The Economics of Wetland Drainage and Retention in Saskatchewan

Cortus, Brett G; Jeffrey, Scott R.; Unterschultz, James R.; Boxall, Peter C.

doi:10.1111/j.1744-7976.2010.01193.x

Cited by 55 publications

(51 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…Surface and subsurface drainage remains an economically beneficial, yet largely unregulated land management practice in the Midwestern USA and Canada that affects enormous swaths of agricultural land (Cortus et al, 2011). Drainage 10 data reported by USDA Census of Agriculture, indicate that the Minnesota River basin and Illinois River basin are most extensively drained (at least 42%-45% of the watershed area), have seen an increase in drainage activity since 1940, and that the majority of drainage in these basins today is subsurface tiling.…”

Section: Interpretations Implications and Conclusionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Human amplified changes in precipitation-runoff patterns in large river basins of the Midwestern United States

Kelly¹,

Takbiri²,

Belmont³

et al. 2016

Preprint

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Abstract. Complete transformations of land cover from prairie, wetlands, and hardwood forests to homogenous row crop agriculture scattered with urban centers are thought to have caused profound changes in hydrology in the Upper Midwestern US since the 1800s. Continued intensification of land use and drainage practices combined with increased precipitation have 10 caused many Midwest watersheds to exhibit higher streamflows today than in the historical past. While changes in crop type and farming practices have been well documented over the past few decades, changes in artificial surface (ditch) and subsurface (tile) drainage systems have not. This makes it difficult to quantitatively disentangle the effects of climate change and artificial drainage intensification on the observed hydrologic change, often spurring controversial interpretations with significant implications for management actions. In this study, we investigate four large (23,000-69,000 km 2 ) Midwest river 15 basins that span climate and land use gradients to understand how climate and agricultural drainage have influenced basin hydrology over the last 79 years. We use daily, monthly, and annual flow metrics to document streamflow changes and discuss those changes in the context of climate and land use change. While we detect similar timing of precipitation and streamflow changes in each basin, overall the magnitude and significance of precipitation changes are much less than we detect for streamflows. Of the basins containing greater than 20% area drained by tile and ditches, we observe 2 to 4 fold 20 increases in low flows and 1.5 to 3 fold increases in high and extreme flows. Monthly precipitation has increased slightly for some months in each basin, mostly in fall and winter months (August -March), but total monthly streamflow has increased in all months for the Minnesota River Basin (MRB), every month but April for the Red River Basin (RRB), SeptemberDecember and March in the Illinois River Basin (IRB), and no months in the Chippewa River basin (CRB). Using a water budget, we determined that the soil moisture/groundwater storage term for the intensively drained and cultivated MRB, IRB, 25and RRB, has decreased by about 200%, 100%, and 30%, respectively while increased by roughly 30% in the largely forested CRB since 1975. We argue that agricultural land use change, through wetland removal and artificial drainage installation, has decreased watershed storage and amplified the streamflow response to precipitation increases in the Midwest. Highly managed basins with large reservoirs and urban centers, such as the Illinois River basin (IRB), may be able to buffer some of these impacts better than largely unregulated systems such as the Minnesota River (MRB) and Red River 30

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Section: Interpretations Implications and Conclusionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Human amplified changes in precipitation-runoff patterns in large river basins of the Midwestern United States

Kelly¹,

Takbiri²,

Belmont³

et al. 2016

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The economic incentives to drain and convert wetlands have generally increased as technological changes have decreased the mechanical costs of draining wetlands while larger agricultural equipment has increased the private costs of field obstructions, including wetlands (De Laporte, 2014). Cortus et al (2011) reported that the reduction or elimination of in-field nuisance cost imposed by wetlands located in annual crop fields contributed approximately 35% of the private benefits achieved from draining wetlands. Wetland drainage on existing lands is a profitable management practice since, from the perspective of the farmer, wetlands provide insufficient or no significant direct financial benefit (De Laporte, 2014;Cortus et al, 2011).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…Cortus et al (2011) reported that the reduction or elimination of in-field nuisance cost imposed by wetlands located in annual crop fields contributed approximately 35% of the private benefits achieved from draining wetlands. Wetland drainage on existing lands is a profitable management practice since, from the perspective of the farmer, wetlands provide insufficient or no significant direct financial benefit (De Laporte, 2014;Cortus et al, 2011). Therefore, on privately owned agricultural land, policy measures that encourage the adoption of land management that decreases private net benefits to meet an objective of increasing social net benefits requires positive, often monetary, incentives (Pannell, 2008;Brown et al, 2007).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…This is true in the prairie provinces of Canada, where the private net costs of wetland preservation have been shown to be a strong incentive to farmers to convert wetlands resulting in decreased provision of wetland ES in agricultural landscapes (Porter and van Kooten, 1993;Van Kooten and Schmitz 1992). To understand land management incentives in this region Cortus et al (2011) assessed the economic feasibility of draining wetlands on farms in eastern Saskatchewan. These authors found that a rational farm operator would drain wetland areas, at an average cost of $500/ha, rather than purchase new lands, at an average cost of $640/ha, to expand their cultivated land base.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Value and provision of ecosystem services from prairie wetlands: A choice experiment approach

Dias

Belcher

2015

Ecosystem Services

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“…Surface and subsurface drainage remains largely unregulated throughout the Midwestern USA and Canada (Cortus et al, 2011). Drainage census data are prone to reporting inconsistencies and errors, overall underestimation of drainage from excluding farms less than 500 acres, and do not provide the information necessary for modeling basin hydrology in large agricultural watersheds (such as drain size, depth, spacing, and extent).…”

Section: Interpretations Implications and Conclusionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Human amplified changes in precipitation–runoff patterns in large river basins of the Midwestern United States

Kelly

Takbiri

Belmont

et al. 2017

Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci.

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Abstract. Complete transformations of land cover from prairie, wetlands, and hardwood forests to row crop agriculture and urban centers are thought to have caused profound changes in hydrology in the Upper Midwestern US since the 1800s. In this study, we investigate four large (23 000-69 000 km 2 ) Midwest river basins that span climate and land use gradients to understand how climate and agricultural drainage have influenced basin hydrology over the last 79 years. We use daily, monthly, and annual flow metrics to document streamflow changes and discuss those changes in the context of precipitation and land use changes. Since 1935, flow, precipitation, artificial drainage extent, and corn and soybean acreage have increased across the region. In extensively drained basins, we observe 2 to 4 fold increases in low flows and 1.5 to 3 fold increases in high and extreme flows. Using a water budget, we determined that the storage term has decreased in intensively drained and cultivated basins by 30-200 % since 1975, but increased by roughly 30 % in the less agricultural basin. Storage has generally decreased during spring and summer months and increased during fall and winter months in all watersheds. Thus, the loss of storage and enhanced hydrologic connectivity and efficiency imparted by artificial agricultural drainage appear to have amplified the streamflow response to precipitation increases in the Midwest. Future increases in precipitation are likely to further intensify drainage practices and increase streamflows. Increased streamflow has implications for flood risk, channel adjustment, and sediment and nutrient transport and presents unique challenges for agriculture and water resource management in the Midwest. Better documentation of existing and future drain tile and ditch installation is needed to further understand the role of climate versus drainage across multiple spatial and temporal scales.

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The Economics of Wetland Drainage and Retention in Saskatchewan

Cited by 55 publications

References 11 publications

Human amplified changes in precipitation-runoff patterns in large river basins of the Midwestern United States

Human amplified changes in precipitation-runoff patterns in large river basins of the Midwestern United States

Value and provision of ecosystem services from prairie wetlands: A choice experiment approach

Human amplified changes in precipitation–runoff patterns in large river basins of the Midwestern United States

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