CLAYTON — Local farmer Patrick Madden is part of a growing number of farmers who are not only providing food for the country but also taking steps to ensure that local waters are kept clean and safe.
At Madden’s 100-acre farm, that takes many forms. Named Mastodon Farm for the mastodon bones Madden’s grandfather uncovered while digging a pond on the property nearly 30 years ago, Mastodon Farm is now home to cows, pigs, chickens, turkeys, honeybees, fruit and maple trees, and chemical-free produce like squashes, tomatoes, mushrooms, and berries.
Madden, who studied ecology in college and worked in the water quality sector in Florida for five years, took over the farm following the death of his grandfather in 2012. Since then, he has focused on expanding the farm’s regenerative agriculture practices, including furthering his grandfather’s efforts to restore native habitats and wetlands on the farm property.
“I don’t think you have to convince too many people that the way our society works as a culture is unsustainable,” Madden says. “We degrade the quality of the environment as a society. So, [regenerative agriculture] is just about doing the opposite … Wetlands are one way to do that.”
Wetlands are a vital ecosystem in the Great Lakes region and beyond, providing water filtration, wildlife habitat, erosion and flood control, and much more. Consistently threatened by climate change and urban development, Michigan has lost more than 4.2 million acres of wetlands since the early 1800s.
Additionally, the weakening of federal clean water protections has put many wetlands across the country at risk for pollution and destruction, increasing the importance of farmers in protecting and restoring wetlands.
At Mastodon Farm, wetland reconstruction efforts began in the 1990s, when Madden’s grandfather started receiving funding from a federal program that supports farmers by paying them to protect soil and water quality. One of the programs restores and protects habitat, including wetlands, which do not make for productive farmland, but are highly valuable for ecosystem health.
Along with the support of this federal program, Madden’s grandfather converted a 30-acre easement on the property into wetlands and a native upland prairie. The prairie is home to myriad native Michigan plants, which provide food sources and habitat for local wildlife, including butterflies, bees, pheasants, and deer, among other pollinators and small mammals. The adjoining wetlands — also a source of habitat, especially for waterfowl, amphibians, and insects — were established by digging a network of ponds and channels where runoff from neighboring cropland is filtered as it travels from Mastodon Farm to Bear Creek, a small body of water that flows out of the nearby Lake Hudson State Recreation Area.
Because wetlands are home to plants whose roots serve as powerful water filters, wetlands and their accompanying flora help safeguard watersheds from agricultural pollution by pulling excess nutrients and contaminants out of the water, says Madden.
“The idea there is that a lot of the neighboring fields have drain tiles that are running into my pond, and then instead of those going straight into the creek, they go into the pond and filter through to the reconstructed wetland there,” he explains. “That’s incredible as a success story and probably, in my opinion, something that would be good to do on a larger scale to deal with some of the agricultural pollution and restore normal wetland function.”
Agricultural pollution comes from a variety of sources, including synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, manure and animal waste. Madden says one reason many farmers explore alternatives to conventional agriculture is to “get away from the chemicals” frequently used by the industry. Madden does not use pesticides, herbicides, or fungicides on the produce grown on this farm.
“I think you can have negative impact on your soil biology even with the organic inputs, so I just don’t spray anything,” he says. “I try to get the soil as healthy as possible.”
The application of chemicals like pesticides, and even fertilizers, not only impacts soil health directly, but can also contribute to excess nutrient runoff into local waterways. Excess nutrients —particularly nitrogen and phosphorous—can create toxic algal blooms in nearby bodies of water, posing serious health risks to both humans and wildlife.
Waste runoff from the confinement feeding of livestock is also a concern when it comes to agricultural pollution, particularly near bodies of water. To help minimize waste pollution, another focus of Madden’s regenerative agriculture is a process called “bale grazing,” a method of feeding cattle that involves moving hay to various locations in a pasture rather than consistently placing it in one area, which distributes the excess nutrients more evenly and feeds the pasture instead of smothering it. This prevents runoff during rain events and allows Madden to use manure as a natural fertilizer.
“It seems like a more natural way to feed the cows, and then also get some more organic material on the soil without having to move stuff around,” he says.
Madden says he hopes continued investment in local waterways will help people “have more regard for the ecosystem” by focusing on ways to preserve or reconstruct the natural flow of water through the environment.
“I remember when I was a kid, there used to be trees growing [in Bear Creek],” he says. “Someone, at some point, came and cut them all down, and now it’s just a ditch. That’s another area where I think we need to see some changes in the way we regard these water systems.”
In coming years, Madden hopes to continue growing Mastodon Farm, but despite the addition of new pastures and infrastructure like fencing, he says the wetlands his grandfather started will remain. “I just plan to let them do their thing.”
For more information, visit mastodonfarm.com or follow Mastodon Farm on Facebook and Instagram.
This story was written by Healing Our Waters – Great Lakes Coalition, a group of local, state, and regional advocates working to establish Great Lakes restoration and protection as a national conservation priority.