Episode 71 | Constructed Wetlands for Water Quality: Easement Programs for Agricultural Conservation

This is the Illinois nutrient loss reduction podcast episode 71, constructive wetlands for Water Quality Easement Programs for Agricultural Conservation. I'm University of Illinois Extension's Todd Gleason. We're joined today on this Constructed Wetlands Water Quality easement program for agricultural conservation by Paula Hingson and Matt Robert. Both are with USDA NRCS. Thank you for being with us.

Paula, let's start with you. I'd like to learn a bit about the two of you. Can you tell me about yourself, who you are, what you do, those kinds of things?

I'm Paula Hingson. I'm the assistant state conservationist for easement programs working, for NRCS here in Illinois in Champaign. My primary responsibility is overseeing easement programs in Illinois. And as we talk today, some of the easement programs have positive impacts in the reduction of nutrient loss.

And Matt Robert, can you do the same for me?

I'm Matt Robert. I'm the state conservation engineer for USDA NRCS in Illinois. I'm responsible for all the engineering practices that we do in Illinois. I make sure that our engineering conservation practice standards meet all Illinois rules and regulations. I also make sure that all engineering practices done by NRCS and our partners meet our criteria and specifications.

Paula, can you explain to me an easement program as it's related to a wetland?

Yeah, so I think the best way to look at an easement is to understand what an easement is. So it can be a lot of things. It can be, you know, an easement for a utility right away that a lot of people are are familiar with or access to someone's property. It can also be an encumbrance on a piece of property where a third person has purchased the rights to the property, which is a lot like the way our easement program works. So with the easement wetland restoration program, the federal government is purchasing the easement right.

And with that right, we're prohibiting certain things from happening on the property like cropping the property. And then we're purchasing the right to construct the wetland and restore the area back to what it used to be historically. And then along with that, we also offer an easement program where it stays in agricultural production and it just keeps it It has an easement on it that keeps it from being further developed. So that's a couple different kinds of easement programs that we offer. But the wetland restoration portion, we have that for wetland restoration where we put it back to what the wetland used to be historically.

We don't have an easement program, though, for the constructed wetland that Matt will talk about. Both of those wetlands have some benefits to improving water quality, and and removing some nutrients. And so as we move along, we'll talk about the difference of those a little bit more.

Well, let's take that up, Matt. What are some of the benefits of a constructed wetland for water quality and nutrient loss?

The main purpose of a constructed wetland is for treatment of wastewater or for runoff and removing that nutrients. It is specifically designed for that purpose. Where a typical wetland is for wetland restoration, and it's done for flood reduction, improving habitat for birds or animals or amphibians, and for has other primary purposes.

Paula, can you talk a bit more about those primary purposes as they're related to a restored wetland, as compared to a constructed wetland, and maybe define more fully what the difference between the two might be?

Yeah, for sure. So the wetlands both of the wetlands acts as kind of a natural water filter, and they have the ability to absorb and retain large quantities of water, slowly letting the water out over time as opposed to diverting it quickly, like through a drainage way or a culvert. The the wetlands can just kind of absorb the water and let the water kinda settle out. The longer the water stays in a wetland, it allows like, for the wetland restorations that we do, the waters the floodwater is able to come into the restored wetland. The water kind of slows down.

The suspended solids fall out of the water column, and it allows for the hydrophilic vegetation in the wetlands to utilize the nutrient rich runoff that has come into the the wetlands. And then properly wet managed wetlands, whether they're restored or constructed, they need to have the water level adjusted occasionally and brought down. The drawdown allows the sediment to consolidate and drop out, and it allows the emergent moist soil vegetation to germinate and further take up those nutrients that are in that that particular water column. The constructed wetlands that I'm sure Matt will talk about a little bit more, they're designed, to pull out specific nutrients, and the wetland restorations that where we're putting things back to what they were historically tend to be along the floodwaters, and so we're primarily taking out the sediments and any nutrients that are tied to the sediments, whereas the constructed wetlands are are designed for a little bit different purpose.

What is the difference, Matt, between the placement of a constructed wetland, and I think that's the right set of terms, compared to the natural occurrence of a wetland and one that could be restored?

Yeah. For constructive wetland, you are typically setting it up so it is receiving water from a, waterway or from runoff or from, some type of system that you know has a nutrient, excessive nutrients in it and that you want it to go through that constructed wetland so that constructed wetland could directly clean that water and and take that nutrients out and absorb that nutrients and then let that water move on as cleaner water. Normally, it's set up at pinch points where, you know, you could possibly have a culvert or you could have a grass waterway or something in the in your fields and so forth where you could, place this, constructed wetland and be able to size it properly with the right vegetation so that that those nutrients can be removed.

In a restored wetland, are they typically larger or smaller than a constructed wetland? And there may not be a good answer for that, I suppose.

Typically, a restored wetland is larger because in Illinois, we do a lot of our restored wetlands for flood, reduction, our flood management, and they're along river, rivers and watercourses and streams. So they're usually bigger because of the the volume of water that they are handling, and that's why a constructive wetland is usually smaller.

Does NRCS offer programs to help support restoring a wetland, Paula?

Yeah. We definitely do. The primary program that we offer is the wetland restoration easement through the Agricultural Conservation Easement Program known as ASAP. The wetland restoration side of ASAP puts an easement on the property, but the landowner still owns the property, and the landowner still has access controls the access. They have the ability to hunt on the property, and some other allowable activities.

And then I I wanted to kinda highlight to Todd that, another thing that these wetlands do in addition to the nutrient uptake that we've been talking about is that they also provide habitat for the migratory birds in the spring and the fall. The migratory birds need a place to stop, feed, rest, regain their energy, and these wetland restorations provide those habitats for them along with providing habitats for the herp species, the frogs and the turtles. A lot of benefits from the the wetland restorations along those floodways that we we we work on.

Are these that would need to be restored generally along small creeks? Are they along larger rivers? Or or how do you know if you've got a wetland that's been drained?

Yeah. So, typically, the farm the landowners and the the farmers will know because their areas get flooded a lot, and they tend to lose their crops. And so this program is a really good benefit for them because they can take it out of crop production. We purchased the easement. They still own it.

They can even sell it again if they want to. And so we can put them in along a large a small creek as long as the soil that's there is hydric, which means it used to be a wetland. And then along the larger rivers where we have the flooding happening. So they can go in a lot of different places. You can even put some, wetland restoration in some of the uplands and some of the pothole areas that we have in some of the prairie pothole areas around Champaign, Illinois.

They fit in a lot of places. They go in locations that are very wet, hydric soils, and then when you take those out of crop production, you begin to just see those wetland characteristics reemerge. So it's a pretty neat program.

Can you tell me, Paula, as a landowner, why would I be interested in a restored wetland and the easement that would come along with it?

So the the neat thing about the wetland restoration is that it's it has the option to be thirty years or it can be permanent. And when you put it into the program, we're going to pay about 100% of the cost of restoring it. Once it's restored, the landowner still owns it. They can do some fee hunting on it if they want to. Like I mentioned, they can sell it.

The biggest benefit, I think, to a lot of the ag land producers is in these larger wetland areas, because they lose their crops, you know, three out of five years, when you put it into a wetland restoration, we're guaranteeing you a payment upfront for the easement itself. You don't really have a headache of worrying about the weather patterns and whether you're going to lose your crops or not. Then it's permanent. Like I said before, you can sell it. You can lease it out for hunting, there's many ways to make some money off of it besides cropland.

Do we have easements that are longer than thirty years or older than thirty years that, and what happens at that point? Are they considered for being re upped?

So yeah, interestingly, if you put an easement in for thirty years, that's when you get close to the end of that thirty years, which we do have a couple that are getting close, you can enroll that into permanent easement if you're interested in doing that. Or at the end of the thirty years, you can take it back out of the easement and begin farming it again or, leave it in the trees that have been restored there and and do whatever you want to with it.

Matt, what is the funding mechanism for the constructed wetland?

We usually do, all our constructed wetlands through EQIP, but it's our typical, financial assistance programs that you that can be used for, the constructed wetlands.

And where can farmers go to find this kind of information?

Their field office. Go to their local field office and and talk to them, and they will point you in the right direction once they get enough information from that producer on specifically what they want to do, whether it's restoring a wetland and putting it into an easement like Paul is talking about, or whether they know that they have some impacted runoff coming off of their fields or other areas that they wanna clean up with a constructed wetland.

The only thing I would add, Todd, is if they don't know where their local field office is, they can easily go and Google Illinois NRCS. And when that pops up for them, on the upper right hand corner, there's a place that says contact us. If they click on that, they can find their local field office.

Finally, what advice might both of you have for those who are interested in utilizing these kinds of programs?

The advice I would give them is to just think about think about the landscape that they farm. If you have an area where you you tend to lose your crops often, think about putting it into a wetland restoration. The price that we offer is not a full asking price that a person would get if they were selling their property, but it is a pretty good rate per acre for the values that we're taking away with the easement. Then you still get to keep the land when after we restore it. And like I had mentioned before, you can even sell it if you want to.

So if they're out, you know, while they're planning their cropping this spring and we've got some rains that have come in, and I know that there's a lot of fields that are flooded, it's a perfect time to be thinking about a wetland restoration if this is something that they have to deal with every year.

I'd recommend that the producer should try and figure out the problems that they would like to solve. Think about what they would like to correct on their land and why. Take the time to work with our field office personnel and conservation planners. They are experts in determining the resource concerns on your site, and invite them out to their your land and show them what you have and what you plan to do. They may be able to give you other alternatives or practices that could assist you better.

One other group that producers can talk to if they're interested in constructed wetlands is the Wetlands Initiative and Jill Costell. They're a partner that we've worked with closely on constructed wetlands across Illinois, and they do some really great work in, working with producers and designing them and so forth, that, meet our standards and specifications.

Thank you both so very much for being with us today. Matt Roberts and Paula Hinkson are both with the Natural Resources Conservation Service. They're based in Champaign, Illinois. You've been listening to the Illinois nutrient loss reduction podcast. It's produced in conjunction with Rachel Curry and Nicole Averbach on University of Illinois Extension's Todd Gleeson.