The 590 standard (2015) requires that planners list fields with gullies and/or ephemeral erosion concentrated flow channels. Planners also need to indicate time and methods of planned mitigation measures.

Gullies

Definition: Concentrated flow channels formed when rills converge to form well defined permanent incised drainage ways that cannot be crossed by ordinary farming operations.  

Protection requirement: The 590 standard requires establishing perennial vegetative cover in all areas of concentrated flow that result in reoccurring gullies.

Ephemeral Erosion Channels

Definition: Rill erosion that has converged to form shallow channels. These shallow channels can easily be filled with soil by typical tillage operations and are usually re-formed in the same general location by subsequent runoff events.

Protection requirement: The 590 standard requires that a minimum of one of the following runoff-reducing practices be implemented in crop fields where ephemeral erosion is an identified problem:

1.Install/maintain contours, contour strips and/or contour buffer strips. Refer to NRCS FOTG, Section IV, Standard 585, Contour Farming Standard 220, Strip Cropping, and/or Standard 332, Contour Buffer Strip.

2.Install/maintain filter strips (NRCS FOTG, Section IV, Standard 393, Filter Strip) along surface waters and concentrated flow channels that empty into surface waters.

3.Maintain greater than 30% crop residue or vegetative cover on the soil surface after planting.

4.Establish fall cover crops.

5.Reduce tillage, adjust the crop rotation, or implement other practices to control ephemeral erosion.

When the Field Problems button is clicked on the Fields tab, the Field Problems window will appear.

Column Descriptions

Field Name: The name of the field that has the gully or ephemeral channel.

Problem: The nature of the field problem. The only options at this time are Gully or Ephemeral Channel.

Start Year: The crop year the problem began.

Year Fixed: The crop year that the problem was fixed. This will remain 0 until an actual year is specified. Problems that do not have a specified Year Fixed will show up as issues in the Compliance Check report.

Notes: This is where planners can to indicate planned mitigation measures and how the problem will eventually be fixed, or was fixed. Notes entered for ongoing problems will show up in the Compliance Check report.

Gullies and Ephemeral Erosion Channels will automatically be imported into this window if they have been drawn and imported from SnapMaps. You can also hand enter field problems. For example, lets say you have a gully problem in field 02 and an ephemeral channel problem in field 12.

1. Start by clicking on the Field Problems button on the Fields tab.

2. The Field Problems window will pop up. Click the button to add a field problem.

3.The Add Field Problem window will pop up.

3a. Select the field that has the problem under field name.

3b. Choose one of the two problems listed under the problems column. If a field has both of these problems you will need to create two rows, one for each issue.

3c. Select the crop year that the problem began. Once this is entered, click OK to finish adding the problem.

4. If you would like to add another field problem, click the button again and repeat the process. The Field Problems box will display a row for every field problem. In the below screenshot, you can see the two problems from our example.