Tell your state leaders to support and incentivize purpose-built wetlands!

Purpose-built wetlands are taking off in America’s farmlands as a way to filter out excess nitrogen and phosphorus pollution from fertilizer runoff, which has created dangerous oxygen-depleting toxic algae blooms from Lake Erie to the Gulf Coast. Installing wetlands helps prevent eutrophication in waterways while also providing flood control services as water “buffers” and creating more wildlife habitat! Purpose-built wetlands can be constructed by excavating water-retention landscapes on the margins of productive farmland, and can be either passively managed by letting water flow through or actively managed with inflow pumps.

Six commercial farmers in Illinois have already partnered with the nonprofit Wetlands Initiative on excavating pools and berms to form new wetlands on their land, and seven more projects are planned for 2026. Early measurements suggest big reductions in nitrate runoff!

“It’s taking quite a bit of nitrogen out, so it’s doing what it’s supposed to do…

We’ve had nesting ducks, herons, egrets in the summertime, hundreds of red-winged blackbirds that are out roosting in all the tall grasses, which is great.”

— Jim Fulton, Illinois commercial farmer.

And in Ohio, a recent report found that ten wetlands purpose-built at the edge of farms by the state H2Ohio program since 2019 have very successfully retained excess nutrients. The first-in-the-nation H2Ohio program should serve as a model for other states!

State leaders can help accelerate this win-win innovation by spreading the word about purpose-built wetlands, as well as working to support and incentivize farmers who choose to help reduce fertilizer runoff on their land.

Tell your state leaders to support and incentivize purpose-built wetlands!