Shaping Soil Watershed Stewardship Through Combined Producer and Influencer Education: A Pilot Program

Changes in land use from grassland to row crop agriculture may contribute to environmental degradation. Outreach efforts on this topic have largely targeted producers, but interactions with "influencers" may affect producers' conservation decisions. Consequently, we conducted a pilot implementation of a 1-day workshop for both producers and influencers on soil health and its impact on watersheds. We measured producers' knowledge gains and all participants' satisfaction with the workshop content and instruction. We also collected information from all participants regarding their past, present, and potential future use of or recommendations for using conservation practices. Our results may be useful for improving future workshop offerings and other initiatives intended to connect producers and influencers in learning.