Fall/Winter 2001

Membership Dollars at Work: Restoring Wetlands And Bottomland Hardwoods

History Of Wetlands In Mississippi
Before we launch into a program that will have an effect for at least the next hundred years or so, let's step back in time about 200 years and get a little history lesson. In fact, tracing the early history of Mississippi's wetlands and bottomland hardwoods is fascinating.

It may have been naturalist, Thomas Nuttall (for whom the Nuttall oak is named) in the early 1800s who gave us our first look at the timber resource of Mississippi's lowlands. Nuttall described Mississippi's lowlands as being "vast, trackless wilderness of trees, a dead solemnity...All is rude nature as it sprang into existence still preserving its primeval type, unclaimed exuberance."

Shortly after Nuttall, C.S. Sargeant, in 1884, in his report on the forest of the United States, said the lowlands of Mississippi "possessed a wealth of timber of the most valuable kinds in a surprising variety". Listen now, as he talks about this land: "Along the elevated ridges from the streams, the white oak, the willow oak, the shell-bar (sic) and mocker-hickories, the black walnut in great numbers, the yellow poplar and the sassafras large enough to furnish canoes of great size, the mulberry, the Spanish oak, the sweet and black gums are the principal forest trees, with an undergrowth in the openings of dogwoods, various haws, crabapples, wild grapes, buck thorns, etc. In the forest covering the lower lands, which sloped back everywhere in the more or less saturated soil, here the sweet gum reaches its greatest size, and here grows in great perfection the bitter-nut, the elms, hornbeans, white ash, box-elder and red maples of enormous size. The honey locust, water oaks and red and Spanish oaks are equally common. Here, among the smaller trees, the holly obtains its greatest development, with hornbeans and wahoo elms, while papaws, haws and privets from the massive and dense undergrowth which interspersed with dense cane-brakes (sic), covers the ground under the large trees."

Beginning with Nuttall's generation, and continuing with varying intensity until the present time, the clearing of these low lying forested lands has changed the landscape. In recent years it has become apparent that some of this land can produce a successful crop only in relatively dry years. In some cases, these lands are better suited for timber production. Consequently many landowners have become interested in planting these lands with bottomland hardwoods.

The Wetland Reserve Program
There are several programs available to restore wetlands by planting bottomland hardwoods. However, a variety of reasons prevent many landowners from restoring wetlands and planting a crop of trees on their property. Reasons vary but include those such as the landowner not being able to afford the investment of personal time and money to perform the restoration on their own or the landowner may not be aware thay can receive assistance in restoration. Others include the landowners lack of information on quality seedlings, lack of planning skills to implement and manage the project and avoiding conflicts with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's programs.

The Wetland Reserve Program (WRP), which is administered by the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), is one of the landmark environmental aspects in the 1990 and 1996 Farm Bills. It is a voluntary program that offers technical and financial assistance to landowners who have previously converted wetlands to cropland or pastureland. Landowners who qualify are compensated for the value of their land in exchange for restoring these areas back to wildlife habitat.

Since 1992, the year Mississippi began participating in the Wetland Reserve Pilot Program, there have been 249 easements enrolled in Mississippi encompassing over 100,000 acres. In addition to restoration, WRP provides financial support to agricultural producers by purchasing wetland easements on the high risk, high cost agricultural lands that are frequently flooded.

WRP was created as a voluntary land-retirement program designed to assist eligible landowners in restoring and protecting wetlands using three options. These options include permanent easements, 30-year easements and restoration cost-share agreements.

Mississippi has the second largest enrollment of land in WRP in the nation. Because the program is so popular with landowners, applications are backlogged on more than 47,000 acres. Since 1992, reforestation of WRP bottomlands forests has been completed on approximately 68,000 acres using direct-seeding techniques and planting of bare-root seedlings. Additionally, the restoration of hydrology has been completed on approximately 12,000 acres. Currently, working through partnerships like this one with the Mississippi Fish and Wildlife Foundation, NRCS is restoring an estimated 10,000 acres wildlife habitat annually.

Landowners who apply and are accepted into WRP are compensated for the value of their land in exchange for restoring these areas. If the land offered is eligible, and the compensation requested is acceptable, cost-share assistance will be provided for restoring the land under a 30-year or permanent easement. Land will be restored to bottomland hardwoods and shallow water areas for wildlife. Certain compatible uses of the land under easement by the landowner will be permitted in exchange for continued maintenance of the land.

Under WRP, NRCS acquires conservation easements on marginal, high risk lands that are vulnerable both to the vagaries of floods and droughts because of the nature of hydric soils in growing row crops. These marginal lands detract from a farmer's cash flow and tend to experience repeated losses requiring disaster recovery assistance.

The average easement payment is approximately $600 per acre and the average cost of restoration is approximately $250 per acre. WRP provides a lump sum easement payment that may be used to pay off current debts or to meet current operating fund needs.

Additionally, WRP may provide farmers with both a temporary alternative source of income through the wetlands restoration contract and a permanent source of income from the recreational and lease hunting income generated by the valuable restored wetland wildlife habitat.

The public benefits from both the reduced financial demand for disaster assistance and crop insurance funds on lands that experience repeated losses and from significant long-term conservation benefits obtained from the protection of wildlife habitat. At the same time these restored lands create improved water quality, the increase of flood storage and the reduction of soil erosion.

The Foundation also helped sponsor a celebration marking 100,000 acres of wetlands restored in Mississippi. Mississippi ranks #1 in the nation in "net gain" in wetlands and #2 in the nation in overall acres enrolled in the Wetland Reserve Program

These restored lands will provide places for animals to feed and reproduce. In these restored wetland areas, small invertebrates occur in great numbers and become food for larger animals which, in turn, become food for even larger animals. Many wetlands are valuable as roosting sites. For example, hollow trees in a wetland may be used by many cavity-nesting birds from wood ducks to chickadees. Some mammals, like squirrels, use standing, hollow trees as den sites. Others, like otters, use hollow trees after they fall.

Landowners that are adjacent to WRP lands have noted that the program serves as a flood storage mechanism and has reduced the water flow across their land, thereby improving drainage. The wetlands restored through WRP also trap sediment, preventing it from entering waterways and lessening the drainage capacity of the waterway. This process also improves water quality and the fisheries resources of Mississippi.

The Changing Face of Agriculture
In late March of this past year, Matt Ridley of Newcastle, England, wrote an article in the Wall Street Journal titled "The End of Agriculture." Agriculture is not coming to an end. However, it is undergoing, and will continue to undergo, many changes.

One of the things Ridley discusses is that people are moving away from the farm to more urban areas. This change has been seen in Mississippi. "But what will happen to the land?" states Ridley. "Population is growing more slowly than food supply. This means that somewhere in the world, marginal land will start to come out of cultivation. Soon Eastern Europe will get its agricultural act together. Soon Africa will grab its share of the green revolution and harness the benefits of fertilizer, pesticides and plant breeding (not to mention genetic modification). At that point countries with economically marginal farmland will have to find other uses for the land."

"It happened in New England a century ago. Farms were abandoned and reverted to forests as their owners moved west to exploit the prairies. Today, these New England woods have far more value as private wood lots or conservation easements, than they would ever have as farmland. The same thing is happening in Britain. Much of the Scottish highlands is now valuable more for its deer than for its sheep. In parts of Devon, pheasant shooting is more profitable than raising cattle."

Thanks to excellent research, such as that by the Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station, we can produce double the amount of food on an acre as we could 40 years ago. Last year, in an article in Technology, Indur Goklany stated that in order to meet the increased demand for food, an additional 1.2 billion acres of farmland would be needed if yields remain as they presently are. Farmers in developing countries may have to clear rain forests and habitat for endangered species in order to feed themselves. Ridley went on to say, "In a few decades time, when population growth has slowed to zero, irrigated, hydroponic, genetically modified agriculture may be able to supply the world with an ample food supply from a much smaller acreage than today."

The "highest and best use" of this marginal land that will come out of cultivation may actually be in the form of habitat for ducks and trophy deer, bottomland hardwoods for filtering the air or even in uses that have not been considered.

Mississippi has the land and "know how" to develop alternative uses of the land that will not only create employment for local citizens in the form of outfitters, guides and helpers, but the clients attracted to Mississippi would utilize hotels/motels, restaurants, gas stations, grocery stores, gift shops and a variety of other existing, as well as new, businesses.