Wetland mitigation could now be easier than ever before in South Dakota. The South Dakota Ag Wetland Exchange is up and running.

Created by the South Dakota Farm Bureau with a grant from the Natural Resources Conservation Service, the Wetland Exchange is a platform for mitigating wetlands.

You can buy credits through the exchange when you want to drain a wetland on your farm. One credit usually equals one acre.

You can also restore or enhance a wetland on your farm, enroll it in a wetland “bank” and sell the mitigation credits to other farmers.

Minnesota and Iowa have had wetland banks for years, authorized by the 2014 Farm Bill. It has taken years to clear hurdles in the Dakotas, though, where national wildlife and conservation groups have focused efforts to preserve wetlands for waterfowl habitat and food sources. A wetland bank hasn’t been set up in North Dakota yet.

Kaleb Steele, Canby, Minn., recently restored a 35-acre wetland on his farm, which is on the Minnesota-South Dakota border. To restore the wetland, he plugged a ditch and removed and rerouted drain tile. He then was able to enroll the land in the Ag Wetland Exchange mitigation bank. He has already sold some credits to another farmer.

“It was a hard piece of ground to farm,” Steele says of the 35 acres prior to conversion. “Restoring the wetland on it was the best thing for it.”

By putting the land in a wetland bank and selling credits, Steele has an opportunity to generate some additional income from the land, rather than losing seed and crop input money on it most years.

GSA MAP: Wetlands can be mitigated by buying credits from a wetland bank in the same Geographic Service Area (GSA), which is roughly the equivalent of a watershed.

Steele, 32, thinks being involved in the Wetland Exchange will help his bottom line.

What to know about Wetland Exchange

Here are three important things to know now about the South Dakota Wetland Exchange:

1. The exchange works by Geographic Service Area, which is basically a watershed. You can only buy credits from a bank in your GSA. See the map at sdagwetlandexchange.com.

2. Minimum credit prices are set by the Exchange. Then the buyer and seller negotiate the price from there. In Minnesota in 2018, average ag have ranged from $6,500 to $57,000 per ag credit credit, according to the Minnesota Board of Water and Soil Resources.

Prices vary by the type of credit. They may seem high, but it’s a one-time payment. Land enrolled in the wetland bank remains in the bank forever. The landowner pays to restore, create or enhance the wetland. The wetland cannot be farmed again, though there can be some haying and grazing opportunities.

3. While the Wetland Exchange is open in South Dakota, only one bank in the northeast part of the state has been established so far. The South Dakota Farm Bureau is planning to hold informational meetings around the state about the Wetland Exchange in July.