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What is the Prairie and Tree Planting Tool PT^2 (1.0)?

With the PT2 (1.0) users locate their farms or properties of interest in an online high resolution aerial photo and mapping geographic information system (GIS) that uses a https://www.mapbox.com interface. Users then can explore areas that they might consider for tree or prairie cover by examining different data layers: aerial photos flown at different times of the year, soil maps, 2-foot contour topography maps, LiDAR hillshade images (hillshade images are high resolution black-and-white images showing elevation changes in the landscape), and a map of current land values (based on estimated land rent). Users then utilize scaled dimensional drawing tools to measure and delineate areas of interest for planting trees and or prairie. Once an area of interest is delineated, users can select from drop down menus tree/shrub species or prairie seed mixes that are suitable for the soils present, and users can select basic long-term management options. Once a planting design is determined, PT2 : 1.0 estimates total annualized costs for tree or prairie establishment, long-term management, and opportunity costs (based on area weighted expected soil rent), and factors in the potential benefit of utilizing relevant government cost-share programming, e.g., Environmental Quality Incentive Program (EQIP) or the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP). For prairie systems that are being used as pollinator habitat, a pest management “buffer area” surrounding the prairie is often recommended to protect pollinators from chemical drift. As such, PT2 1.0 calculates a 50-foot “buffer area” surrounding all prairie that a user may designate as pollinator habitat. This area data in turn can be used as input data for the parallel spreadsheet based decision support tool (PT2 - IPM) that allows users to select various Integrated Pest Management (IPM) options relative to a designated buffer area so as to determine total field costs of not just the pollinator habitat, but also all ancillary management changes relative to adjacent cash crops (e.g., costs of IPM).