Prairie Rivers Network recently attended the kickoff meeting of the Illinois State Nutrient Reduction Strategy. The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Agriculture announced they will be writing a state plan to reduce nutrient pollution. The plan is being written because Illinois is one of the leading contributors of nitrogen and phosphorus pollution that causes the annual Dead Zone in the Gulf of Mexico. Not only does Illinois export nutrients, but there are plenty of nutrient-impaired waters within the state.

An Illinois pond polluted with too many nutrients, as indicated by the algal bloom.

The plan will address both point and non-point sources of nutrient pollution. It is essential that pollution reductions come from both sectors to achieve meaningful progress towards clean water. The federal Clean Water Act gives Illinois EPA the authority to regulate and reduce discharges from point sources such as sewage treatment plants. Illinois could be doing more with this existing authority, and should because point sources can have very detrimental impacts and are a significant part of the problem. Nutrient removal technologies are available but point sources are slow to adopt them because of the expense. However, progress is being made plant by plant.

The majority of nutrient pollution comes from agriculture, which is exempt from the Clean Water Act (with the exception of certain livestock operations). As a society, we have relied for decades on voluntary measures to reduce pollution from agriculture. In other words, farmers have taken steps on their own, or society has financially incentivized farmers’ adoption of practices that will reduce the loss of agricultural chemicals from farm fields. Unfortunately, the voluntary approach is both expensive to taxpayers and insufficient, as agriculture remains a leading source of water pollution. {Continue Reading »}

Prairie Rivers Network has a new neighbor, Congressman Rodney Davis of the 13th District. He is occupying the office of retired Congressman Tim Johnson on Fox Drive in Champaign. So it was an easy stroll to meet with him recently about our priorities for the federal Farm Bill.

Excessive erosion in a farm field in southern Illinois.

During the meeting, we requested that Congressman Davis support linking conservation compliance to federal crop insurance subsidies. Conservation compliance is an existing Farm Bill provision that requires farmers to reduce erosion and preserve wetlands. Farmers are subject to conservation compliance if they receive certain subsidies, but crop insurance is not one of them.

The 2013 Farm Bill is our chance to fix this lost opportunity to improve the health of our rivers. American taxpayers spend over $7 billion each year on crop insurance subsidies. At the same time, agriculture is a leading cause of water pollution across the nation and in Illinois. Conservation compliance is a government success story proven to reduce water pollution and habitat destruction. Therefore, the public will benefit if conservation compliance is linked to federal crop insurance subsidies.

Congressman Davis was attentive during our meeting, but it is unclear whether he will vote our way. Unfortunately, the agricultural and conservation groups are not all in agreement on this topic. For example, while the National Farmers Union has come out in support of linkage, the highly influential American Farm Bureau Federation has not.

Congress should be taking up the Farm Bill later this spring. Prairie Rivers Network will continue to do outreach, but it’s important for legislators to hear from their constituents on this important opportunity. Please consider writing a Letter to the Editor or contacting your Representative and Senators Durbin and Kirk with the simple message:

“I am a constituent and I am calling to ask the Senator/Congresswoman to support linking conservation compliance to federal crop insurance subsidies in the next Farm Bill.”

RELATED NEWS:  Congressman Davis has just signed on as a co-sponsor of the Protect Our Prairies Act! This is great news because the bill reduces incentives to convert prairies to row crops. Given that Illinois has lost over 99% of its original prairie habitat, we need to protect what’s left. Thanks, Congressman Davis!  But we still want you to support linking conservation compliance to crop insurance subsidies!  

Traci Barkley and Robert Hirschfeld of Prairie Rivers Network sat down with the Smile Politely Radio team to discuss a number of important issues facing Illinois’ waters. The conversation covered agricultural and landscape runoff, a proposed Central Illinois coal mine, Asian carp, green infrastructure, and the effects of improperly disposed pharmaceuticals and other household chemicals.

Listen to the full podcast here.

Prairie Rivers Network and other members of the Mississippi River Collaborative are keeping an eye on Minnesota’s plan to develop an agricultural water quality certification program. The program details are still being decided, but it appears it will be a voluntary program that certifies farmers are meeting water quality standards for their pollution discharges. In order to become certified, farmers will likely have to achieve a minimum conservation score and/or install conservation practices that modelers predict will achieve acceptable pollution reductions.

Clearly something needs to be done to reduce pollution from farms, but we are questioning yet another voluntary program. In our press release, we outline some of the downsides of such a program. The press release was issued after we sent the Minnesota Commissioner of Agriculture a letter outlining eleven principles for increasing the chance of the certification program being successful.

Gully erosion in a farm field

Any state program focused on significantly reducing agricultural pollution needs to involve widespread adoption of conservation practices with proven water quality benefits. The voluntary, piecemeal approach has not kept the Cornbelt’s rivers clean.

On August 28, twenty-two women gathered in Princeton, Illinois to talk about agricultural conservation. More than half of the women own farmland in north-central Illinois, and the rest were professional staff from various organizations wedded to conservation stewardship. The workshop, called Women Caring for the Land, was organized and facilitated by Prairie Rivers Network and American Farmland Trust.

The workshop was limited to women because much of Illinois’ farmland is owned or co-owned by women. Also, some women tend to not speak up when in mixed-gender public meetings. While the farming is largely done by men, women can play a strong and informed role when making decisions about how their land is farmed. And if Illinois is to make any progress towards reducing water pollution from agriculture, farming decisions must be based not only on economics, but also environmental and health risks. Therefore, it is critical for women to be conservation-savvy.

What better way to see conservation practices than on a hay wagon!

We had a great discussion in the morning - thanks to NRCS for helping us out!

Women Caring for the Land provides a space for women to discuss their conservation concerns and questions in an open, supportive environment. Professional staff from conservation, agricultural, and government organizations attend the meetings to answer technical questions and share available resources. The workshop includes both a roundtable discussion and a farm tour of conservation practices.

Prairie Rivers Network received funding and support for these workshops from the Iowa-based Women, Food & Agriculture Network. We will hold two more workshops in 2013; one will be in Princeton, and another will be held somewhere in Douglas or Coles County. Please call our office at 217.344.2371 if you are interested in attending one of these workshops!

The Women, Food and Agriculture Network, with partners Prairie Rivers Network, American Farmland Trust, and Friends of the Big Bureau Creek Watershed, are sponsoring a conservation workshop for women land owners in Bureau, Lee and LaSalle Counties.

This event offers a peer-to-peer, informal discussion format which allows women landowners or managers to talk about their land stewardship and conservation goals. The afternoon will feature an optional tour of local conservation practices and water quality monitoring stations within subwatersheds of Big Bureau Creek.

Space is limited for this workshop, so RSVP by 5 p.m. August 23 to Teresa Bullock, American Farmland Trust, by email at tbullock@niu.edu or by phone at 815-753-6365.

More information can be found at the American Farmland Trust website.

The Bureau County Republican ran this story (PDF) with details about the workshop on August 8, 2012.

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