River and Wetland Restoration Opportunities Within Retired Agricultural Land

Abstract:

As national and global markets for agricultural crops ebb and flow, opportunities arise to convert retired or abandoned agricultural land to the historical wetland ecological communities that once proliferated across vast regions of the United States. In the 19^th and 20^th centuries, wetlands throughout the country were ditched, drained, tiled, filled in, and otherwise eliminated or compromised to accommodate agriculture. The loss of wetlands reduced species populations and diversity, reduced the flood storage capacity of the wetlands, and eliminated many of the ecosystem benefits humans and plants and animals gain from these diverse communities.

In some regions of the United States, landowners are abandoning or retiring their farmland for any of a number of reasons including crop prices, age and health, and the lack of desire from descendants to choose farming as their life-long career and life-style choice. In this presentation, I will discuss restoration opportunities that are arising on these retired farms in the northeast, midwest, and Pacific northwest regions of the United States. Lessons learned in each of these regions have been useful in effectively designing and implementing stream and wetland restoration projects elsewhere around the country. As agricultural practices show similarities across the country and the world (ditches, draining water, flow control structures and dams, earthen berms, plant monoculture, etc.), the techniques we have used could likely be implemented in areas we have yet to engage. Many of the components of this restoration are easily transferrable and scalable.

Three primary topics will be discussed: 1) planning and opportunities for resiliency to sea level rise and climate change; 2) successful and translatable data collection and design techniques; and 3) implementation strategies for constructing projects in challenging wetland conditions. We will draw on direct project experience to discuss each of these topics. Attendees will leave with planning, design, and implementation strategies that may be useful for restoration efforts throughout the country.