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DU staffer looks out over a freshly tilled former onion farm where DU will restore close to 40 acres of peatland in Oswego Co.
Given the importance of peatlands to biodiversity and carbon storage, it's exciting to get to restore these wetlands. One of the projects is in a landscape known to support several species of greatest conservation need.
DU was able to acquire two drained peatland sites in East Aurora and Oswego, NY and work with state and federal regulatory partners to get these offset projects approved for construction. These properties were used to grow specialty crops - fruit and onion crops respectively. Both operations noted that it was getting harder to keep these sites dry enough for agricultural operations especially under flash-flooding events that appear to have become more frequent in recent years.
The Oswego Co. onion farm pictured above experienced catastrophic flooding that damaged tile and other drainage infrastructure. The Blood Rd Muck site in East Aurora NY had also already started reverting to wetland. However, drainage infrastructure was preventing full wetland recovery. Working with DU's mitigation program was a welcome option for these landowners to retire the increasingly challenging farming operations in sites that really wanted to be wet.
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