February 2, 2015 Adams State University, Alamosa, CO Student Union Building Room A127 8:00 am to 5:00 pm The primary objective of the San Luis Valley Soil Health Conference is to provide an opportunity for farmers and ranchers to exchange ideas, while learning from some of the nation's leaders on soil health and agroecology. 8:00 — 8:30 Welcome, Housekeeping and Introduction 8:30 — 10:00 Dr. Christine Nichols 10:00 —10:30 Break 10:30 —12:00 Jonathan Lundgren 12:00 — 1:00 Lunch — Adams State University Cafeteria 1:00 — 2:30 Karl Coopers— 2:30 — 3:00 Break 3:00 — 4:30 George Whitten 4:30 — 5:00 Questions and Wrap-ups The San Luis Valley Soil Health Conference is made possible by these great Sponsors! February 2, 2015 Adams State University, Alamosa, CO Student Union Building Room A127 8:00 am to 5:00 pm Kris Nichols Kris Nichols has been a Soil Microbiologist with the USDA, Agricutural Research Service (ARS) Northern Great Plains Research Laboratory (NGPRL) in Mandan, ND, for over seven years she has a Ph.D. in Soil Science from the University of Maryland. Since 1993, she has studied arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi – a plant-root symbiont. Her most recent work involves the investigation of glomalin – a substance produced by AM fungi. Kris has been examining the impacts of management such as crop rotation, tillage practices, organic production, cover crops, and livestock grazing on soil aggregation, water relationships, and glomalin. Dr. Jonathan Lundgren is an agroecologist and Lead Research Entomologist at the Dr. Jonathon Lundgren Karl Kupers George Whitten The San Luis USDA-ARS laboratory in Brookings, South Dakota. He received his PhD in Entomology from the University of Illinois in 2004. Lundgren’s research program focuses on assessing the ecological risk of pest management strategies and developing sustainable, long-term solutions for managing pests in cropland. His ecological research focuses heavily on conserving healthy biological communities within agroecosystems by reducing disturbance and increasing biodiversity within cropland. Karl Kupers is the co-founder of Shepherd's Grain . Shepard's Grain is a group of Columbia Plateau Producers that sustainably grow and market high end wheat. The members of Shepherd's Grain all share the same desire to develop a business that is economically sustainable without depending on federal commodity subsidies, and to minimize soil erosion and degradation by developing cropping systems that address the region's major agro-ecological challenges. George Whitten and his wife, Julie Sullivan, manage and operate the San Juan Ranch and Blue Range Ranches near Saguache, Co. Since 1985, George has worked as a ranch consultant. His numerous consulting contracts as a range management and grazing specialist, are based on his Holistic approach to rangeland and soil health on irrigated land. He actively works with several Farmers and Ranchers in Colorado and New Mexico to reintroduce grazing animals to farmland to improve soil biology and overall profitability for both enterprises. Valley Soil Health Confer- enc