Ecosystem Services in Aldo Leopold’s Landscape
Editor's note: The 4th annual Ecosystem Markets Conference has begun! Stay tuned for live dispatches from Madison, Wisconsin.
Brent M. Haglund, president of the Sand County Foundation, earned a Ph.D. in ecology from the University of Georgia. His research interests have been in ecosystem level effects of weather modification, fire management, and wildlife populations.
More than 60 years ago, Aldo Leopold identified “a land ethic” as a powerful motivator and guide to conserve and restore natural resources. The underlying components of this idea, articulated in the conservation classic A Sand County Almanac, focused on integration of ‘ethics, science, and incentives.’
These traits have been at the heart of Sand County Foundation’s initiatives for more than 40 years. Sand County Foundation’s participation in this week's Ecosystem Markets Conference, co-hosted by the American Forest Foundation and World Resources Institute, will demonstrate, through a number of its projects, the important role that ecosystem markets play in private landowner conservation efforts.
Water As A Crop
People across America and around the world are experiencing stress due to alarming fluctuations in freshwater supplies. Here in America, a fear of water scarcity is beginning to gnaw at us. And yet, we demand cheap, abundant water. The problem is not new; past civilizations exceeded Mother Nature’s bounty, then crumbled or fled in search of water. We must change our thinking and our actions before it’s too late.
A promising water supply option is to conserve water on private land, where about 80% of precipitation falls, to recharge depleted aquifers, and provide clean surface water to dry streams, parched crops, and thirsty cities. Sand County Foundation’s Water As A Crop™ initiative helps landowners realize water can be another valuable crop worth holding, nurturing, and producing for people and the environment. The initiative produces interactive workshops, establishes model projects, arranges “markets” for enhanced water resources, and documents the effectiveness of this approach for broader adoption.
Experimental transactions are essential to inform the development of ecosystem markets. For example, many early environmental water transactions have led to increased market sophistication and structure. Steven Parrett, Water As A Crop™ program director, who has ten years of experience executing water transactions with landowners, will discuss these concepts during a water quality panel June 29 at the Ecosystem Markets conference.
Ecosystem Services in Aldo Leopold’s Landscape
The Foundation has invested in a new generation of projects that explore the way that market transactions can serve as a positive catalyst and incentive for private environmental action. A tour of some Madison area private-public partnership projects on Friday, 1 July is intended to spark conversations among conference participants about the efficacy, challenges, and potential benefits of putting markets to work for conservation by landowners and environmental improvements that benefit a wide array of public interests.
Baraboo River Restoration
The tour will include a stop at the Baraboo River’s Oak Street dam removal site in downtown Baraboo. Through a multi-year effort, coordinated by Sand County Foundation, it became the first river mainstem in the United States to be restored to free-flowing condition through the removal of multiple dams. The partnership achievement resulted in improved safety and economic development, as well as enhanced water quality and fisheries. Within a year of final dam removal, the Baraboo River was removed from the State of Wisconsin’s list of impaired waters.
Leopold Memorial Reserve Constructed Wetland
Sand County Foundation’s Agricultural Incentives program works to demonstrate, document, and assess performance of conservation practices to reduce nitrogen contamination of water. The Foundation constructed a wetland on a farm at the Leopold Memorial Reserve to demonstrate these ecosystem services at a location proximate to other conservation interests.
Can't join us in Madison? Follow the Ecosystem Markets Conference on Twitter - #ecomarkets2011
Photo of the author taken in Baraboo, WI, credit Amanda Cooke.
