71st SWCS International Annual Conference July 24-27, 2016 Louisville, KY

1. Resilience in the Dollar Desert to
Facilitate Environmental Market
Exchange
Soil and Water Conservation Society 71st International Annual Conference
Jessica Nelson
James Klang, PE

2. Conservation Marketplace Midwest (CMM)
CITIZEN BOARD MEMBER:
MS. BROOKE HACKER
“Seeks to create measurable ecological
and social uplift by establishing new
economic opportunities to advance
conservation efforts. It provides a
market-based system that connects
buyers and generators of ecosystem
service credits.”

3. History and Purpose (1 of 2)
 Nonprofit, initially “Conservation
Marketplace Minnesota”
 2008 Natural Resource Conversation Service
(NRCS) Conservation Innovation Grant (CIG)
 Starting it Local: Transferable Market
Infrastructure for Trading Water Quality Credits
& Ecosystem Services in the Upper Mississippi
River Basin
 Viable environmental markets and
opportunities in the Midwest
 Chicago Climate Exchange (CCE): highest carbon
credit pricing after Super Tuesday 2008
 Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA): Water
Quality Trading and State Rules in development

4. History and Purpose (2 of 2)
Then the promise of robust existing
environmental markets evaporated…
 Chicago Climate Exchange stopped making new
transactions
 Minnesota Pollution Control Agency switched its focus
to point-source to point-source trading; reducing the
demand for Ag credits
 Midwest has limited endangered species programs

5. Conservation Marketplace Midwest (CMM)
History and Purpose
 CMM responded by adjusting its
focus; looking to the future:
 Develop local environmental markets
for emerging issues
 Develop market quantification,
certification and crediting tools where
evaluation metrics are needed

7. Take Advantage of Existing Resources
 Leverage existing conservation professionals
 Existing trust with clients in their service area
 Appreciation for each individual operation’s needs
 Reduced travel
 Already promoting other programs
 Identify and pursue new partnerships
 Work with innovators

9. Emerging Environmental Markets
 Wellhead protection (St. Peter and Cold Spring; reducing
nitrates)
 Pollinator habitat (General Mills Foundation funded
$100,000s of pollinator habitat)
 Field Stewards; a corporate supply chain sustainability
program (2015 CIG grant)
 Hydrology management

10. Drinking Water Protection:
City of Cold Spring
 Operates 6 municipal wells
 Nitrogen (N) concentrations a concern
 One taken offline (10.4 mg/L)
 Four remain operating (4.0 to 9.5 mg/L)
 500 acres directly impacting drinking water were targeted for
changes in land use management
 2010 – 277 acres enrolled and 4,076 lbs/acre of N eliminated
 2011 – 313 acres enrolled and 3,515 lbs/acre of N eliminated
 2012 – Two producers adopted N inhibitors; quantity of N is not yet available
 CMM developed a suite of Source Water Protection (SWP) credits
for enhanced nutrient management

11. Pollinator Credits: Stearns County (2 of 2)
 Partnership with General Mills, Xerces Society, Pheasants
Forever, University of Minnesota, Stearns County SWCD
 CMM facilitated collaboration through a market-based
approach
 20+ acres converted to pollinator habitat and enhanced
 NRCS Practice Standard 645: Native Habitat Development for
Pollinators

12. Pollinator Credits: Stearns County (1 of 2)
 Objectives:
 High plant biodiversity
 Blooming plants during the entire growing season
 Minimum of three each part of season (Early, Mid, Late)
 Payment schedule:
 ½ acre of pollinator habitat = 1 credit = $75/year
 5-10 year commitment
 Establishment of funding that can be leveraged with NRCS programs
 Requirements:
 Operation and maintenance plan
 Site documentation, including site location, measurements, buffers
and details on species planted
 25 foot insecticide free buffer
 At least 15 native species
 Seeding mixture with 50:50 grass to forb ratio per square foot

13. Field Stewards
Corporate Supply Chain Sustainability
Program Development Team & Funding:
 CMM
 Environmental Initiative
 GNP Company
 Stearns County SWCD
 Kieser & Associates, LLC
 Minnesota Department of Agriculture
 USDA NRCS Conservation Innovation Grant
 McKnight Foundation

14. Environmental Responsibility Programs
Corporate environmental responsibility programs:
 Growing acknowledgement of supply chain’s possible
impacts to the environment
 Growing customer awareness of how products impact
the social and environmental settings
 Response = corporate growth in environmental
responsibility
 Adding raw material focus to previous focus on facilities

15. Environmental Responsibility Programs
Corporate responsibility programs can:
 Be a continuous improvement process by:
 Setting a baseline
 Measuring advancement over time
 Acknowledging suppliers who are improving according to
the evaluation metric
 Be a threshold based approach by:
 Selecting a value in the evaluation metric that achieves
the environmental objective
 Acknowledging suppliers that meet or exceed the goal

16. A Guide to Traceability
A Practical Approach to Advance Sustainability in Global Supply Chains
United Nations Global Compact
Environmental Responsibility Programs

17. The Field Stewards Team selected the
Book and Claim Approach

18. Develop Market Quantification,
Certification and Crediting Tools
 Pollinator habitat criteria
 Water storage
quantification/crediting
tools
 Reducing floods
 Assist with bank erosion
management based on
reducing 2-year Recurrence
Intervals

19. Source: EPA, 2014
Valuation of
Ecosystem Services

20. How to determine benefits of water
storage practices in rural watersheds?
Source: cspilates.co.za

21. Many ecosystem services that water
quantity management provides
Hydrology Regulator
Water Supplier
Aesthetics Historic & Artistic Recreation
Spiritual & Cultural Science & Education

22. Three Water Storage Benefit Calculators
Vetted by pilot testing, Expert Advisory Panel and monitoring data

23. Increased Soil Organic Matter (SOM)
& Vegetative Cover Calculators
Types of BMPs:
 Change in crop rotation
 Conservation cover
 Tree/shrub establishment
 Vegetated Barrier
 Conservation crop rotation
 Contour buffer strips
 Contour strip cropping
 Strip cropping
 Critical area planting
 Field border
 Hedgerow planting
 High residue tillage
 Prescribed grazing
 Range management
 Residue and tillage
management
 Riparian forest buffer
 Riparian herbaceous cover
 CRP/CREP
 Cover crop
Source: Duiker et al., 2002

24. Surface Impoundments Calculator
Water Storage BMPs:
 Urban stormwater impoundment (retention basin)
 Water and sediment control basin (WASCOB)
 Wetland creation
 Wetland restoration
Image Source: BWSR, 1999

25. Foundation of Calculators
 USGS Station for 1.5, 2, 5, 10, & 25-year Stream Flow
Recurrence Intervals
 Precipitation NOAA Precipitation Frequency Data Server (2013)
 USDA NRCS Soil Survey data
 TR-55 runoff estimation (i.e. cover type, curve number, area
affected by BMP, etc.)
 Saxton Rawls (2006) to calculate increased soil water storage
using an empirical estimation method
 iGrow drainage coefficient calculator (C. Hayes, 2014)

26. Assumptions built into calculators
Landscape-scale assumptions:
 Large number of projects
 Precipitation recurrence interval = peak hydrograph recurrence interval
 Implementation evenly distributed throughout watershed
 Prediction will reflect long-term trends
 Gain ease-of-use
 Simplifying assumptions can be used to target implementation
activities
 Assumptions also add Limitations to calculators:
 Lose accuracy
 Might not be representative of specific events

27. Questions?
Jessica Nelson, WRC,MSU-M
jessica.nelson-1@mnsu.edu 507-389-2704
James Klang, PE, Kieser & Associates, LLC
jklang@kieser-associates.com 269-344-7117