The USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) is a federal agency that provides financial and technical assistance to farmers to aid them with soil and water conservation. NRCS offers no-fee technical assistance and conservation planning through the Conservation Technical Assistance (CTA) program, which encourages farmers to engage in voluntary conservation practices without financial incentives. As part of a wider study evaluating farmer participation in the CTA program in West Virginia, and NRCS’s organizational capacity to deliver it, a spatial modeling process was adapted to identify the sample population. This CTA program participation spatial modeling process utilized applied CTA practice points to conduct hot spot analyses, exploratory regression, ordinary least squares regression, geographic weighted regression, and land use analysis in a progressive manner to identify high and low farmer participation in the CTA program at the county level. The purpose of this paper is to explain and discuss that process and how the results were used to acquire a more comprehensive empirical data set, consisting of local interviews and mail survey data, for investigating the many factors that influence participation. Results had the added benefit of finding possible areas for NRCS outreach to underserved farmers. We contend this spatial modeling process uses readily available data sets and easily replicable techniques that contribute a relevant and robust method for soil and water conservation research in general and is highly applicable to other government and nongovernmental conservation programs that seek to identify communities for outreach.

中文翻译：

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西弗吉尼亚州USDA自然资源保护服务保护技术援助计划中农民高低参与的空间分析

美国农业部自然资源保护局（NRCS）是一个联邦机构，向农民提供财政和技术援助，以帮助他们进行水土保持。NRCS通过“保护技术援助”（CTA）计划提供免费的技术援助和保护计划，该计划鼓励农民在没有经济激励的情况下进行自愿的保护实践。作为评估农民参与西弗吉尼亚州CTA计划以及NRCS实施该计划的组织能力的更广泛研究的一部分，对空间建模过程进行了修改以识别样本人群。此CTA计划参与空间建模过程利用了应用的CTA实践点来进行热点分析，探索性回归，普通最小二乘回归，地理加权回归，逐步进行土地利用分析，以确定县级CTA计划中农民的高低参与。本文的目的是解释和讨论该过程以及如何使用结果来获取更全面的经验数据集，包括本地访谈和邮件调查数据，以调查影响参与的许多因素。结果带来的额外好处是，可以为服务水平低下的农民寻找可能的NRCS覆盖范围。我们认为，这种空间建模过程使用了容易获得的数据集和易于复制的技术，这些技术为水土保持研究总体上提供了一种相关且健壮的方法，并且高度适用于其他寻求确定社区外展机会的政府和非政府保护计划。