Delineating Agriculture in the Neuse River Basin.

摘要

In 2000 we undertook an agricultural survey of the Neuse River Basin to obtain data that would help inform the Division of Water Quality and the Neuse Basin Oversight Committee (BOC), which was charged with determining a baseline for nitrogen (N) losses from 1991-1995. At that time, the Nitrogen Loss Estimation Worksheet (NLEW), a tracking and reporting field-scale tool, was developed, to calculate the N losses and change in N losses due to best management practice (BMP) implementation (Osmond et al., 2001). We developed a statistically defensible sampling scheme to determine a field-scale baseline. Now that the Neuse Rules have been in effect for 15 years, the intent of this survey was to determine current agricultural conditions and compare data collected from the 2000 Neuse Agricultural Survey. Using a valid statistical sampling technique, random census blocks were selected. The number of maps selected per county in the Neuse basin was based on how much of the county was within the river basin boundaries, as well as the amount of agriculture. Counties sampled consisted of Craven, Durham, Edgecombe, Franklin, Granville, Green, Johnston, Jones, Lenoir, Nash, Orange, Pamlico, Person, Pitt, Wake, Wayne, and Wilson. We collected information on a wide variety of agricultural characteristics, including number of acres in development, wildlife, and CREP/CRP. Other data collected consisted of county, field size (ac), current crop, fertilizer applications (amount and type), tillage type, cover crop use, presence of different types of buffers, buffer widths, acreage affected by the buffers, presence of water control structures, acres affected by the water control structure, field slope, receiving slope length, and presence of other BMPs (sediment basin or pond).