Conservation drainage practices have been a critical component of statewide efforts in illinois such as the illinois nutrient loss reduction strategy and the illinois comprehensive wildlife…

Conservation drainage practices have been a critical component of statewide efforts in illinois such as the illinois nutrient loss reduction strategy and the illinois comprehensive wildlife conservation plan, and they will likely play a larger role moving forward. The 2020 iowa farm and rural life poll focused on views on climate change and how farmers are adapting. Fifty-eight percent of respondents agreed that they should take additional steps to protect the land from increased precipitation. Improving tile drainage was one of the most popular practices that farmers indicated that they are utilizing to deal with the changing climate as 47 of responding farmers had installed or renovated their tile within the past 10 years and 42 plan on investing in tile in the immediate future. IT is clear that farmers are already making the investment in drainage systems to mitigate risk. IT is important to improve the delivery of conservation drainage practices and educate farmer advisors on how the process works in order to scale up delivery to meet the demands of not only the nutrient reduction strategy, but to match the needs of famers planning to improve their water management systems. The overall goal of the project is to increase adoption of conservation drainage practices that will improve water quality that impacts local fisheries. To accomplish this goal the final deliverables met with this proposal will be to install 3-5 conservation drainage practices create a video series featuring the installation process and testimonials from the farmer, contractor, and advisor to distribute among the isap partner and FFP networks create two newsletters for the aggregate and admc S conservation drainage weekly and planning assistance and participation in a watershed leaders network event.project priority areas will be given in the FFP priority watersheds in illinois with a focus on the indian creek-vermillion river and the larger vermillion watershed.