BLOOMINGTON, ILLINOIS (March 26, 2025) — The Illinois Sustainable Ag Partnership (ISAP) is pleased to announce an upcoming conservation tour in central Illinois on Thursday April 3, 8AM-1PM. This tour is being hosted by McLean County SWCD, Purdue University, NREC, The Nature Conservancy, and the Illinois Sustainable Ag Partnership. The field day will provide a unique perspective on the path of drainage water from the farm through municipal filtration.
The goal of this conservation tour is to complete the circle between farmers, municipalities, and other community stakeholders by showing the importance of responsible agricultural drainage management and conservation practices to help keep water sources clean and abundant for local communities who rely on them. The tour will take a look at how agricultural drainage tile impacts water quality, how cover crops can play a role in mitigating nutrient loss, the role that wetlands can play in limiting nutrient runoff, and the costs associated with treating municipal water supplies that are overly-contaminated with agricultural nutrients.
Frank Rademacher, Illinois Conservation Agronomist with the Nature Conservancy shares: “This field day will be a holistic view of how in-field and edge-of-field practices can be used to improve water quality and the real world implications for the local water treatment plant and the communities it serves.”
The tour will include three stops:
1. Armstrong-SENDLAB Tile Drainage site in Lexington, Illinois;
2. Constructed wetlands site at Franklin Research and Demonstration Farm; and
3. City of Bloomington Water Treatment Plant.
The day will begin and end at Davis Lodge at Lake Bloomington, 25449 Davis Lodge Rd, Hudson, Illinois, 61748.
A light breakfast and lunch will be provided. To register to attend this event please RSVP by March 27.
Register online at: From Farm to Filtration: A Tour of Conservation in Action.
For phone RSVP, please call the McLean SWCD office at 309-452-3848 ext 3.
Sponsored by: Illinois Nutrient Research and Education Council, Diverse Corn Belt, Illinois Soybean Association, and Illinois Farm Bureau.
As a coordinated and consistent group, Illinois Sustainable Ag Partnership (ISAP) focuses on messaging, outreach, training, and education for farmers and their trusted advisers to bring together and disseminate new information and lessons learned in plain, practical language. Members work collaboratively to amplify the programs of each organization, share resources to gain efficiencies and identify synergies in achieving soil health and nutrient goals. ISAP’s mission is to create a network to support a systems approach on agriculture lands to improve soil health and reduce nutrient loss.
ISAP’s members include: Agricultural Drainage Management Coalition, American Farmland Trust, Association of Illinois Soil and Water Conservation Districts, Illinois Central College, Illinois Certified Crop Advisors, Illinois Corn, Illinois Farm Bureau, Illinois Land Improvement Contractors Association, Illinois Nutrient Research and Education Council, Illinois Soybean Association, Midwest Dairy, Precision Conservation Management, Saving Tomorrow’s Agriculture Resources, Savanna Institute, The Nature Conservancy, The Wetlands Initiative, The Zea Mays Foundation, and University of Illinois Extension.
