Watershed Ecological Sustainability Strategy - Transactions for Agricultural Ecosystem Services
| Timeline |
2011 - Present |
| Project Number |
936.01 |
| Award Amount |
$ 940,000 |
| Team Leader |
Dennis McGrath |
Tel: 517-316-2251 |
dmcgrath@tnc.org |
| Organization |
The Nature Conservancy |
| Team Makeup |
Academic (1), Government (4), Non-Profit (3), Corporation (0), Private (15) |
| Governors' Priorities |
Controlling pollution |
This project will improve hydrological function and reduce the concentrations of nutrients and sediment flowing from farmlands into tributaries and coastal regions of the Great Lakes. The team will design and test different transaction frameworks that will tie resources and funding flows to water stewardship outcomes. Specifically the team will: 1) design and test new ways to reduce drainage assessments for those farmers keeping soil and nutrients out of the drainage network; 2) explore and test new certification schemes for farmers and/or their products to attract new payments for ecosystem services; and 3) test how watershed-based performance incentives can be added to Michigan's MAEAP program. The team will demonstrate how these different transactions can reward farmers by linking farmer payments to ecosystem improvements. The team will pilot these transaction frameworks in the Saginaw Bay and Paw Paw River watersheds (MI), and in the Maumee River watershed in the western Lake Erie basin (MI/OH/IN).
The team will build on existing water quality models (developed by team members with support from the NRCS, USACE and others) that will allow the team to predict impacts in a watershed based on actions on the land. The product from this work will be a prototype, low-cost, web-based tool that will identify the best type, placement and number of stewardship practices to meet desired ecological outcomes, and methods that link payments to those outcomes.
The team will work closely with an advisory committee that includes certification system experts, individuals that have designed transactions for ecosystem services, leaders in food-sector sustainability, farmers, and agri-business suppliers.
As the pilot work concludes the team will create a series of products including a white paper and peer-reviewed journal publications, and a "how-to" guide to facilitate payments for farmer performance. The will also create a series of educational modules that will address how to select, promote and pay for water stewardship practices based on how they improve the environment.
