Resources ease wetlands process

SAUNEMIN, Ill. — Jim Fulton heard concerns about nitrogen leaving cropland and related water quality problems and decided to do something about it after hearing about constructed wetlands.

“It was relatively pretty easy after we decided to do it,” said Fulton, co-owner of Saunemin-based Fulton Farms.

He attended a Vermilion Headwaters Watershed meeting several years ago where Jill Kostel, The Wetlands Initiative water resource program director, and Jean McGuire, TWI field outreach specialist, presented the benefits of a constructed wetland.

“I thought that might be something interesting to try. I told them where I farm. They looked at the map and selected a couple of possible locations,” said Fulton during a recent Livingston County Soil and Water Conservation District-hosted tour of his constructed wetland near Cullom.

“From there, Jill designed the structure and The Wetlands Initiative people helped me with the application process. They lined up the construction.”

The Land Improvement Contractors of America held an expo at the farm in August 2018 and built the wetland in seven days.

“We take in water from about 73 acres. It comes from the north, a neighbor’s pattern-tiled field across the road and a main runs into the creek that drained it. There’s now a water control structure in his tile line that moves it over to my tile line and a water control structure feeds it into the wetland,” Fulton said.

“There’s also a water control structure at the far end that we can shut the water off or open up and let it drain out.

“The purpose of the wetland is to take water from the tile, run it through the wetland and let microbes and plants remove nitrates out of the water.”

Post Construction

After construction was completed, Fulton seeded the berm and removed the soil piles from the dig over a two-year period and used it for terraces.

“They’ve pretty much taken care of it after that other than I’ve mowed it a couple times when they wanted me to. I let them manage this part of the farm and do what they want me to do,” Fulton said.

Conservation has been an important part of Fulton Farms, and Jim is a member of the Vermilion Headwaters Watershed steering committee.

“We are a conservation family. The field adjacent to the wetland has a cover crop that was no-tilled into soybeans. We have a grass waterway. We have the constructed wetland. We have a filter strip. We have four terraces that we built using dirt from this project. It took care of three or four ravines that were starting to develop,” he said.

“When we bought this field in 1993, the waterway was just cutting the gully in, so we put a concrete block structure in to take care of that.

“We have done quite a few different practices. Last year, we rebuilt 10 acres of waterway over on my farm.

“We’ve had all kinds of different wildlife here. We’ve have quite a few deer. We’ve had herons, egrets, ducks.”