MEADE COUNTY, KS – Kevin Melvin was tired of farming around water.
When it was dry enough, he could plant straight through the low spots. Then a rain would come, water would collect and the crop he’d just planted would disappear beneath it. Other years, the water was already there. That meant lifting and turning equipment, maneuvering around the same troublesome acres again and again.
Those troublesome wet spots are part of a seasonal, interannual depressional wetland, specifically an interdunal wetland. Like other seasonal wetlands, the area cycles between wet and dry periods, collecting water during wetter conditions and drying out at other times.
“This is a piece of property that’s not the best farm ground. This makes economic sense.”
“It was either dry and you could plant through it, and then it would rain and flood your crop out, or you were just constantly picking up and turning around because you had a water hole,” Melvin said. “It’s not a very efficient way to farm.”
So, Melvin started looking for a solution. His first thought? Drain it. Instead, a conversation with the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) led him to consider almost the exact opposite. What if he stopped trying to farm the wetland acres like the rest of the field and let them be wet?
That question ultimately led Melvin to pursue a Wetland Reserve Easement (WRE), turning acres he had viewed as a farming headache into an opportunity that could make economic sense for his operation while restoring wetland habitat. For Melvin, the reasoning was surprisingly simple.
“This is a piece of property that’s not the best farm ground,” he said. “This makes economic sense.”
Melvin is part of a large family farming operation in south-central Kansas, raising crops including irrigated corn and alfalfa. He manages the forage side of the business, where efficiency isn’t an abstract idea. Every trip across a field, every input and every acre has to pencil out.
On this particular property, there were about 11 acres of wetland that made farming difficult. Sometimes those acres could be planted. Sometimes they would produce a crop. But the wetland could also collect water, flooding the crop or forcing Melvin to work around those acres. These areas were technically part of the field, but they weren’t performing like the rest of it. That’s what made WRE worth a second look.
Through the NRCS Agricultural Conservation Easement Program, Wetland Reserve Easements help landowners protect and restore wetlands while retaining ownership of their property. For Melvin, that meant he could continue farming the productive portions of the property while taking some of the most inefficient acres out of the equation.
Instead of asking how he could force a few difficult acres to produce like the rest of the field, Melvin began asking whether continuing to farm them was really the best use of the ground at all.
“Most of the ground that would be eligible is the least productive or least efficient to farm,” Melvin said. “Any time that we look at things and we can do things to be more productive or be more efficient, we feel like that’s a win for our operations going forward.”
The easement comes with permanent restrictions on how the enrolled acres can be used, something Melvin said landowners need to fully understand before signing. But ownership remains private, and Melvin still controls access to the property, including who is allowed to hunt there. Meanwhile, acres that were difficult to farm can instead provide wetland habitat for waterfowl and other wildlife.
Still, Melvin had another concern. He knew the idea made sense. He wasn’t sure the federal paperwork would.
“How long does it take to get all the paperwork done, and how much paperwork is there to do, and how many forms?” he recalled wondering. “How cumbersome is that process?”
The answer wasn’t what he expected. Rather than being handed a stack of forms and left to navigate the process himself, Melvin said NRCS staff have helped move the application forward, bringing documents to him for review and signatures along the way.
“They’ve done the forms and the paperwork, and they’ve just asked me to review things and asked for signatures,” he said. “It’s been pretty painless, really.”
Painless, however, doesn’t mean immediate. Melvin’s project is still moving toward completion. Unlike a traditional land transaction that might close within weeks, a federal conservation easement requires surveys, reviews and multiple steps before reaching the finish line. Melvin expects the entire process could take roughly a year or a little longer. For a farmer who admits he doesn’t particularly enjoy waiting, knowing what to expect has made a difference.
NRCS Easement Program Manager David Driscoll has helped guide him through the process and explain where the project stands. “David’s been great to work with,” Melvin said. “He’s been pretty prompt to get back to me and answer questions.”
That communication is one reason Melvin encourages other landowners not to dismiss WRE simply because it involves a federal program. He does, however, encourage them to do their homework. An easement is a long-term decision. Landowners need to understand what they’re signing, what rights they retain, what restrictions come with the agreement and what it could mean for the property in the future. But once those questions are answered, Melvin believes there are farms across Kansas where the same equation could make sense.
“If somebody had a piece of property that this would fit, I don’t know why they wouldn’t do it,” he said.
In fact, one WRE project may not be the end for Melvin. “We’re looking for other opportunities that we can bring to NRCS that might fit this bill,” he said.
That’s a significant change from where the story began. Melvin walked into the process trying to figure out how to get water off the land. Instead, he found himself asking a different question: Why spend year after year fighting wet acres that naturally want to hold water? For Melvin, allowing those acres to work differently may ultimately make his entire operation work for the better.
Learn more about Kevin’s story. Hear him talk about why fight the wet acres.