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The road less traveled: Assessing the impacts of farmer and stakeholder participation in groundwater nitrate pollution research

After decades of effort and investment to promote the use of agricultural best management practices (BMPs) to address nutrient losses from farms, the level of adoption of most BMPs remains relatively low. One increasingly common response has been to involve stakeholders more directly in research on local water quality challenges, with twin goals of improving the science and engaging local residents in the diagnosis of problems and development of effective responses. This paper uses qualitative and quantitative data to assess the impacts of a multiyear nitrate (NO3−) leaching study in a central Montana watershed that used a highly participatory research and outreach approach. For decades, the Judith River watershed has experienced groundwater NO3− levels that exceed safe drinking water standards, and many local residents install expensive water treatment devices, purchase drinking water from private vendors, or drink contaminated water. The project is notable for engaging local farmers, community leaders, and agency staff in the design, implementation, and interpretation of research to identify the sources of NO3− and to understand the effectiveness of alternative management practices in reducing NO3− leaching into groundwater. Two advisory groups regularly met with the science team to develop research questions, structure field research activities, select management practices, discuss interpretation of data, and design outreach efforts. Evidence of project impacts was gathered through interviews with our local collaborators and from a comparison of pre- and postproject surveys of the broader farm operator population in the watershed. The qualitative results suggest that the people most involved in the project became much more engaged with and concerned about how to address the local NO3− problem. The project's research findings were also more compelling to stakeholders because farmers had been involved in designing and interpreting the data, and the research had been conducted under real-world farming conditions. Survey results collected in the final year of the project showed that farmers in the watershed were familiar with and had very positive impressions about the project, and their levels of awareness and concern about NO3− issues rose over the course of the project. However, widespread changes in farmer behaviors had not been detected three years into the project, and the impact of the project on long-term NO3− contamination trends in the region is still uncertain.