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Water quality trading update: Making room on the farm for wetlands

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Published on Monday, 19 September 2011 17:18

When three out every four acres in a watershed are used for farming, there's not a lot of room for large wetland restoration projects. Rather, many smaller projects are needed on private land.

That's why the Wetlands Initiative is working to equip farmers with the motivation, knowledge, and tools to restore wetlands on their own land to improve the water quality and wildlife habitat in the watershed.

But spreading the word that there is room on the farm for wetlands is not an easy message to send.

"I hear farmers say, 'We've spent time and effort draining wet areas to increase productivity, so it's hard to switch gears and recognize the other ecological values of these wet areas or wetlands,'" says Jill Kostel, TWI's environmental engineer. Kostel is the project manager for TWI's ag-based project, "Growing Wetlands for Clean Water."

"We know that wetlands can improve the quality of the water that's coming off of and under a farm field," she says. "We also know that these wetlands don't need to sit in the middle of a profitable corn field to make a difference, but they can be on difficult or marginal land such as on the edge of a field, in a drainage way, or alongside a creek."

Wetlands naturally remove excess nitrogen and phosphorus from water – whether that water collects in below-grade tile drainage systems, ditches, or local streams. That cleaner water is important for the health of the people, wildlife, and ecosystems around all of us, even down to the Gulf of Mexico and the growing Dead Zone there.

TWI's Growing Wetlands project is centered in the Big Bureau Creek Watershed, a 500-mile area in north central Illinois that is typical of many rural areas across the upper Midwest. The project aims to identify effective locations for restored wetlands on ag lands, estimate the amount of excess nutrients that could be removed by the wetlands, and find the communication strategies that will help farmers embrace wetland restoration as part of their overall sustainable farm operations.

The project also seeks to develop a new market for farmers who voluntarily restore wetlands—a market called "water quality trading." In a water quality trading market, point-source dischargers (such as municipal wastewater treatment plants) purchase "credits" of clean water from a farmer who uses restored wetlands to improve water quality for the region.

Kostel says that through the Growing Wetlands project she has found that farmers are curious about wetland restoration and water quality trading, but they have questions about the wetlands. Will they really remove nutrients? Will the wetlands flood their productive land? Will they disrupt their neighbor's drainage?

Kostel and her partners have heard the questions and are developing information to help farmers make decisions about how and where to restore wetlands for water quality improvement. For example, farmers know precisely what income they generate on each acre of land, so they want to know what they would gain and lose with wetland restoration or other conservation practices. Thus, project partners are developing materials to clearly explain potential investment, benefits and funds available at the federal, state, and private level for the restoration and management of these ecosystems.

They also are creating 3-D representations of wetlands within the ag landscape, so farmers can visualize how these wetlands would fit within working lands.

Project partners include American Corn Growers Association, Amy Ando (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), Mark Tomer and Ron Binger (USDA Agricultural Research Service), Ed Zajac and Franz Wohlgezogen (Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management), John Raffensperger (University of Canterbury), George Covington and Albert Ettinger (attorneys at law).

The project's next steps include creating demonstration sites that can be examples of working wetlands within farm operations.

"We know there are examples of restored wetlands within river floodplains, such as at the Hennepin & Hopper Lakes site," Kostel says. "We've also seen wetlands in low-lying spots within fields, but what we don't have a lot of is strategically located, well-designed restored wetlands that can effectively improve water quality and be a profitable part of a productive farm operation. That's the sweet spot we're striving to create."

Learn more about the Wetlands Initiative's "Growing Wetlands" water quality trading project here.