Water Quality & Edge-of-Field Practices

ISAP’s Water Quality and Edge-of-Field programs highlight practices like saturated buffers, constructed wetlands, controlled drainage, and bioreactors, which are designed to capture and treat high levels of nitrate-nitrogen from tile flow. Conservation drainage training and related resources provide participants with knowledge and tools to scale up practice adoption by making conservation drainage practices a standard part of tile installation and farm management.

EOF Practice Implementation Resources

The Agricultural Drainage Management Coalition (ADMC) and several ISAP partners were recently awarded a National Fish Habitat Partnership Grant from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Fishers & Farmers Partnership Program. The team is working in central Illinois to identify sites where (1) conditions are suitable for a conservation drainage practice, and (2) there is local interest in gaining hands-on experience with the evaluation, design, and installation steps associated with conservation drainage practices. Funding is available to install 3-5 practices at no cost to the landowner. Read the full press release here.

Learn more about EOF Practice Implementation

Agricultural Conservation Planning Framework Cohort

In 2021, ISAP launched an Illinois Agricultural Conservation Planning Framework (ACPF) cohort, providing training on how best to utilize an ACPF as a watershed planning tool. The framework, which is being used in hundreds of watersheds throughout the Corn Belt, is based on a set of conservation practices that, used in combination, improve watershed health. ISAP provided an Illinois context for all training content and continues to grow the peer network of ACPF users in Illinois watersheds.

Learn more about the Illinois ACPF Cohort

ISAP’s Edge of Field Incentives Directory

ISAP’s Edge-of-Field Incentives Directory provides an overview of edge-of-field (EoF) incentive payment opportunities for farmers in Illinois. EoF practices are defined as those practices which intercept, capture, and treat subsurface drainage (conservation drainage practices) or surface runoff at the field level. The conservation drainage practices include bioreactors, constructed wetlands for tile-drainage treatment, drainage water management, drainage water recycling, and saturated buffers. Surface runoff practices include vegetated riparian buffers, filter strips, prairie strips, and restored wetlands. The directory also includes a “Stacking Matrix” so farmers can easily determine if they may be eligible to stack payments from multiple programs.

View ISAP's EOF Incentive Directory