Farm field work is underway as Earth Week begins.

The land is being prepared for planting crops. Next to the manicured farm fields, where corn and soybeans as well as other grains will grow, wetlands serve another purpose.

Lakes, rivers, creeks and streams depend on wetlands to remain healthy.

Vegetation found in wetlands acts as a filter for water. It removes phosphates and other plant nutrients from surrounding land.

This, in turn, reduces the growth of aquatic weeds and algae. Otherwise, the waterway could choke by stealing oxygen that plants and animals need.

Wetlands are an important part of the ecosystem in other ways.

They can prevent flooding by holding water.

Wetlands are also important habitat for water fowl and wildlife.

It’s easy to understand why wetlands are important and why they need protection.

The Cedar River Watershed District offers that protection.

Now 2 years old, the CRWD was created by the Mower County Board of Commissioners to improve water quality and reduce flooding.

A recent spring tour of wetlands restoration sites showed how much progress has been made in only two years.

“I think it points out we are going to have many small projects, which will require interested and willing landowners; probably for the most part landowners who are interested in conservation and wildlife habitat,” said Steve Kraushaar, chairman of the CRWD board of managers.

Kraushaar and other CRWD managers had just returned Wednesday from a tour of wetlands restoration sites.

When it was created, the CRWD was the Mower County Board of Commissioners’ answer to the public’s clamoring for flood reduction.

Too many “100-year floods” happened too often and Austin was their major victim.

Justin Hanson, resource specialist, and Matt Taylor, conservation technician, of the Mower County Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD), conducted the tour. The CRWD contracts for the SWCD’s services.

The watershed is part of the Lower Mississippi River basin, having an area of 278,540 square miles of territory in Mower, Freeborn, Dodge and Steele counties. It involves 22 townships and has land in Austin, Blooming Prairie, Brownsdale, Dexter, Elkton and Hayfield.

An AMCAT bus took the tour participants through Austin and past Target west on Mower County No. 27. The first stop was the Johnson-Summer restoration site. Hanson described it as a cooperative project between two landowners. Its kidney-shaped peat wetlands gave it a unique shape. “The topography will be a challenge,” Hanson said, alluding to the anticipated drainage problems.

The site’s 200 acres represented the largest waterbody among all the wetlands restoration sites visited.

The second site was the Alwey property, a 83-acre shallow lake within a 200-acre basin believed to have been Mower County’s largest water body.

According to Hanson, the Brown restoration site was dotted with natural pot holes.

The CRWD tour participants next saw the Hinrichs property, full of small pot holes and sandy uplands.

Dwight, Becky and Grant Ault showed a wildlife habitat restoration designed for flood water retention. The project sits on the bottom end of a large, flag watershed.

Hanson said the Bishop restoration site provided a direct vegetative buffer to the Cedar River.

When the tour participants arrived at the Gene Francis site, the landowner was there to greet them.

Hanson said the Francis site represents “excellent conditions for water quality and wildlife habitat along the Cedar River.

Construction of the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program will take place this year.

Francis showed his guests the 340 burr oak trees planted and another 40 pin oak trees.

Using the Mower County SWCD’s planter, Francis and two more generations planted the trees, 2-foot seedlings, in only two hours, the landowner said.

When Francis concluded his wetlands restoration project presentation, Hanson told him, “You’re doing all the right things.

“Hopefully, some day this land will pass to my son and daughter-in-law and grandchildren,” he said. “They’re also interested in conservation.”

The tour took the curious to see the highly-visible Mike Hoffman wetlands restoration project along U.S. Highway 218 North.

They also saw other examples of the modern agriculture axiom “Farm the best, buffer the rest.”

They learned about the “Erickson Ban,” along the Cedar River near Lansing, where, Hanson said, “The highest diversity of vegetation exists in the watershed.”

Still considered the “crown jewel” in modern flood reduction projects was the Maxfield site: 175 acres of restored wetlands, uplands and abandoned ditch systems.

Hanson credited the “imagination” of a landowner with developing a unique land use along Wolf Creek at the Tom Oots site.

The tour was a “coming out” party for the CRWD on which so many people hold high expectations — mainly for flood reduction in the watershed, which threatens to obscure the first priority: water quality.

Taylor and Hanson did their best to showcase how wetlands restoration can help accomplish both goals.

“The Cedar River Watershed District is a good opportunity for landowners to take action,” Hanson said.

On Monday, a new sign-up period for cost-sharing programs begins.

Applications will be taken through June 6.

Hanson expects the price to be paid — $4,500 per acre — to be attractive to landowners.

For more information, contact Hanson at the Mower County SWCD office or call him at434-2603.