Big CREP

on the prairie

State's largest project is

460 acres near Milroy

By KURT NESBITT

Journal Staff Writer

MILROY -- The last time David Geis' farm had any evidence of wetland on it was when buffalo openly roamed the Minnesota prairie.

It seems fitting that Geis, who raises buffalo on nearly 3,000 acres, has a 460-acre parcel of his farm that is undergoing one of the state's largest wetland restorations thanks to the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP).

The project is about 80 percent finished. In a few years, that portion of Geis' farm that was a field for so many years will once again provide a habitat for waterfowl.

For Geis, it's a way to turn less-than-profitable farmland into a place hunters looking for pheasants, ducks and geese can find their quarries.

Already, Geis' brother has helped bring in a few hunters from the Twin Cities. Geis doesn't expect that the loss of the corn and soybeans will make much difference to farming operation.

"I have enough to do as it is," Geis joked, when asked if he'd miss his crops.

For the Redwood County Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD), the project on Geis' farm helps tremendously in improving the local water quality and helps attract wildlife.

Tabor Hoek, CREP watershed coordinator for the Minnesota Board of Water and Soil Resources (BWSR), said the project is a key development for the area.

"This county is 99 percent corn and soybeans," he said. "Having a project like this is critical."

At a one-time payment of $1,400 per acre, the project takes a fair share of the state's CREP funding.

In late September, the BWSR publicly announced CREP acres around the Minnesota River were going fast. So fast, in fact, the program could reach the state's 100,000-acre limit before its September 2002 deadline.

Hoek said approximately 64,150 acres are currently enrolled in CREP.

Redwood County SWCD administrator Marilyn Bernhardson said CREP has boosted wetland restoration in the county.

Projects like Geis' help reduce federal disaster aid and save the Minnesota and Cottonwood rivers because the wetlands retain water and reduce the amount of sediment in the rivers.

Geis' farm is now the largest project of its kind in the area. The next-largest was a 60-acre project done in 1988.

"This is important because Redwood is the second-most drained county in the state," Bernhardson said.

The project is a "significant piece of the puzzle" because of the amount of acres it uses, Hoek said. In two years, what is now merely a plowed farm field seeded with native grasses and a few cement dikes will be replaced with a 120-acre marsh.

Projects like the Geis farm reverse years of land misuse. For decades, Hoek said, farmers felt that a piece of land was useless unless it produced crops. Thus, Minnesota wetlands were drained, plowed and planted constantly.

Although drained wetlands are excellent for crops, they're harder to maintain than normal farmland. The difference is mainly in the soil, Hoek said. Soil from a drained wetland usually contains more plant material, compared to normal farmland which contains more minerals.

The soil's color is an indicator. Hoek said drained wetlands have soil that is coal black, while regular farmland is brown.

"About one-third of Redwood County was wetland before settlement," Hoek said. "There's still a lot of filled-in wetland."

Hoek said farmers interested in CREP have six months left to sign up for the program. The program has no set deadline and will end once the $51.4 million in CREP funding is gone.