The Wetlands Initiative is working to develop a Nutrient Farming Pilot Project to test and demonstrate the economic efficiency and environmental benefits of nutrient farming.

A site for the pilot project has not yet been confirmed.

One possibility is the 1,300 acres of degraded Goose Pond, near Hennepin, Illinois. In October 2009, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers approved a permit for a pilot project at Goose Pond, in cooperation with the Goose Pond Mutual Drainage and Levee District. This project will move forward if funding is secured. Other sites are also being considered.

The Nutrient Farming Pilot Project will host a major integrated research agenda unlike any other in the Upper Mississippi River Basin. Under the coordination of a Steering Committee, researchers from many academic and scientific organizations will conduct studies at the project.

The research also will define economic benefits to the watershed, the policy and governance needed to sustain new markets, including how to verify credits through monitoring, and define appropriate trading structures and mechanisms.

Research teams from the following organizations are working TWI to develop this project:

• American Corn Growers Association
• Argonne National Laboratory
• The Cadmus Group, Inc.
• Field Museum (Chicago)
• Illinois Natural History Survey
• Illinois State Water Survey
• National Great Rivers Research and Education Center
• The Nature Conservancy
• Southern Illinois University
• University of Illinois at Chicago
• University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• USDA Agricultural Research Service