The Sauk River Watershed District (SRWD) and Stearns County Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD) are collaborating with American Farmland Trust and Kieser & Associates to develop an environmental commodities service office operating in the Sauk River watershed.  The office will utilize public and private market based incentive opportunities that provide farmers with value added payments for Best Management Practices (BMPs). The Market Based Incentives, or ecosystem service payments, are base on a commodity that is developed on an agreed upon “ecosystem value” such as metric ton of carbon sequestered or pound of phosphorus loading reduced in a water resource.

Support and funding for the development of this market is provided by the Bush Foundation and a Conservation Innovation Grant from the US Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources Conservation Service. With these funds, the program framework will network with existing public and private entities already established with the agricultural and urban communities to leverage their networks in marketing and certifying these credit based programs. The project team has already convened three committees comprised of local SRWD stakeholders to develop market protocols.