Thursday, July 31, 2008
PRINCESS ANNE, MD – University of Maryland Eastern Shore scientists hosted SERA-17, a group of some 50 researchers, policy makers, extension personnel and educators, today at its joint UMES/USDA/ARS nutrient management site located on the UMES Research & Teaching Farm.
SERA-17 is the 17th group formed under the auspices of the regional Southern Extension-Research Activity, a branch of the Cooperative States Research, Education, and Extension Service (CSREES). With members from the U.S. and other countries, the mission of the group is to develop and promote innovative solutions to minimize phosphorus losses from agriculture to surface waters.
The two-hour tour of the UMES nutrient management site is part of the culmination of a four-day SERA-17 conference held in Kent Island where the group entertained recommendations for phosphorus management and research and discussed initiatives that address phosphorus loss in agriculture, which is crucial to improving the health of the Chesapeake Bay. At the UMES site, the visiting scientists observed the nutrient management/water quality research initiative, the brainchild of Drs. Arthur Allen, Peter Kleinman and the late William Stout. The broad array of research projects spawned at the unique collaborative research site is maintained by UMES and the United States Department of Agriculture’s Agriculture Research Service at University Park, PA.
The UMES nutrient management/water quality research initiative had its origin in 1999. The overall mission of the initiative is to support sustainable agriculture that maintains agronomic productivity while protecting the health of the Chesapeake Bay via the elucidating processes controlling the transport of nutrients and other contaminants of concern from poultry litter manured fields to surface waters and developing and testing alternative management practices that minimize phosphorus, nitrogen, trace element and pharmaceutical transfers to water resources.
While providing integrated research management to improve air and water quality along the Atlantic coastal plain, the initiative is committed to the preparation of the next generation of research and extension scientists. Research training is provided for high school, undergraduate, graduate and post-doctoral scholars. Results are published in refereed journals and pertinent data is disseminated at field days for local farmers and other major stakeholders as well as at regional symposia and mainstream national and international conferences.
For more information about
SERA-17, visit www.sera17.ext.vt.edu/. For more information about the UMES nutrient management/water quality research initiative, contact Allen at 410-621-2876 or Kleinman at 814-865-3184.
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Suzanne Waters Street, director, UMES Office of Public Relations, 410-621-2355, sstreet@umes.edu.
