Soil & Water

What's at Stake?
 

Soil health and water quality are fundamental to farm viability, food security, and public health. As New Hampshire’s population grows, there is uncertainty in the availability and sustainability of healthy water and soils. This uncertainty is compounded by the increasing frequency of drought conditions and heavy precipitation events caused by climate change and the emerging understanding and impacts of per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) on public health. Both soil and water health need to be prioritized inside and out of food production to support a thriving agricultural community and mitigate the effects of a changing climate.
 

Current Conditions
 

Soil health and water quality are an acute concern in New Hampshire. Understanding the status of statewide soil health is difficult, as New Hampshire lacks a comprehensive soil monitoring program. We know that soil health is under threat due to high levels of soil disturbance, reduced soil cover, and increasingly adverse environmental conditions. Many New Hampshire farms are addressing these challenges by adopting best management practices, including cover cropping, no-till or reduced-till practices, prescribed grazing, and nutrient management plans to reduce soil compaction, build organic matter, increase infiltration, and reduce water runoff.

Water quality is threatened by both non-agricultural nutrient runoff from soils due to excess fertilizer applications to commercial, municipal, and residential lawns, and agricultural sources, such as excess fertilizer and manure applications. There are multiple source water locations in the state that are considered high priority areas by the USDA Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS).¹ The NH Department of Environmental Services’ (NHDES) 2020/2022 Clean Water Act 305(b) Report lists 67 assessed waterway units as impaired from total phosphorus and 21 impaired from total nitrogen.²

Addressing these issues will take a collaborative stakeholder-engaged approach, as a large majority of New Hampshire’s land is privately owned (80.2%³), meaning that farmers, land managers, and policy- makers have an important role in soil health and water quality statewide.

Measurements & Monitoring

Soil Health Monitoring
In the absence of a statewide soil health monitoring program, preliminary soil health indicators should be synthesized from the number of farmers (and total acreage) who adopt best management practices, including reduced-till or no-till practices, prescribed grazing, cover cropping, and nutrient management plans.
 

The best place to track these metrics would be through the USDA Census of Agriculture, Land Use Practices section⁶, which relies on voluntary reporting, or through NRCS reporting. From 2017 to 2022, USDA Conservation Program funding in New Hampshire equaled nearly $45 million, mostly for the Agricultural Conservation Easement Program and Environmental Quality Incentives Program.

Surface Water Quality
Surface water quality is well tracked by NHDES, who monitor stream chemical characteristics, identify impaired waters, and develop Total Daily Maximum Loads reports⁷. Statewide assessments are published every two years. The Department’s Clean Water Act Section 305(b) Report⁸ provides important statewide assessments of water quality. Specific attention should be paid to nitrogen and phosphorus levels, and which impaired waterways drain primarily agricultural versus suburban or more developed watersheds. Water quality improvement efforts should target a reduction in surface waterways assessed as impaired for total nitrogen and phosphorus. More specific details on impaired waterways, and those being listed and delisted, can be found in Section 303(d) of the NHDES report.⁹

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Authors

Lead Author
Ian Hanley, PhD, Executive Director, New Hampshire State Conservation Committee

Contributing Authors
Dorn Cox, PhD, Tuckaway Farm, Vice President, New Hampshire Association of Conservation Districts
Steven Keleti, Northeast Health Soil Network
Wilfred Wollheim, PhD, Co-Director, Water Systems Analysis Group, Professor, University of New Hampshire College of Life Sciences and Agriculture
Renuka Mathur, PhD, State Extension Specialist, Soil Health, UNH Extension

Author Acknowledgements
The lead author would like to acknowledge and appreciate the assistance of Don Keirstead and Kim Bakker (NRCS), who provided statistics related to the adoption of best management practices used in the preparation of this brief.

The lead author would like to acknowledge and appreciate the contributions and insights of Advisory Committee editors, Anton Bekkerman (New Hampshire Agricultural Experiment Station) and Katelyn Porter (NH Food Alliance) to the preparation of this brief.

References