The Water and Agriculture Summit 2010 was held all day Saturday in Bloomington, MN. The theme of this year's event was "Keeping Water on the Land for Conservation and Production." The event was sponsored by the Izaak Walton League of America and the Freshwater Society of Minnesota.
The purpose of the Summit was to engage farmers, drainage engineers and conservationists in an open communication about smart water management and land use. The objective was to "work together toward farming practices that will help conserve, improve, and restore the quality of Minnesota's water resources."
17 presenters had an audience of almost 200 people including students, environmentalists, citizen activists, farmers, drain engineers, professors from the University of Minnesota, several members of the Department of Natural Resources (the DNR) and others.
Presenters at Summit were Brilliant and Professional
The agenda was well-planned, with a diverse group of presenters. Presenters were University professors and directors, farmers, and others.
Two morning presentations were given to warm up the audience to the topic of artificial agricultural drainage and water conservation strategies. Dr. Bruce Wilson, U of M professor in the Department of Bioproducts and Biosystems Engineering, gave an outline of the history of agricultural drainage in Minnesota. Wilson's presentation was detailed and interesting. Dr. Gary Sands, also a professor at the U of M in the same department, gave a presentation on conservation strategies, and asked, "what will tomorrow's landscape look like?" Sands' presentation listed the benefits of drainage, examples of field projects, and supported facts with relevant research and interesting statistics.
Practical, on-the-ground experiences in water management systems was discussed by a panel of presenters before lunch. Panelists included Warren Formo of the Minnesota Agricultural Water Resources Coalition, progressive farmer Tony Thompson, organic farmer Martin Jaus, and Tim Larson of the Minneosta Pollution Control Agency (MN PCA).
The luncheon keynote speaker was Jon Foley, Director of the University of Minnesota Institute on the Environment. While the audience ate a box lunch in the Normandale cafeteria, Foley presented "The Other Inconvenient Truth: A Gloval Challenge for Agriculture and the Environment." The presentation elicited some strong mixed reactions from the audience.
Afternoon speakers were varied, with 5 workshops offered to choose from. Some of the presentations included wetland management, water management, two-stage ditches, and discovery farms. The presentation by Barry Drazkowski, Director of GeoSpatial Services at St. Mary's University, on water and wetland management was particularly informative. Drazkowski explained that we need a well-thought out hydrology mapping system that supports local management.
Summit Ended with General Session Consisting of Panel of All Presenters
The general session panel, "Moving Forward Together," was in keeping with the modus operandum of the entire day's presentations: audience members were offered ample opportunity to ask questions of the panelists. Local actions and policy were explored in the discussion of the next steps forward.
Display Tables Informative and Useful
There were several tables in the lobby where the Agriculture and Water Summit was being held with information about conservation, wetlands, and more. The Izaak Walton League had a table, as well as The Freshwater Society, Water Legacy and a couple of others. I signed a petition at the Water Legacy table urging legislators to make sure there is complete accountability of possible mining activities up north.
Overall, the Summit gave really good big picture information about history of drainage attitudes and practices, existing knowledge of drainage practices, methods of research for drainage practices, current and developing drainage technologies, and evolving philosophies of farmers, legislators and conservationists regarding drainage. The wetland information and how it interplays with water management and artificial drainage was informative and interesting, as well.
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