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Mackinaw River Demonstration Farm
Working with farmers is essential to improving America’s waterways. That’s why the Conservancy is working with the Franklin family in central Illinois to turn 250-acres of the family farm into a place where farmers and others can learn about cutting-edge agricultural methods that improve water quality and benefit nature. This work is taking place under the guidance of the Conservancy, which signed a 10-year cooperative agreement with the family to test conservation methods.
Further, Conservancy aquatic ecologists are working with the National Resources Conservation Service, a division of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, to determine how large a wetland is needed to retain sediments and nutrients as they drain from tiled fields.
The Conservancy believes it is important to balance the economic needs of farmers with ecology. That’s why the demonstration farm also is being evaluated to ensure that it produces income. In the central Illinois region, the Conservancy has been working to determine what combination of best management practices are need in agricultural watersheds to conserve plants and animals.
Some of the Conservancy’s partners on the demonstration farm include the Franklin family, NRCS, McLean County’s Soil and Water Conservation District, Tim Lindebaum and Dave Kovacic, a wetlands expert with the University of Illinois at Chicago.
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The Conservancy's Maria Lemke (right) and Tim Lindenbaum check water monitoring devices that are used for artificial wetland ponds on the Franklin family farm near the Mackinaw River. © Mark Godfrey/The Nature Conservancy
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