The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is quantifying the environmental benefits from implementing conservation practices used by private landowners across the United States. The Conservation Effects Assessment Project (CEAP) will assess conservation practices, including conservation buffers, erosion control, wetland construction and restoration, establishment of wildlife habitat, management of grazing lands, tillage, nutrient and pest management, and irrigation and drainage water measures. CEAP is developing approaches, methodologies, and databases that produce scientifically credible estimates of environmental benefits of applying conservation. The initial data comes from direct landowner surveys on historic natural resource inventory (NRI) points that have been a part of USDA conservation assessment for nearly thirty years. These NRI points provide the statistical frame for the model computations and capture the diversity of the resource base (climate, soils, landscape). USDA developed a farmer survey to collect the field-level information to model and assess the effects of conservation practices. Included in the direct landowner survey (nearly 30,000 NRI points) are data gathering questions that depicts land management (tillage, cropping, agrichemical applications). By using a combination of historic NRI information, farmer surveys, and physical computer process modelling (EPIC/APEX/SWAT) we are able to statistically account for environmental benefits that have been derived, and in the future could be derived, by establishing specific conservation measures. From these assessments USDA will be better prepared to develop future conservation programs that answer the questions about quantifiable benefits and economical efficiency of implementing certain conservation practices. The ultimate goal of CEAP is to report benefits in terms of recognizable outcomes such as cleaner water, more efficient use of irrigation water, and changes in soil quality that will result in more sustainable and profitable production over time. Results from the first two years of survey data analyses will be presented.