Dr. Shannon Speir Begins 104(b) Project on Collaborative Conservation for Agricultural Watersheds

The Arkansas Water Resources Center is excited to fund a new early-career researcher on the 104(b) grant program this year. Dr. Shannon Speir joined the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station and Crop, Soil, and Environmental Sciences (CSES) Department in August.

Funding for Speir’s project “Quantifying Watershed-Scale Responses to Conservation in Three Agricultural Watersheds…” will support her research goals of providing data-rich support to farmers in Northwest Arkansas who are seeking cost-friendly approaches to land and water conservation that complement agricultural practices.

The data collected through this project will support determining the location of the first Arkansas Discovery Watershed under the Discovery Farm Program.

Speir’s project will train two undergraduate students in CSES, Jacob Major and Jackie Todd, on successful researcher-farmer collaborations, high-frequency sensing, and in-stream monitoring.

Speir’s work also prioritizes collaborations with other institutions around the state and nationally, such as University of Arkansas Monticello, University of Arkansas Pine Bluff, University of Alabama and the University of Notre Dame.

Image courtesy of Dr. Shannon Speir