year’s conservation programs (CCRP, CREE FLEE and EQIP) provide incentives for the establishment and maintenance of agroforestry practices.

To learn more about agroforestry I would encourage your readers to look at the U.S. Department of Agriculture National Agroforestry Center’s website (www.unl.edu/nac). I would also like to encourage the Journal to provide more articles on technologies that help plan and restore beneficial ecological func- tions in agricultural landscapes. -Gary Wells, NRCS landscape architect Lincoln, NE

Readers are invited to express their views on land and water management.

Please make your letter less than 150 words. Letters may be edited for length and clarity.

Send to Editor:

deb@swcs.org

fax 515-289-1227

Journal of Soil and Water Conservation, 945 SW Ankeny Road, Ankeny, Iowa 50021-9764

- Deb Happe, Editor

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