72nd SWCS International Annual Conference July 30-August 2, 2017 Madison, WI

1. Opening Acres to Conservation:
Women Landowners and Producers
Jean Eells, E Resources Group, LLC
Jennifer Filipiak, American Farmland Trust
Rebecca Fletcher, NRCS - Indiana
©NRCS

2. Agenda
Part I:
The engagement tool and
the audience
Part II:
It’s working!
Part III:
Building a movement
©NRCS

3. Women non-operating landowners
Non-operating landowner (NOL)
• Woman non-operating landowner (WNOL)
Operating landowner/Owner-operator
• Operator = Farmer
Scenarios for rented land –
• Farmer farms only the land s/he owns
• Farmer does not own land – rents all
• Farmer farms “home ground” plus rents land
• Farmer farms “home ground”, farms rented land AND
rents land out to other farmers!
So who owns the rented land?

4. Percent Land in Farms Rented
or Leased, 2012
2012 US Census

5. 66-82% rented
63-71% rented
From USDA Ag Census 2012
Thanks to the Delta Institute (Illinois) and
Iowa State University (Iowa)

6. Conservation on rented ground?
But… how much of the rented farmland
is owned by non-farmers?

7. 2014 TOTAL Survey:
Tenure, Ownership, and Transition of Agricultural Land

8. Slicing the pie further…
Women/Men?
Nationally (48 states):
• 37% of all principal landlords are
women
• They owned 10% of ag lands (25% of
rented lands)
• Women tend to be older
Iowa*:
• 47% of farmland owned/co-owned by
women
• 61% of the rented land owned/co-
owned by women
• Women tend to be older
*2007 Farmland ownership & Tenure in Iowa
Non-operator landowners
Nearly 301 million acres of U.S.
land—about a third of the nation's
land in farms—are now farmed or
co-farmed by women

9. Why focus on women NOLs?
• Women own a lot of land that is rented out (more than
their male counterparts)
• The percentage of women who own land is expected to
increase in the next decade as more women inherit
farmland from spouses & parents (Eells & Adcock 2012, Parsons
et al. 2010)
From Carolyn 2005, Eells et al. 2008, Breghendal & Hoffman
2011, Secchi et al. 2014:
• Women are particularly interested in conservation
• Deeply committed to healthy farmland, healthy farm
families and healthy farm communities
• Under represented in farmland conservation programs

10. Women Caring for the LandSM
• Started by WFAN in 2008
in recognition that
women own or co-own
half the land but aren’t
engaged in conservation
programs.
• The women aren’t
broken, we need to fix the
communication system,
and it’s easy.

11. It’s about doing conservation.

12. Full day meetings on content

13. Facilitate and discuss in a circle

15. Questions on learning circles and NOLs
data?
Part II:
We know it works!©NRCS

16. 50 to 70% act!
“If I’d known it
would be so much
fun I’d have
brought friends.”
“Thank you for explaining it
in a way I can understand.”
“This is great to have
discussions instead of
being “talked at.”
"I've attended several other meetings about this and I really liked how
this one was set up ... There were opportunities to ask questions at
the others but they were mostly just directed to the speaker. Here we
could ask each other and had a discussion ... I learned so much from
the other women."
“When advised that I was going to
women's land owner meetings and had
been to the FSA office, my renter began
to do what he KNEW he should have been
doing all along.”

17. Results from CIG
• Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Wisconsin 2013-
2016
• 63 meetings, 864 Women Land Owner attendees, after meeting
evaluations 88% return rate
• Attendees/meeting 21
• Women landowner attendees per meeting 14
• 201,691 acres
• Average of 294 acres among women landowner participants across all 7
states.

18. Likelihood of taking action

19. 84% reported increase in confidence
• “I came to learn what I
can so I can contribute
to conversations about
the farm. If you don’t
know, you don’t have a
voice.” Delyne

20. I only knew a little before and learned a little
more today. It’s a process! This was a wonderful
building block and helpful because the rest of the
room wasn’t all old white guys or cocky young
white guys! Wonderful open environment.
Farmington, MN
Field visit was most beneficial. As an employee of FSA
I got to see what established practices look like.
Illinois
It’s real, it happens at all ages
Partners benefit

21. “Were you inspired to take any action after the meeting such as:
visiting with your farmer, business partners, or family members
about what you learned?”
64% said YES, 36% said NO
Table 2. Action(s) Taken as Result of attending Learning
Circle
# of
mentions Percent
Spoke with family member or acquaintance 33 40%
Spoke with farmer 17 20%
Implemented new conservation practice 15 18%
Reached out to conservation staff or organization 10 12%
Hired or fired management or operators or changed lease 4 5%
Enrollment in assistance program 3 4%
Visited land more frequently 1 1%
Total number of actions taken 83 100%

22. “I think the biggest thing was just sharing with him the different
activities and programs, the things that people are doing, I don’t think
that we did anything different, but it was more of an awareness about
some of the opportunities…. but it did prompt me to talk to him about
those things a little bit more because that’s one thing that he’s just
kind of always taken care of, because obviously that’s his area and that
kind of thing, but it did prompt more discussions, and gave me the
tools I needed to ask some questions about why we were doing things
the way we were. But it didn’t necessarily change anything.”
“After I learned about cover crops, I said this is the way to go. And I did
read about it, and they’re saying like in 3 to 5 years that the tide turns
and it becomes very profitable to do that if everything goes according
to plan, and I asked them once, would they be interested in doing
cover crops, and definitely they were not.”
What if we try more than one learning circle?

23. Total
Participants #Took Action Total Actions >1 Action
Farmville 15 13 15
Verona 13 9 13
Harrisonburg 15 13 15
Warrenton 16 11 19
Grand totals 59 46 62 9
Percents 78% 15%
Virginia Learning Circles 2016-2017
12
5
3
7
1
16
Action With Whom?
NRCS Forestry
Lawyer SWCD

24. Becky Fletcher, NRCS State Public Affairs Specialist
2017 Soil and Water Conservation Society Annual Conference
Indiana’s Success
Women’s Learning Circles

25. Why USDA NRCS Is Involved
Reach out to all of
our underserved
communities,
resulting in trust
and full
participation in all
NRCS programs.

26. Meet Sara Creech
“I love the idea of getting together with women. They are the
movers and the shakers and keep the community strong.”

27. Meet Bev Russell

28. Jane Meyers

29. Ruth Miller – The Big Wow!

30. What Have You Been Inspired to Do?
“Soil and water conservation is
important, especially with
decreasing resources. I want to do
everything I can with available
resources to preserve the land.”
Angie Williams, Hendricks County
“I’ve heard about conservation
practices like no till and have been
doubtful, but this workshop has
changed my mind. I’m going to
adopt these practices and use the
available resources to make it
happen.” Martha Avery, Rush and
Henry Counties

31. Take Aways From Women’s Learning Circles
“I have 130 acres of land that has been
in the family since 1863. I was able to
network and find out what others are
doing on their property. Conservation
has always been a part of me, and I’m
working to restore the land to its
natural habitat. It was a great
opportunity to meet others who feel
the same way.” Lou Nash, Tipton
County
“The program offered an opportunity
to learn about woodland management.
We have 47 acres of woodland, and I
learned about the organizations
available to offer help.” Carol Reisert,
Carroll County
“We have 40 acres near South Bend that
is part farm, part woodland and part
wetland. I got information that will help
us restore it to close to what it used to
be. There are a lot of resources out there
if you know how to get to those
resources, and this meeting helped with
that.” Patty Fowler, St. Joseph County

32. “We had an excellent response from the participants at
the Women’s Learning Circles. Several have come by the
office or called for more information. Several have applied
for financial assistance to help put in conservation
practices.” Jerod Chew, District Conservationist

33. “The Women’s Learning Circles resulted in some excellent
new connections and conservation implementation with a
growing group of landowners and land managers.” Brandy
Daggett, District Conservationist

34. “After the learning circle I was invited to spend a few hours out on a
farm owned by two of the women. Prior to the meeting, they didn't
know NRCS existed and now they are thinking about CRP and EQIP.
Both ladies are very excited about soil health and making
improvements on their farm.” Ashley Linville, District Conservationist

37. Questions on the effectiveness of
learning circles?
Part III:
Building a Movement

38. NEDC training
With WiN

39. New CIG for urban women with rural land

40. • Indiana’s Program Based on WFAN Methodology
• Steering Committee Made up of all Conservation
Partners, plus AFT and Women Farmers
• Paid State Coordinator (PT)
• 3 Subcommittees – Funding, Marketing, Training

41. Women for the Land – national!
…to empowers women landowners to adopt
environmentally sound farming practices, protect
farmland and improve the viability of their farms
1. Research to better understand landowners and the
barriers they face
2. Learning circles to improve engagement of women
in conservation
3. Technical assistance and policy reform to better
serve their needs

42. Key take homes
• Success is based on well-researched peer-to-peer
model
• This is unlike anything you’ve every done before
• The methodology works and we’re continually
testing and improving the methodology
• Build your support network before you start
• Conservation, conservation, conservation!
• It’s really hard to find this audience – don’t get
discouraged!

43. What is YOUR story?
Jean Eells: 515-2978-0701, jeanceells@gmail.com
Jen Filipiak: 515-868-1331, jfilipiak@farmland.org
Becky Fletcher: 317-295-3225, Rebecca.fletcher@in.usda.gov