Ben Wickerham
Program Director, Agriculture, Michigan
Lansing, MI
Areas of Expertise
Agriculture, Soil Health, Water Conservation
Resources
Biography
Ben joined The Nature Conservancy (TNC) in 2015 and currently serves as the Michigan agriculture program director. In this role, Ben (along with a talented team of resource professionals) works to find innovative solutions to conservation adoption barriers; perennially delivering a host of projects to increase awareness, acceptance and adoption of soil health and nutrient reduction practices in Michigan’s Saginaw and Western Lake Erie Basins. Prior to joining TNC, he spent two years as a watershed technician for the Gratiot Conservation District, piloting an early sediment-reduction pay-for-performance project in the upper Saginaw Bay watershed.
Ben has over 15 years of experience delivering agricultural conservation programs throughout the state of Michigan. His background as a resource professional has included roles with Pheasants Forever, Michigan Natural Features Inventory, the Michigan DNR and several soil conservation districts across the Lower Peninsula. Ben has also been an independent contractor for field and stream monitoring assignments and served on Saginaw Bay R, C & D’s executive council from 2018 to 2020. Ben received his bachelor of science degree in zoology from Michigan State University in 2006.
Outside of TNC’s ag conservation work, Ben spends his time coaching youth baseball, serving in youth ministry and gardening. A native Michigander, Ben currently lives in the Flint River Watershed with his wife Elizabeth and their two children, Gus and Wren.
September 2023
Lessons from the Tittabawassee: From Nature to Lumber to Electrification and Back to Nature
This is the third installment of our "Digging Deeper into Soil Health" series. This is our final segment highlighting a Saginaw Valley River system seldom talked about in our Soil Health work: The Tittabawassee River Watershed.
In addition to its recreational and agricultural value, the Tittabawassee Watershed boasts a rich cultural history. The name “Tittabawassee” originated with the Anishinaabeg people. Originally “Tit-a-be-wa-sake”—which roughly translates to “river that heads toward the bay” or “river that follows the shore”—the Tittabawassee River served as an important means of transport, commerce and fishing for the Anishinaabeg. Notably, the Chippewa or Ojibwe tribes inhabited riverside villages up and down the watershed for close access and use of the Tittabawassee and other rivers.
The river also played a major role in Michigan’s lumber era in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The Tittabawassee River served as a direct conduit for lumber companies to access northern stands of pine which could then be floated down the Tittabawassee toward lumber mills in Saginaw.
The community of Edenville, near the border of Gladwin and Midland counties, has a particularly intertwined history with the lumber era. Edenville was one of the lumber industry’s “boom towns” in the upper Tittabawassee watershed, with several lumber camps established there. In the 1920s, dams at Edenville and Sanford were constructed by Frank Wixom’s “Wolverine Power Company” (which would form Wixom and Sanford Lakes) to generate hydroelectricity for the communities in the area. Soon after, Edenville began hosting their now legendary “Lumberjack Picnics”. Though the first Lumberjack Picnic was intended simply as a church fundraiser, it quickly grew in popularity to become one of the most renown lumberjack festivals in North America. Throughout the 1930’s, the annual event drew patrons from all over the U.S. and Canada. Attendance peeked in 1939, when 70,000 people visited the festival.
Today, the unincorporated village of Edenville has a population of around 2,500 people. This small community, situated near the confluence of the Tobacco and Tittabawassee Rivers, once had such an iconic association with the prosperity provided by Michigan’s natural resources now has an association with the destruction wrought by natural disaster. In May 2020, the 100-year-old earthen dyke at Edenville Dam gave way to record high water levels in Wixom Lake, due to an unprecedented rain event. This was the first of two dam failures that day. Once the overflowing waters of Wixom Lake breached the Edenville dam and rushed into the Tittabawassee River, it soon overwhelmed the Sanford Dam about nine miles downstream. Floodwater then coursed on to the city of Midland, where it flooded the downtown, reaching the doors of local hospitals and hotels, damaging homes, submerging cars and storefronts, and the local farmer’s market.
The 2020 flood also provided us a real-life example of how nature can be an invaluable tool for mitigating disaster. As flood waters surged downstream past Midland onto a collision course with Saginaw, it overflowed into the confluence of the Saginaw River within the 10,000-acre wetland/upland complex of the Shiawassee National Wildlife Refuge. Floodwater that had previously put downtown Midland under 10 feet of water was now being spread out and absorbed across an expanse of wetlands and natural floodplain, preventing additional destruction in Saginaw.
Solutions in the Soil
As we reflect on the awesome power of nature put on display by the Midland flood, TNC in Michigan’s Soil Health team considered how we might apply these lessons to our work in agriculture. Though nothing can fully avoid or mitigate the consequences of a 500-year flood event and dam failure, we know from past projects that certain farm management techniques can bolster the water holding capacity of cropland soils. One example is to replicate more “natural sponges” on the landscape by reconnecting floodplains or retiring and removing tile from unproductive croplands to create more wetlands. Short of taking land out of production, could there be other smaller operational conservation measures implemented that would help make a more resilient landscape? We think so.
For example, beginning in 2016 TNC worked with the Huron Conservation District to replenish 73 million gallons of water in the Pigeon/Pinnebog watersheds. This project incentivized farmers to adopt practices that would help rebuild soil structure, promote infiltration and retain more water in the soil. After modeling the effects of dozens of these site-specific BMP projects, it became apparent the practices of no-till and drainage water management were substantially more effective than other practices at replenishing water back into subsoil.
Reasons for the water saving success of these practices include:
- By “No-Tilling”, aka directly seeding crops into undisturbed soils without plowing, compaction is reduced, soil aggregates stay intact, and disturbance to biological processes are lessened. In sum, no-till leads to well cultivated soils with more pore space for water to infiltrate into instead of running off.
- The practice of Drainage Water Management (DWM) is to connect a field’s subsurface tile system to a water control structure positioned at the outlet. That way, farmers can actively manage (or “hold back”) water in their tile, which in turn effects the amount of water present in the root zone.
Midland Area Agricultural Conservation Project
TNC recently launched a new initiative to encourage farmers in the Tittabawassee Watershed to try no-till on their fields or implement Drain Water Management (DWM). These two practices will help improve moisture management, build soil health and weatherproof fields against extreme weather events.
The program is called the Midland Area Agricultural Conservation (MAAC) Project and its primary objectives are:
- Work with local drain commissioners to incorporate edge-of-field and water storage practices along agricultural drains
- Support local farmers in developing a farmer peer network for exchanging information on no-till, DWM and other practices
- Increase the amount of no-till and DWM present in the watershed by providing financial assistance to farmers adopting these practices for the first time.
Over the next two years, our work in the Tittabawassee Watershed will focus on helping farmers access the resources they need to adopt these practices. Farmers interested in no-till or DWM in the Tittabawassee River Watershed are encouraged to contact TNC for more information on available resources. Funding is available but limited and will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis.
A special thank you to the Rollin M. Gerstacker Foundation for supporting this work.
July 2023
Lessons from the Tittabawassee: Fisheries
This is the second installment of our "Digging Deeper into Soil Health" series. We're highlighting a Saginaw Valley River system seldom talked about in our Soil Health work: The Tittabawassee River Watershed.
The Tittabawassee River is renowned for being a resource-rich region for food production, a thriving system for aquatic species and wildlife, and for outdoor recreation. The Tittabawassee is a popular fishing destination that supports a diverse fishery of nearly 100 species, including many sought-after sportfish like northern pike, perch, smelt, bass, catfish, sucker and trout species, and walleye. The community of Freeland—which is situated along the banks of the Tittabawassee River in northern Saginaw County—just wrapped up their 37th annual Walleye Festival, a testament to the robust walleye fishery in the area.
The Michigan Department of Natural Resources (MDNR), U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS) and other partners have also embarked on a multi-year Saginaw Bay Sturgeon Restoration Project to reestablish lake sturgeon back into the Tittabawassee River system. Sturgeon is indigenous to the Tittabawassee and was a historically important species for the native tribes that inhabited the area. Last year, 600 sturgeon fingerlings were released at a Tittabawassee River boat launch in Midland in hopes they’ll imprint on the area and someday return once they mature out in the bigger waters of Saginaw Bay or Lake Huron.
Currently, most fish populations in the Tittabawassee are thriving, except for a few, such as the state-endangered pugnose shiner (minnow), or some of the river’s cold-water species like sculpin or trout, which are now confined to the northernmost reaches of the watershed where habitat conditions can still support them.
Other aquatic species have generated recent interest as well. In a 2020 assessment of the “Four Lakes” area (four manmade impoundments on the upper Tittabawassee), researchers at CMU discovered 22 different species of native freshwater mussels including two endangered species—the Snuffbox and Lilliput mussels.
The FWS and others are currently working on a Midland fish passage project to restore connectivity (passage) over the Dow Dam near Midland. This type of stream re-connection work can help expand inhabitable ranges for aquatic species of concern, open more spawning options for migratory fish species and increase the flow of nutrients and feedstock throughout the river system. Unfortunately, uninterrupted stream connectivity can also have an unintended side effect: The spread of invasive species.
Just recently, FWS crews were out conducting sea lamprey control and removal measures in the Tittabawassee. While these parasitic invaders have been present in the watershed for decades, the areas they were found in were new. Lamprey removal and study efforts are now being focused upstream of Edenville in places like the Tobacco River. Researchers believe the 2020 Edenville dam collapse may have opened new opportunities for lamprey to expand their destructive range upstream. In addition to sea lamprey, 13 other non-native fish species have been documented in the Tittabawassee, though few are considered as invasive.
Supporting this vital fishery through investment, improvement and management has been a hallmark of the watershed. Fishery management activities have gone on uninterrupted in the Tittabawassee for nearly 100 years. When you combine great fishing with the area’s other boating, birding, camping and public land access opportunities, it’s no wonder this nature-rich watershed draws recreationalists from near and far.
Quote: Ben Wickerham
Supporting this vital fishery through investment, improvement and management has been a hallmark of the watershed.
Midland Area Agricultural Conservation Project
TNC recently launched a new initiative to encourage farmers in the Tittabawassee Watershed to try no-till on their fields or implement Drain Water Management (DWM). These two practices will help improve moisture management, build soil health and weatherproof fields against extreme weather events.
The program is called the Midland Area Agricultural Conservation (MAAC) Project and its primary objectives are:
- Work with local drain commissioners to incorporate edge-of-field and water storage practices along agricultural drains
- Support local farmers in developing a farmer peer network for exchanging information on no-till, DWM and other practices
- Increase the amount of no-till and DWM present in the watershed by providing financial assistance to farmers adopting these practices for the first time.
Over the next two years, our work in the Tittabawassee Watershed will focus on helping farmers access the resources they need to adopt these practices. Farmers interested in no-till or DWM in the Tittabawassee River Watershed are encouraged to contact TNC for more information on available resources. Funding is available but limited and will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis.
A special thank you to the Rollin M. Gerstacker Foundation for supporting this work.
May 2023
Lessons from the Tittabawassee: Land Use
This is the first installment of our "Digging Deeper into Soil Health" series. To start off, we're highlighting a Saginaw Valley River system seldom talked about in our Soil Health work: The Tittabawassee River Watershed.
Despite the predominance of forestland, wetlands, and “sod ground” compared to other Saginaw Valley watersheds, the Tittabawassee River Watershed is still considered a major hub for agriculture. Half of this watershed’s land base is utilized in some form of agricultural production. The more than 600,000 acres of farmland provide an array of crops, including infrequently grown commodities like dry edible beans, hay, peas, potatoes, pickling cucumbers and sugar beets.
The main stem of the Tittabawassee River courses south through Gladwin, Midland and Saginaw Counties. However, the full extent of the watershed covers a 2,100 square-mile swath of mid-Michigan, encompassing parts of Clare, Gratiot, Isabella, Mecosta and Montcalm Counties. The Pine and Chippewa Rivers carry water from these surrounding counties toward Midland, where they flow into the receiving waters of the Tittabawassee under the iconic “Tridge.”
From there, the turbid Tittabawassee carries water at a pace of 1,000+ cubic feet per second further south toward Saginaw, where it eventually empties into the Saginaw River at the Shiawassee National Wildlife Refuge. This sprawling watershed spans a multitude of forest types, from pine forests in the northern extent to hardwoods in the mid-and southern portions. The soil types and hydrologic conditions are just as diverse as the forests. Porous groundwater-feeding soils highlight the northern area of the watershed, while poorly drained wet loamy, wet sandy or clayey soils are found in the south. These heavier soil conditions contribute their excess water to stream flow instead of groundwater.
Exacerbating these runoff issues in the agriculturally dominated southern half of the watershed is the presence of channelized drains and ditches. These straightened channels for conveying water, while efficient, don’t retain their natural sinuosity and connection to the floodplain, which can aid in settling out suspended sediments and generally “slowing the flow” going downstream. Moreover, the Tittabawassee River is considered a relatively “steep” river, as compared to other Michigan rivers, falling at a downward gradient of nearly 5ft. per mile. There are also several urbanized areas in this region, such as Mt. Pleasant, Midland, Freeland and Saginaw—all of which contribute significant amounts of stormwater runoff to waterways.
All these factors combine to make a fairly “flashy” (i.e., quickly fluctuating water levels) stream system.
Midland Area Agricultural Conservation Project
TNC recently launched a new initiative to encourage farmers in the Tittabawassee Watershed to try no-till on their fields or implement Drain Water Management (DWM). These two practices will help improve moisture management, build soil health and weatherproof fields against extreme weather events.
The program is called the Midland Area Agricultural Conservation (MAAC) Project and its primary objectives are:
- Work with local drain commissioners to incorporate edge-of-field and water storage practices along agricultural drains
- Support local farmers in developing a farmer peer network for exchanging information on no-till, DWM and other practices
- Increase the amount of no-till and DWM present in the watershed by providing financial assistance to farmers adopting these practices for the first time.
Over the next two years, our work in the Tittabawassee Watershed will focus on helping farmers access the resources they need to adopt these practices. Farmers interested in no-till or DWM in the Tittabawassee River Watershed are encouraged to contact TNC for more information on available resources. Funding is available but limited and will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis.
A special thank you to the Rollin M. Gerstacker Foundation for supporting this work.