Utilizing relational values to investigate a federally administered soil conservation programme in the US Northwest

Figures & data

Table 1. Sample and demographic information.

Sample	Gender, number	Age range (years); number	State location, number	Profession, number
22	Female, 5	18–39; 4	Oregon, 12	Farmer, 15
	Male, 17	40–59; 9	Washington, 10	Farm Service Agency (FSA) employee, 5
		60–89; 9		University-extension employee, 2

Figure 1. Case study location in the Columbia River basin in the US Northwest.

Table 2. Relational values frequently present in the interviews and the visual artefacts as they relate to the land.

Value	Definition
1. Stewardship	Sense of duty to protect and look after the land
2. Care	Concern/love for aspects of the land that matter to someone
3. Kinship	Feeling that components of the land (e.g., animals) are like family
4. Responsibility	Accountability for what happens with the land
5. Identity	Perception that beliefs about the land are part of who a person is

Figure 2. Expansive rolling hills with large grass stands. ‘By pulling this ground out of production, we are helping to preserve much of this land’ (respondent 2).

Figure 3. An elk chews grass in an open clearing between some conifer trees. ‘This is an elk on our CRP [Conservation Reserve Program] … licking her lips as we harvest hay’ (respondent 14).

Figure 4. Respondent 8 sitting in the rear of a truck flatbed and looks out over an expansive grass stand. Large clouds pepper the sky. ‘This is one that reflects the part of my job I love’ (respondent 8).

Figure 5. Relational values articulated and/or affirmed by respondents in this research. Stewardship is the tallest bar with 17 articulations, followed by responsibility at 15, identity at 12, care at nine and kinship at seven. The sum of frequencies exceeds the sample size (22 respondents) because most respondents mentioned more than one relational value.

Figure 6. Relational values within the valuing schema of Farm Service Agency (FSA) administrators/farmers (the valuing subjects) and the land (the valued object).

Figure 7. A specific mediating relational value expression (kinship) displaying the valuing schema of a farmer (the valuing subject), the land and the deer on their land, with the land mediating a relationship between the farmer and the deer on their Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) land.