By Lester Graham, Michigan Public
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Nearly a year ago, plans to turn some not-terribly-productive farmland into a wetland were announced as a pilot project. Now, deep-rooted grasses and plants friendly to bees and butterflies are beginning to make the 300 acres look lush. Yet to be determined is how well this will capture nutrient runoff from farm fields in the headwaters of the River Raisin watershed.
Reducing phosphorus pollution getting from the River Raisin watershed in southern Michigan into Lake Erie could help reduce the toxic cyanobacterial blooms that plague the lake’s western basin each summer.
State officials will be meeting with stakeholders late next month in Adrian. They’ll outline their updated plans at the 2025 State of the Western Lake Erie Basin Conference.
Included will be continued monitoring of streams across the watershed, coordinated by the Alliance for the Great Lakes and the engineering firm Limnotech. They’re now working with Michigan State University’s Institute of Water Research on an expansion of water quality monitoring to learn where phosphorus runoff is worst and where conservation efforts are reducing agricultural pollution.
They’ll also reveal new approaches to farmers, including allocating funding based on the nutrient loss reduction on farm fields.
“Challenges remain for keeping nutrients from farmland from entering western Lake Erie,” said Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development Director Tim Boring.
State officials know they need more help from farmers to reach their goals. Research from Michigan State University found when farmers use conservation practices, it’s seven times more cost effective that traditional efforts to reduce fertilizer runoff such as building wetlands.
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Featured image: A year ago, this was marginal farmland. Now, it’s the beginning of a 300-acre wetland to filter phosphorus runoff from getting to Lake Erie. (Photo Credit: Lester Graham/Michigan Public)[php function=”remove_swift_shortcodes”]