Soil Quality Card Design Guide - A Guide To Develop Locally Adapted Conservation Tools

This Guide provides assistance to Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) staff and its conservation partners to collaboratively develop Soil Quality Cards with local farmers. Partners such as Soil and Water Conservation Districts (SWCD), Cooperative Extension Service, state conservation agencies, and local groups assist in producing Cards that farmers and other land managers can use to assess soil quality on their land and implement management practices that ensure long-term soil productivity. To develop a process that enables NRCS and its conservation partners to design locally adapted Soil Quality Cards, the Soil Quality Institute worked with several university extension and research departments and enlisted the expertise of NRCS state and field staff across the country. The outcome is a participatory process through which farmers and conservationists learn together about soil quality and collaboratively develop assessment tools customized to local needs.