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Is there a Home for Agroforestry in Nutrient Credit Trading?

February 20, 2018, 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm
Location Center for Environmental and Life Sciences - 120
Posted InCollege of Science and Mathematics

About Dr. John Munsell

John is an Associate Professor in the Department of Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation at Virginia Tech. He received his Ph.D. and M.S. from the State University of New York and his Bachelors from Tulane University. John is Past-President of the Association for Temperate Agroforestry and Associate Editor for the journal Agroforestry Systems. He is a social scientist and Extension specialist who studies private forest and farm stewardship, agroforestry and whole farm planning, and collaborative conservation. He is co-author of a forthcoming book on community food forests and resides in Blacksburg, Virginia with his family where he enjoys playing string bass and making venison jerky.

About the Seminar

Agroforestry riparian buffers and upslope contour plantings provide environmental and economic benefits without eliminating annual farming opportunities. A public/private partnership in Virginia is leading a project titled Conservation Credit for Agroforestry Production (C-CAP) to study the potential for agroforestry to generate profitable credits in private nutrient trading markets. Phosphorus and nitrogen delivered to stream edges are modeled across a sample of agroforestry project sites. Results are being studied to determine financial profitability and relationships to Total Maximum Daily Loads. Research is also being conducted on tree-tube effectiveness, site preparation strategies, plant-water relations on contour, nitrogen fixer intercropping, and financial risk. This presentation will cover C-CAP initiatives, discuss challenges for trading using agroforestry farming, and outline intentions for scaling results to estimate benefits across different agroforestry adoption rates at the landscape-level.