Water Quality
This plant growing in water on or near the farm might indicate nutrients leaving the site.
What is algae?
A number that tells conservation planners whether or not the soil organic matter is being treated sustainably.
What is the Soil Conditioning Index?
Also known as Tsuga heterophylla, this is the Washington State tree.
What is the Western hemlock?
An ESA listed animal whose burrows are utilized by many frogs, toads, small mammals and lizards.
What is the Mazama Pocket Gopher?
If this index's results are Medium or High, your Nutrient Management Plan will not be balancing for nitrogen.
What is the Phosphorus Index or P-Index?
This white and black circular disk is used to measure water transparency or turbidity in bodies of water. The disc is mounted on a pole or line, and lowered slowly down in the water.
What is a Secchi disk?
This is a common name for a layer of soil compaction frequently seen at about 12" deep in conventionally tilled soils in our area.
What is a plow pan or a hard pan?
Agronomy Tech Note 5 outlines appropriate mitigation practices and activities for higher risk ratings determined using this tool.
What is WIN-PST?
An organism which is large enough to be seen without a microscope and which does not have a backbone.
What is a macro-invertebrate?
This practice can be used to improve the aesthetics of a farm as well as provide food and cover for pollinators. It must be 15' wide at maturity and consist of woody species and/or upright bunchgrasses.
What is a hedgerow?
Disposing unrinsed pesticide bags and containers on farm within 500 feet of surface water or a well will get a farmer a high risk rating for pesticide storage, handling, and disposal on this Tech Note.
What is Water Quality Tech Note 1?
Low or absent populations of these are an indicator of little or no organic residues in the soil and/or high soil temperature and low soil moisture that negatively impact both them and the crop's productivity.
What are earthworms?
A common term for live or dead vegetation that allows a fire to climb up from the landscape or forest floor into the tree canopy.
What are ladder fuels?
A species NRCS works to recover...they taste like the earthiness of an estuary, a sweet and briny taste; nuttiness; and something metallic and coppery, like pennies in a stream.
What are Olympia oysters?
The number of Tribes whose reservations are in our team boundaries.
What is 9?
Once a waterbody has been placed on the this list, that waterbody and pollutant combination must remain on the list until water quality standards are attained or a TMDL is developed.
What is the 303(d) list?
A soil phenomena sometimes visible at fence lines especially in histisol soils or in areas where the aquifer may be overdrawn.
What is subsidence?
This shade tolerance class in Tech Note 10 includes red alder, western larch, lodgepole pine, and black cottonwood.
What is Intolerant shade tolerance class?
Flowers that are white, purple, yellow, and blue predominantly attract this type of pollinator.
What are bees?
This refers to the quality level, state, or condition of the resource that NRCS considers being minimally acceptable.
What is quality criteria?
Although all organisms need this in order to live, too much of this nutrient can lead to eutrophication.
What are nitrates?
A term that refers to the ability of soil to resist disintegration when disruptive forces associated with tillage and water or wind erosion are applied.
What is aggregate stability?
This toxic weed commonly grows in pastures and spreads by rhizomes, reaches 1 to 5 feet tall, and has fern like foliage and yellow button-like flowers.
What is common tansy?
A nickname for salmon weighing at 80 pounds and as large as a small person, these enormous Chinook salmon were once harvested regularly each summer by First Nations peoples, sportfishers, and salmon canneries on the Columbia River and its tributaries, but have now disappeared due to the decline of salmon runs in general; today the largest Chinooks caught in the same runs are half the size.
What are June Hogs?
Concerns (including human considerations) that are protected by law, Executive order, or agency policy and will need to be analyzed according to the laws, regulations, or Executive orders established to protect them.
What are Special Environmental Concerns?