Research Scientist Phil Gassman received a $34,854 grant from the USDA Agricultural Research Service for the project "Developing Climate Based Ag Management Operation Scheduling and Natural Infrastructure Practices in the National Agroecosystem Model." The project will parameterize agricultural field operations and natural infrastructure practices for input to the SWAT (Soil and Water Assessment Tool) model. Field operations will include planting and harvest, tillage, fertilizer applications, and irrigation. The scheduling of operations will be based on climate and crop conditions and sensitive to changes in climate. Natural infrastructure practices include wetlands, water and sediment control basins, beaver dams, and saturated buffers. Methodologies will be developed to incorporate the natural infrastructure practices into the National Agroecosystem Model (NAM). The model will be available for use in developing national conservation policy as part of CEAP (Conservation Effects Assessment Project) and for business-as-usual and aspirational scenarios as part of LTAR (Long Term Agroecosystem Research).