The Road to Farm Resilience to Weather Extremes

Through the Climate and Rural Systems Partnership (CRSP), Carnegie Museum of Natural History partnered with a rural conservation district and learning researchers at University of Pittsburgh to build a learning network with two regional hubs. Each hub invited community organizations to join and work together to develop strategies to support productive, science- and community-based dialogue among network members and with public audiences. Together, we worked in a Research-Practice Partnership (RPP) to enhance climate literacy through a network that bridged urban and rural professionals. These tri-fold pamphlets were co-produced by farmers and ag professionals at the Shenango River Valley CRSP hub (Shenango Climate and Rural Environmental Studies Team or S-CREST) and Bonnie McGill, a CRSP scientist and illustrator. During 2021, the group explored local climate data and worked to write the pamphlet text for their intended audience, conventional farmers in the region growing corn and soybeans. The group wanted to make a resource that could help them have conversations with such farmers about how certain conservation practices will help farmers build resilience in their operations to the current and worsening impacts of climate change. Many of these practices also build soil carbon, which mitigates climate change.