When Kansas farmer Kevin Melvin bought a piece of ground in Stafford County with several troublesome wet spots, his plan was simple: drain them. Instead, a visit to his local NRCS office introduced him to another option.
Those wet spots are part of a seasonal, interannual depressional wetland, specifically an interdunal wetland. The area cycles between wet and dry periods, collecting water during wetter conditions and drying out at other times. For Kevin, that made the ground difficult and inefficient to farm.
Through the USDA Wetland Reserve Easement (WRE) program, Kevin found an option that made economic sense. He could keep farming the most productive ground while receiving compensation for acres that were already difficult to manage.
What started as an effort to drain troublesome wet ground became an opportunity to improve farm efficiency while giving the interdunal wetland and the wildlife habitat it provides a chance to return.