Agriculture & the Environment > Field Work > Upper Mississippi River Basin

Launching the Midwest’s First Real Stackable Credit Market

The goal of AFT's Sauk River Ecosystem Services Project is to bring new enthusiasm to soil and water conservation by promoting our BMP Challenge and establishing a private market that can potentially provide long term funding for implementing and maintaining these BMPs. Not only is it important to promote these best practices from an environmental standpoint but also from an economic standpoint for Minnesota farmers.  

Over the next two years, AFT and its partners will launch the Midwest’s first real "stackable" credit market involving both water quality trading and carbon trading with point source polluters and agriculture in Minnesota. This project builds on our work with key agricultural leaders, the Minnesota River Board, the Minnesota State University Water Resources Center and the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency. Our local partners include the Sauk River Watershed District and Stearns County Soil and Water Conservation District.

Once we successfully establish this unique multiple credit market in the Sauk River watershed, we will use what we learn to create additional markets to serve the Upper Mississippi River basin.