Heavy rain keeps Erin Brooks up at night.

The University of Idaho associate professor and agricultural engineer monitors extreme weather that can flood cropland and increase erosion in some areas.

If climate change model predictions of more intense rain prove true, Brooks said, some farmers could see more erosion, even those who have reduced their tillage.

Brooks looks for water quality patterns using satellite imagery and crop-yield monitors. He wants to manage landscapes with a “legacy of erosion” to allow farmers to maximize profitability, minimize the loss of soil and improve long-term sustainability.

No-till practices and more organic matter from the use of cover cropping are ways farmers can make their fields “more resistant to disaster,” Brooks said.

Farmers are also considering more fall-seeded crops, such as winter peas, to reduce erosion risks.

Brooks grew up in North Bend, Wash., but his parents’ families both farmed in Eastern Washington, where he would visit every summer.

As a college student, Brooks decided to pursue agricultural engineering, wanting to help maintain agriculture’s economic vitality and improve the environment.

Brooks recently received a one-year, $20,000 internal university research grant to explore better management of water and farm sustainability. His research team will examine soils that were degraded by water stress such as erosion.

They will use soil-moisture and crop sensors on center irrigation pivots and examine various crops’ responses.

“I think we’re in a new era where a lot of farmers are looking at regenerative ag,” he said. “They’re tired of applying more and more fertilizers every year because their soils are degraded and at best getting 50% of that fertilizer coming back into their crop.”

Many farmers are willing to accept losses in their cash crop for cover crops if it will help restore soil health and get more nutrients from organic sources, he said.

Brooks worked with Genesee, Idaho, farmer Eric Odberg on site-specific, climate-friendly farming as part of the Regional Approaches to Climate Change research project, or REACCH.

They set up monitors and remote sensors on 10 acres to measure water and soil quality.

“It validated a lot of the stuff I was already doing … everything I was doing that I was just kind of taking an educated guess on,” Odberg said.

Growers need the knowledge Brooks’ research will provide, Odberg said.

“He really has the grasp of real-world challenges and aspects of farming and agriculture as a researcher,” Odberg said.

Brooks and Odberg are now working together as part of the follow-up research project, called Landscapes In Transition.

Brooks recalled speaking with farmers at a field day in Lind, Wash., as part of REACCH.

Cover crops were not a viable option at the time, he said.

“One of the speakers said, ‘When hell freezes over will we ever see cover cropping in Lind,’” he said. “In the last couple years, we’re seeing people replacing fallow with cover cropping. … People are pushing the envelope on, ‘How can we make this work?’”

Title: Associate professor, agricultural engineer at University of Idaho

Age: 49

Hometown: North Bend, Wash.

Current location: Moscow, Idaho.

Education: Bachelor’s degree in agricultural engineering, Washington State University; master’s degree in agricultural and biological engineering, University of Minnesota; research at Cornell University; Ph.D. in agricultural and bioengineering, University of Idaho

Family: Wife Andrea; children Matilda, 20; Caleb, 18; Emmett, 15; Cody, 10

Website: https://www.uidaho.edu/cals/soil-and-water-systems/our-people/erin-brooks