Leadership for Midwestern Watersheds is a popular forum for professionals who lead projects that reduce agricultural runoff in watersheds of the Upper Mississippi River Basin. Led by AFT and other partners, LMW has met 12 times since 2011 to foster the regional cooperation needed to achieve national water quality goals (sandcountyfoundation.org/our-work/soil-and-water-conservation/leadership-for-midwestern-watersheds).
Annual LMW meetings build new connections and explore key agricultural conservation issues with formal presentations and facilitated discussions. The focus has been on engaging farmers, targeting conservation practices for the greatest impact, measuring results, governing projects, and scaling up lessons learned. This annual networking event encourages watershed leaders to share their knowledge and experiences to accelerate measurable water quality improvement outcomes in watersheds across the Midwest.
In 2020, LMW completed a detailed survey of Midwestern watershed leaders to assess their project and professional development needs. LMW is working with partners to develop a web platform and digital forum for user-led information exchange and updates of emerging tools, practices, and funding opportunities with the goal to actively engage hundreds of watershed leaders through ongoing digital dialogue, in addition to convening annual in-person meetings.
At the 2020 virtual conference, AFT facilitated a breakout session and hosted two presentations on estimating water quality and climate outcomes in Illinois, and comparing tools to quantify outcomes. Water-shed practitioners from Illinois consistently comprise about 20% of LMW meeting attendees.
For more information, see sandcountyfoundation.org/our-work/soil-and-water-conservation/leadership-for-midwestern-watersheds.
