2025 Midwest Fish & Wildlife Conference

AUTHORS:  Ben Lubinski, Illinois Dept of Natural Resources - Fisheries; Heidi Keuler, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; Jodi Whittier, University of Missouri - Columbia

ABSTRACT:  Locally led, neighbor to neighbor soil health and watershed groups are driving landscape scale change across the Upper Mississippi River Basin. Fishers & Farmers Partnership (FFP) funded their first farmer-led committee project in the Bourbeuse/Meramec Watershed in eastern Missouri in 2009-2010 and has awarded over 60 projects throughout the Upper Mississippi River Basin. FFP has learned and grown with landowner groups in Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri, and Wisconsin, and has been a catalyst to drive innovative projects such as the Fishers & Farmers workshops for farmer-led groups. Each year FFP awards National Fish Habitat Partnership funds to engage landowners; improve farms and fish habitat; address root causes of watershed problems; and support communications, monitoring, and science that aligns with FFP's strategic plan. FFP works with local farmers and organizations in a bottom-up versus top-down approach to address specific agriculture-related problems more effectively. FFP communication efforts help farmers and organizations share knowledge and experiences, explore resources, and become energized and inspired by their neighbors.

AUTHORS: Jen Wahls, Landscape Connections LLC, Minnesota Forest Resources Council Southeast Landscape Committee and Winona La Crescent Local Forestry Team

ABSTRACT: The landscape of Southeastern Minnesota is a mosaic of steep woodlands, cropland, pasture, and coldwater streams. Ninety-five percent of land is in private ownership. Private landowners are integral to conservation work; however, they are often left out of planning efforts. The Southeast Landscape Plan and the Winona La Crecent Comprehensive Watershed Plan guide conservation work in this geography. The Local Forestry Team (LFT), a pilot for MN launched on in early 2024, is made up of professionals representing MN Department of Natural Resources Division of Forestry, Soil & Water Conservation Districts, consulting foresters, Natural Resource Conservation Service, Board of Water & Soil Resources, industry, private landowners and non-governmental organizations who work locally and collaboratively. The LFT plans, coordinates, and implements forestry conservation work with private landowners, building on previous efforts by many partners. By coordinating programs and resources with many partners and through building relationships at the community level, the Local Forestry Team effectively and efficiently serves private landowners interested in conservation and forestry work. The LFT launched the ReInvest in Minnesota Blufflands program, a pilot that was developed overtime by local professionals with input from private landowners. The conservation easement program reflects landowner interest and fits the geography we work in. This presentation will detail each component of this critical work that benefits a wide range of resources including water quality, important upland and in-stream habitat.

AUTHORS:  Michael Siepker, Iowa Department of Natural Resources

ABSTRACT:  In northeast Iowa, there are numerous opportunities for aquatic conservation, particularly with over 500 miles of streams that provide habitat for coldwater aquatic communities. Many of these streams are located on private property and could greatly benefit from improvements to riparian and instream habitats. The Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) collaborates with landowners, conservation groups, and other government agencies to enhance public fishing access to coldwater streams through voluntary agreements or easement acquisitions. Additionally, efforts are made to protect and enhance water quality and stream habitat by establishing conservation easements along streams, reshaping streambanks to reduce pollutants entering the streams, and installing instream habitat for fishes. Each opportunity necessitates a unique approach to secure funding, develop the work plan, and successfully execute the project. Since 2019, the Iowa DNR has effectively partnered with various stakeholders and invested about $4 million into Iowa coldwater conservation efforts.

AUTHORS: Josh Balk. Iowa Department of Natural Resources

ABSTRACT: For 20 years now, the Dry Run Creek Watershed Improvement Project in Cedar Falls, Iowa has worked to implement beneficial conservation practices throughout its diverse landscape. These efforts are to address local water quality issues, including a stream biological impairment (both diversity and quantity of benthic macroinvertebrates and fish populations). Primarily targeting urban stormwater runoff with connected impervious surfaces as well as stream sedimentation from soil erosion, this has created partnership opportunities with landowners from many different walks of life. Through these efforts, measurable progress is being made in the overall health of the watershed. Scopes have expanded to integrate community volunteers, climate mitigation practices, habitat improvement, and more. This presentation will focus on the accomplishments of the watershed project, the challenges along the way, plans for the future, as well as actionable steps that can be replicated elsewhere to achieve similar goals.

AUTHORS: Jill Kostel, PhD, Water Resources Program Director, The Wetlands Initiative; Jean McGuire, Field Outreach Specialist, The Wetlands Initiative; Jason Bleich, Private Lands Biologist, USFWS – Partners of Fish & Wildlife Program

ABSTRACT: The Wetlands Initiative’s Smart Wetlands program focuses on empowering farmers and agricultural communities to voluntarily reduce their nutrient loss into local drainageways and streams through the implementation of tile-treatment wetlands. To be effective at scale for water quality improvement, tile-treatment wetlands must one day become routine practice across the Midwest. Unfortunately, the adoption of this practice has been slow due to several challenges: lack of familiarity with the practice and its suitability for their farm, high up-front cost of implementation, and absence of a clear/direct incentive for the farmer or landowner in terms of productivity or profitability. To overcome these barriers, the Smart Wetlands team has been developing both targeted individual and advisor outreach approaches and strategic partnerships with both conservation peers and ag-sector organizations to reach a range of audiences. Our collaborative, data-driven outreach strategies provide a model that can be replicated in tile-drained areas across the Midwest to increase adoption of wetland practices and other edge-of-field practices for cleaner water.
Tile-treatment wetlands typically are located at the intersection of subsurface drainage and land at the edge of row-crop fields, where they provide a natural long-term and effective solution to the critical issue of ag nutrient runoff, which impairs waterways and harms fish habitat. Typically, these wetlands are located on less-profitable farmland acres; however, the adjacent unfarmable landscape may provide additional site opportunities. The adjacent landowners can improve downstream water quality, while the wetlands provide enhanced wildlife habitat for recreational activities.
A case study from north-central Illinois, outreach strategies, and management tools will be presented for conservation outreach professionals and technical experts who implement practices that address water quality and natural habitat resource concerns. The case study will focus on a tile-treatment wetland constructed on land next to a row-crop field. The project design focused on improving water quality while creating wildlife habitat for hunting and dog training. To accomplish this project, we created a collaborative community of wetland conservation professionals, including the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Ducks Unlimited, Pheasants Forever, and the Illinois Land Improvement Contractors Association. The talk will outline how these partnerships came together to successfully build both a tile-treatment wetland and a restored wetland for the landowners and to host three individual outreach and education events at the site in 2022.

AUTHORS: Brandon Iddings, Iowa Soybean Association

ABSTRACT: Showcase Iowa's unique partnership between public-private organizations and private landowners/farmers to recover the endangered Topeka Shiner. The Iowa Soybean Association, The Nature Conservancy, US Fish and Wildlife Service, US Department of Agriculture, Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship, and private landowners have been restoring oxbows since 2001 benefiting water quality, and wildlife habitats. With hundreds of restorations completed statewide to create new habitat.
Crop commodity groups are helping push conservation in Iowa and having huge success working with diverse partners. Demonstrate voluntary efforts of landowners and identify how farmer driven outreach can reduce your outreach efforts while growing your projects. Show the benefits to the farmers/landowners as well as the fish and wildlife in these ecosystems.

AUTHORS: Beth Baranski - Jo Daviess County, Illinois

ABSTRACT: Residents in the farthest northwest corner of Illinois are using shared learning combined with cooperative and voluntary problem solving to address local water resource management issues. A long-term, volunteer-based effort has been used to establish working relationships between individuals and entities impacting water resources in the county. The collaborative efforts between scientists, local non-profits and a farmer-led group have resulted in a project design that serves as a scalable model for addressing water resource management issues.

Jo Daviess County is located in the "Driftless Area." Bypassed by ice-age glaciers, the rugged landscape is characterized by erosional valleys that have been cut down through this karst terrain. In the Illinois Nutrient Loss Reduction Strategy, agriculture is cited as the primary source of nutrients lost to the Mississippi River. The complex hydrogeology and steep slopes in this area make attempts to understand and address run-off and nutrient loss issues difficult. However, much work has been done to establish the character and function of the hydrogeology and to quantify the anthropomorphic impact on both surface and ground water quality.

Inspired and supported by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Services Watershed Leaders Network/Fishers and Farmers Partnership, a farmer-led group was formed in the Galena area to work on water resource management issues. There has been a movement in the agricultural community to pursue the resolution of water quality issues, but it seems clear that the best conversations take place on this topic when "soil health" is the focus. The potential environmental benefits have increased dramatically, and improved dialogue has resulted in many unanticipated social benefits.

AUTHORS: Rob Pulliam, The Nature Conservancy - Missouri

ABSTRACT: The goal of the presentation is to share with participants how our team used concepts from commercial and social marketing to create what we call Conservation Marketing. As a working definition, Conservation Marketing is a planning, communication, and implementation process designed to deliver value for targeted customers through conservation products and services they desire and trust that benefits the biological, habitat, and socio-economic needs of a community in priority landscapes. By using a facilitated Conservation Marketing planning process, Shoal Creek Woodlands for Wildlife (SCWW) representative landowners developed their vision and mission statements; identified and prioritized their natural resource issues; helped determine solutions to their issues; and ultimately approved their marketing action plan. To date, hundreds of Best-Management-Practices have been implemented by private landowners and millions of dollars have flowed into the SCWW geography. In 2022, SCWW was recognized by the National Fish Habitat Initiative as a “10 Waters to Watch”.

AUTHORS: Sarah Molinaro, Illinois Natural History Survey at University of Illinois;
Kristen Ragusa, Illinois Natural History Survey at University of Illinois;
William Nixon, Illinois Natural History Survey at University of Illinois;
Yong Cao, Illinois Natural History Survey at University of Illinois

ABSTRACT: The Illinois Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP) is a partnership between the US Department of Agriculture Farm Service Agency (FSA), Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR), and the county Soil and Water Conservation Districts (SWCD) that aims to reduce sediment and nutrient runoff, improve water quality, and create and enhance critical habitat for fish and wildlife populations on private lands in the Illinois River and Kaskaskia River basins. In exchange for voluntarily removing frequently flooded and environmentally sensitive cropland from production, landowners receive compensation to implement conservation practices that support the goals of CREP. Since CREP was established in the Illinois River (1998) and Kaskaskia River (2010) basins, 1,324 parcels totaling 90,000 acres have been enrolled into conservation practices. Biennially, the CREP Aquatic Life Monitoring Project conducts wadeable stream surveys at fixed stream sites to monitor progress towards CREP’s aquatic life goal and evaluate how CREP affects stream habitat, fish communities, and benthic macroinvertebrate communities. In this talk, I will present a summary of conservation practices implemented by CREP and initial CREP Aquatic Life Monitoring Project results. I will also discuss next steps for the CREP Aquatic Life Monitoring Project and lessons learned working with private landowners.

AUTHORS: Tharran Hobson, The Nature Conservancy; Shelly Morris, The Nature Conservancy

ABSTRACT: The Nature Conservancy with partners began exploring options for landowners in the 17,000 acre floodplain site known locally as Dog Tooth Bend on the Mississippi River in Illinois. Increased flooding in the area has made agriculture almost impossible and changed the landscape. With partners TNC is implementing restoration measures as natural infrastructure to mitigate flood impacts locally and beyond.