Farming for the Future of Lake Erie

With funding provided through the US EPA Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, the Conservation Technology Information Center (CTIC) is leading the Phosphorus Load-Reduction Stimulus Program (PLUS-UP) in the Western Lake Erie Basin. Buyers purchase credits at the initial offering price of $100 per pound of dissolved reactive phosphorous (DRP) per year. Researchers have documented that DRP, which is 100% bioavailable to algae, has grown to account for the majority of phosphorus entering Lake Erie since 1995.

The estimated economic impact of this DRP is greater than $1,000 per pound per year, based on the nearly $1 billion economic harm—such as drinking water treatment costs, losses to the fishing and tourism industries, etc.—currently being caused by the harmful algal blooms (HABs) that afflict Lake Erie each year. Funds raised from the sale of phosphorous credits are being paid to farmers to offset the cost of implementing no-till and cover crop conservation practices on their farmland. The Bayer Carbon Program is the first buyer of DRP credits through PLUS-UP.

The Phosphorus Load-Reduction Stimulus Program—PLUS-UP—is designed to complement other load reduction efforts in the Western Lake Erie Basin, pioneer the use of modeling to determine payment levels, and reward farmers for protecting water quality in Lake Erie. Here are some of the key elements of the program:

The funds generated by purchases of DRP credits will go directly to farmers within the watershed to help offset their costs for the adoption of practices such as winter cover crops and conservation tillage. Both practices are associated with quantifiable reductions in the amount of DRP delivered to the adjacent surface water bodies that drain to Lake Erie.

The Bayer Carbon Program became the first buyer of PLUS-UP DRP credits, encouraging farmers to reduce dissolvable reactive phosphorus loading into the Lake Erie watershed on 5,000 acres of farmland and creating opportunities to test the stimulus payment and model-driven system. Additional DRP credits are available for purchase, which would allow PLUS-UP to reward more farmers for reducing phosphorus loading in the watershed.

Inquiries about potential purchase of these credits should be made to the CTIC Executive Director:

The Bayer Carbon Program is purchasing credits at a rate of $100 per pound of DRP. DRP runoff from farmland in the Western Lake Erie Basin averages 0.3 pounds per acre; reductions from cover crops and no-till are expected to be in the range of 0.05 to 0.1 pounds per acre. Based on modeling results from field-level data gathered from participating farmers, payments for practices in the PLUS-UP pilot program are expected to be approximately $5 per acre for cover crops, $3 per acre for no-till, or $10 for both practices employed together.

PLUS-UP payments are intended to help offset growers' costs for the use of in-field conservation practices—cover crops and no-till —which yield quantifiable reductions in the amount of dissolved reactive phosphorus delivered to the surface water bodies that drain to Lake Erie. CTIC’s partner in the program, the National Center for Water Quality Research at Heidelberg University, will quantify the reductions for each participating grower using the Nutrient Tracking Tool (NTT) model and report this to CTIC. CTIC will then provide cash payments to the grower using funds collected from purchasers of DRP credits.

The goal of PLUS-UP is to help farmers in the Western Lake Erie Basin measurably reduce discharges of phosphorus into the watershed, using sales of phosphorus credits to offset the costs of conservation measures. The program also demonstrates how modeling and data can be used to allocate stimulus payments according to the amount of dissolved reactive phosphorus retained on the farm by each participant.  

Ryan Sanders and Carrie Vollmer-Sanders carry on generations of farming in the Western Lake Erie Basin—in fact, one of their fields has been in Ryan’s family for more than 150 years. They also carry on a generations-long commitment to conservation using cover crops, no-till, 4R nutrient stewardship, variable-rate fertilizer applications, and even a two-stage ditch to build their soils and protect the watershed. Carrie says sustainability was often part of her family’s dinnertime conversation when she and her sister were growing up, and it remains a big topic when she and Ryan walk their farm with their two sons. The Sanders family is part of the pioneering group of farmers participating in the PLUS-UP pilot project.

"When you think of yourself as a farmer, you think of yourself as a steward of the land. And it's not just of the land—it's also of the water that hits your land, and that water is turning into drinking water, in our case, for the city of Toledo, for the city of Defiance and Fort Wayne. What we do on our land matters to a lot of people." - Carrie Vollmer-Sanders

Les Seiler and his brother Jerry have been no-tilling in the Western Lake Erie Basin for 30 years. They started no-tilling to reduce erosion, but became passionate about it when they saw how the practice improved their soil’s tilth, moisture-holding capacity and organic matter levels—especially when they added cover crops to the mix. Les says they haven’t applied phosphorus to corn in six years Instead, the microbes in their soil unlock existing reserves of P to supply the crop. That saves the Seilers money, allows them to focus on micronutrients that increase yields, and reduce the chance of excess nutrients washing off of their farm into the waterways that flow into Lake Erie. The Seilers host a wide range of research projects on their farm, including rigorous water quality studies.

"We, as farmers, need to pay attention to what’s leaving the farm. I don’t want to mine this farm, I want to build it and make it better for the future. And nobody deserves to have a bad water source. We can all do our part to mitigate that and figure out ways to improve it." — Les Seiler

Growers who are interested in receiving PLUS-UP payments can express their interest by completing the form on the CTIC website below. Please fill out with your information to be placed on the waiting list for the PLUS-UP program, while we are securing additional funding. Anyone with questions about the program are asked to contact CTIC: