New Partnership Addresses Water Quality Issues

A group of public and private entities has come together to provide another avenue for farmers to address water quality issues in Wisconsin. Through an effort led by Sand County Foundation, a Fond du Lac County, Wis. landowner has obtained the first approved conservation activity plan (CAP) to apply drainage water management on his farm.

As a CAP-130, this conservation plan is required by the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) prior to a landowner being approved for financial assistance to install this conservation practice for the purpose of addressing subsurface water quality concerns on farmland. The CAP-130 plan was developed by Ecosystem Services Exchange, a private Technical Service Provider (TSP) approved by NRCS to complete these plans. NRCS provides funding to agricultural producers to obtain this type of conservation plan through a certified private sector TSP.

Drainage water management allows a producer to use water control structures to manage the outflow of water from tile drainage systems throughout the year. Many farms use tile drainage as a management tool to allow excess water to drain from their fields. Although this tile helps provide optimal crop growth, it also moves nitrogen very rapidly off agricultural land, degrading water quality downstream.

Drainage water management not only provides for an opportunity for using this subsurface water resource later in a dry year, but can also reduce the amount of nitrogen leaving the tile system. Other benefits can include potential increases in crop productivity, prevention of manure leaking into tile drains during application and the ability to provide seasonal wildlife habitat. Drainage water management works best on relatively flat land with up to two percent slope. Farms already equipped with tile drainage can have drainage water management control structures retrofitted to their tile system.

For more information on drainage water management practices or how to obtain a CAP-130, contact your local NRCS office, www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/main/national/contact/local/, or Greg Olson, Milwaukee River Projects Director with Sand County Foundation at golson@sandcounty.net. For assistance with conservation activity plans related to Drainage Water Management, contact Paul Sweeney at Ecosystem Services Exchange at paul@ecoexch.com.