- [Announcer] This program is made possible in part by the Backlund Charitable Trust established to educate and create awareness of environmental issues.

- Welcome to our latest edition of Eco Watch on WTVP.

I'm Mark Welp.

This program is dedicated to bringing you the latest environmental stories impacting our area and the state of Illinois.

We'll be introducing you to people finding unique ways to make the land of Lincoln a better place for mankind and animals by protecting plants, water, soil, and crops.

Let's get started.

(soft music) (soft music continues) This episode, we look at how farmland in central Illinois can be used for agriculture and solar farms at the same time.

The Emiquon Preserve in Fulton County turns 25 this year, learn how it's helping preserve the Illinois River, and recycling at home can be confusing.

We'll tell you about an app that can make it easier for you to be an environmental steward.

But first, along with wind turbines, solar farms are popping up in central Illinois fields.

Some people are worried that good farmland is being wasted when the renewable energy technology is installed.

At the University of Illinois' solar farm, researchers are studying agrivoltaics, the practice of growing crops under and around solar panels.

Dr. Carl Bernacchi explains what researchers are trying to learn.

So in the research you've done so far, what have you learned in terms of, you know, the different kinds of plants that best coexist with solar panels and things like that?

- Yeah, that's a great question.

This is a pretty new discipline, and so there's a lot more questions than there are answers at this point in time.

But some of the key things that we're finding is that a lot of different crop species can grow quite well within this agravoltaic environment.

And so we're obviously going to see lower light when, when there's a solar panel situated above the crops.

But that reduction in light doesn't necessarily translate into a large reduction in growth and ultimately yields.

And so one of the things we're finding is that this is a potential opportunity to get multiple uses from the landscape.

The projects that we're involved in cover various different aspects of how the plants grow from a physiological perspective, but we also look at important things that are particularly important to the landowner, which is going to be the yields.

But we're also have researchers on the project that are doing economic analyses, trying to identify different crop species that might fare better under the solar panels than others.

And so we're learning quite a bit.

Some of the key findings we're seeing is that there's a tremendous opportunity for these systems to produce forage crops where, you know, we could grow things like hay as well as opportunities for horticultural species, food that, you know, goes directly to human consumption rather than ethanol or, you know, feeding cattle with grain, those types of things.

But more importantly, what we're seeing is that there's a lot of opportunity in a number of different ways with these types of systems.

- You know, with corn and soybeans being the two big crops here in Illinois, I'm guessing if a farmer's gonna have corn and solar panels, they're gonna have to be pretty tall panels, whereas if you have soybeans, they could be shorter.

Do you know yet how corn and soybeans fare with these solar panels?

- Yeah, and so that's an excellent point.

And there's, you know, the infrastructure aspect of this.

And so corn is, you know, it grows tall, it grows about 10 feet.

And so in order to not have these solar panels shaded by the crops themselves, we would have to build a much larger infrastructure for something like that to become feasible.

Some of the researchers that are part of our team are also doing economic analysis on these, and it turns out, you know, they're, the margins on corn and soybean may not favor agrivoltaics because the extra infrastructure needed to get these situated higher up, high up off the ground.

But that doesn't mean that there aren't opportunities.

I know that some seed companies are starting to produce dwarf corn varieties, which might do really well in an agrivoltaic setting, but these issues transcend just the infrastructure in the height of the solar panels.

Various different crops really have been adapted to extremely high light environments, and corn is certainly one of them.

And so any kind of shading we see on corn has the potential to reduce yields.

Other species like soybeans seem to do much better in a, in a partially shaded environment, as well as certain crops like, you know, horticultural crops like tomatoes, raspberries, blueberries.

There are far more crops than there have been experiments done thus far.

And so there's a lot of uncertainty in this, but we are focusing on the big players right now, corn and soybean, and looking at how they fare.

You know, and it, and it doesn't look as promising for corn as it would be for, for certain other species, but one of the big aspects of what we do as researchers is to figure out are there opportunities to adapt corn to this type of growth environment?

And so we are, we have been growing corn that's been adapted for very high light environments, but that doesn't mean that there aren't potentially corn, you know, lines or, or cultivars of corn that might be better suited for this environment.

It's just a matter of identifying, you know, what they are and how can we implement them into these systems.

- I'd like to talk a little bit about who this could potentially benefit.

Let's start with the farmers.

I'm guessing the big benefit is two sources of income now if, if a company wants to lease the field for the solar panels, they can do that, plus the farmer gets the money from the crops.

Is that kind of the big driving factor behind a farmer wanting to do that?

- Absolutely.

And so, you know, we like to think things in the context of, you know, the return on the land uses.

And so if you establish a photovoltaic system, so just solar panels, you know, that's gonna be a source of revenue and, and that's a, that's a great source of revenue for the landowners.

But you're absolutely right that there's this advantage for agriculture as well.

And so you look at these two different sources of income, they could potentially create a much more economically favorable environment for the, for the farmers or for the landowners.

There are other considerations that need to be taken into account.

And so, you know, one of them is if we co-locate crops and solar panels together, we might see a yield hit in the crops and maybe even a potential loss in, in electricity generation if we space the solar panels a little bit further apart in order to accommodate these crops.

The idea here is if we see a slight reduction in yield in the crops, let's say 10%, and we see a slight reduction in, in electricity production, let's say about 10%, you still have 90% on two different land uses.

And so that means the landowner is gonna benefit greater by having these two together than just, you know, any one of them by itself.

- When solar companies are looking to build, quote unquote solar farms and they, they look to farmland, is that just because the farmland is usually already flat and already cleared?

Is that a reason why they're looking at that specific land?

- I mean, that's a, that's a good question.

And from an economic perspective, it makes a lot of sense that the land that's going to be most suitable for the photovoltaics is going to be land that hasn't been previously developed, and it's gonna be land that doesn't have a lot of trees.

Clearing the land in these types of scenarios are, you know, quite expensive.

And so having farmland where you're looking at annual row crop production where it's very easy to get in there to, you know, to establish this facility, it is a really nice opportunity.

And so I think the economics definitely favor that.

- I know you're early in your research, but have you found any disadvantages to having solar panels and crops in the same field?

Any potential problems?

- Yeah, I think the big aspect of this project, you know, from the Midwestern perspective here at the University of Illinois, our primary focus was gonna be on corn and soybean.

And working with the economists on the project, you know, we find that the economics don't necessarily favor the implementation of these systems in corn, soybean agriculture, and that's just because the cost of, of establishing and maintaining row crops is very high.

And you know, adding in the additional complexities of the photovoltaic system can create an economically unfavorable environment.

In terms of how these systems work in other ecosystem services beyond agricultural production, there's a lot of evidence starting to come out that soil moisture is much better in the agrivoltaic systems.

We're potentially looking at more soil carbon accumulation in these systems.

And when you look at other types of crops or ecosystems growing underneath these solar panels, there are a lot of opportunities for biodiversity for altering the microenvironment in a favorable way.

And so there's a lot of, of aspects of this that are favorable.

The biggest questions right now, or the biggest hurdles to overcome really are the economics in some of these systems, particularly when we're dealing with, with row crops that are typically grown in Illinois.

- You mentioned a positive effect on the soil from an environmental standpoint.

Are there any other pros or cons to this?

- I think a lot of it depends on what's being grown.

And so one of the areas that our research has started to move into is, is to move away from the annual row crops like corn and soybean and start looking at perennial crop systems.

Big advantage of perennial crop systems is that, you know, there's a lot less management that needs to go into planting them.

Every spring, the crops will just automatically emerge, you know, just, you know, we're looking at forage crops in this kind of environment and, and then once a year that, or several times a year, you know, the farmer will go in and they'll mow and bale.

And those types of perennial systems seem to do a lot of benefits to the soil in terms of carbon, water savings.

They're more resilient to natural variation in the climate system, including heat waves, droughts, these types of things.

But then when we start looking at other agrivoltaic systems that might incorporate polycultures or a mixed species where pollination is a big aspect, you know, here biodiversity is a, is a big aspect of this as well.

And so, you know, we don't anticipate agrivoltaics taking over the entire landscape across the Midwestern United States.

There is gonna be a threshold after which it doesn't expand any further, but figuring out how we can take advantage of these systems that are going in, in a way that's gonna benefit the landowner, it's gonna benefit the environment and it's gonna benefit the people in the state of Illinois and across the Midwest.

You know, those are the big challenges that we're, we're really trying to expand upon.

And right now, it does look like there's a lot of promise in the, in that area.

- I was gonna ask you before we go, what is your hope for the research?

I know you're early on, but what do you hope it leads to and, and can you predict the future of this crop sharing formula?

- So, you know, what do I hope for in this system is, there are several things.

First of which is, you know, there is a cultural divide between people who farm and people who want to put in the solar panels.

And a lot of, a lot of perceptions are, it's an either or.

And one of the things I'm really excited about with agrivoltaics is that it can potentially bring together the renewable energy that we need without compromising the cultural identity of, of the rural community.

I myself am a farmer.

I have my own farm in addition to doing, you know, doing research and I understand the importance of what it means to be a farmer.

And so that's a really big part of where I think agrivoltaics comes in.

And that's one of my big hopes for the future.

But I also think there's a lot of opportunity not only to build these solar systems in a way that's going to work with agricultural ecosystems in general, but also to look for opportunities to take the existing solar farms that are out there.

And so there's a lot of solar installations that have already occurred.

And to do something like what I would refer to as a, like a retro agrivoltaics, and how do we actually get more out of that land in these systems that already exist.

And so in my view, I think that's where the research is gonna head in the, in the, in the future because, you know, photovoltaics farms coming in, these, these facilities are being built and this is occurring a lot faster than the science can keep up.

And so looking at opportunities to retrofit existing facilities to get more out of that land is, is something I'm particularly excited about.

- Solar is one clean energy source that could be hit hard in the new federal budget.

The federal solar tax credit that lets taxpayers claim up to 30% of residential installation will end December 31st.

A federal tax credit of up to $7,500 for electric vehicle buyers will end when the new budget takes effect on October 1st.

The president also signed an executive order to end subsidies to companies manufacturing wind power components.

The Chicago Tribune reports there could be reduced access to tax credits for battery and solar panel manufacturers and slowing of wind and solar farm construction.

$14 billion of clean energy investment statewide that has been approved but not yet spent, could be canceled or downsized.

Analysis from the financial research firm, Rhodium Group, shows Illinois adding 30 to 60% less clean power by 2035 and 16 to 38% fewer electric vehicles on the road nationwide by 2035.

Even with these federal cuts, Illinois still has a state rebate of up to $4,000 for electric vehicles.

The state's solar property tax exemption means you don't have to pay a higher property tax for adding solar to your house.

Programs like Illinois Solar for All and Illinois Shines provides some incentives to residents and developers.

An update now on an important story we've been following all year.

The bill to protect the Muhammad Aquifer is now on Governor Pritzker's desk.

The Senate passed the bill a few months ago and now the house has passed it.

The bill prohibits carbon sequestration activity near a sole source aquifer.

Almost a million people in 14 central Illinois counties, including Mason, McLean, Tazwell, and Woodford rely on the underground Muhammad Aquifer for their drinking water.

And there are some people worried that the aquifer could be contaminated by carbon capture and storage, which has been happening around Decatur.

It's been called one of the Midwest's most remarkable ecological success stories.

The Nature Conservancy's Emiquon Preserve in Fulton County turns 25 years old this year.

I sat down with two of the project directors to look at the history of the Floodplain Wetland Restoration Project and how it's bringing life to central Illinois.

Can you kind of give us the history of Emiquon, what it was originally and then what it transformed into, and then the work that the Nature Conservancy's done?

- Yeah, absolutely.

So Emiquon is this area that lies along the Illinois River.

So it's, it's not just the site, it's kind of the, it's kind of the whole area.

And so the central Illinois River, so from, you know, Peoria or north of Peoria down to, oh, maybe where the Sangamon River comes in, or a little bit south of that was, was historically one of the most ecologically diverse and productive rivers anywhere in North America.

So, so a really high quality stretch of river.

And then this place, Emiquon was kind of considered the jewel of that stretch of river.

So really the best of the best.

So kind of the main features were two, two lakes or two wetlands as well as prairies and woodlands and, and all of the plants and animals and fish that, that depend on those types of habitats.

Around 1920, the folks that owned it at the time thought that they could probably profit a little bit more off of it rather than by having it in, its in its kind of natural state by converting it to agriculture.

This was, you know, a trend that was going on up and down the river.

A lot of these, these floodplain areas were being levied off, drained and farmed, incredibly productive farm ground as well.

And so that transition happened around 1920.

A levee was built between the river and the floodplain.

The area was pumped dry and it was farmed intensively for about 80 years.

So primarily corn and beans, but also a several thousand head cattle feedlot and all of the various infrastructure that goes along with that.

In 2000, the Nature Conservancy purchased the property.

It was kind of unique that it was about just shy of 7,000 acres and it was all one landowner.

A lot of these floodplain areas have lots of landowners, which makes restoration really, really hard.

So in this instance, we were able to buy it all in, in kind of one chunk and then work towards restoring it to that, that pre agriculture type of habitats.

- And I guess people are out there wondering, okay, floodplain, that doesn't sound good, but it is for some people.

Explain why floodplains are important.

- Yeah, well, so the, so the Illinois River is unique also in that it's a relatively small river with a really large flood plain meaning that it has a lot of room to spread out when, when the river rises in the spring naturally.

So it's a system and the river needs its floodplain and the floodplain needs the river.

So historically, before all the levees were put up, the Illinois River had this huge floodplain to spread out to in the spring.

And what that did is create lots of habitat for fish, for nursery habitat, for aquatic plants to grow.

And lots of things need those aquatic plants to grow and to thrive.

And so, and then when the water goes back in, a lot of those nutrients and all that food that was produced in the back waters goes back into that river system.

So it's a continuous, it's called the flood pulse.

It's a continuous cycle of reviving the river system and, and creating those habitats for, for our fishes and birds and shorebirds and all kinds of things use those shallow, really productive areas.

- [Mark Welp] Yeah, what kind of, let's, let's talk about birds.

What kind of birds are taking advantage of the spot?

- Yeah, so a tremendous diversity, I think we are approaching 300 species that have been documented at Emiquon.

Because we have a diversity of habitats, you know, prairies, woodlands, wetlands and, and wetland habitat types that don't exist in a lot of other places in, in central Illinois or, or in Illinois or the Midwest in general.

We get a tremendous number of wetland bird species that are relatively rare.

So of course lots of, lots of typical things like waterfowl and shorebirds during, during spring and fall migrations.

But a lot of kind of unique things like secretive marsh birds, like, like rails and bitterns and egrets and herons.

And we have a large breeding colony of black Crown night herons, which is, which is pretty unique in Illinois.

They're a state threatened or endangered species and that those groups of birds are almost always changing, right?

So some of them are, are only here during spring and fall migration.

And then others arrive in the summer and, and stay and nest here, you know, raise their, raise their broods and then, and then are gone again.

- And with this habitat that the, the birds use for, you know, on their migration paths, let's say they don't have Emiquon, they have to find somewhere else to go.

I mean, does that make it more difficult for the bird's mission, so to speak?

- Yeah, absolutely.

You know, a lot of the species are, are relatively, I don't know if rare is exactly the right word, but have had, have had some stress on their, on their populations because the habitat types they depend on are less common than they were historically.

And so they, they probably need to keep migrating to, to some other location.

That might be a, a relatively degraded habitat 'cause that's the only thing that they can find or it might be much farther away.

Maybe they need to go to the, you know, to the US or Canadian prairies to find a, a habitat type that's similar that will support them and the resources that they need.

- Maria lots changed in the 25 years since the Nature Conservancy has taken over that property in Emiquon.

How do you judge success in your work?

- Yeah, so, well, so Nature Conservancy acquired Emiquon in 2000.

We didn't really start restoration until 2004, so we turned off those pumps that kept it dry and we did a lot of work in between those, those six or seven years.

And so we worked with a lot of scientists to better understand what, you know, get some LiDAR in the site, like what is others old lake beds still there after farming all this time?

What do we need to be measuring to, to know if we're successful out there?

So came up with a really comprehensive list of things that we need to be measuring around fish populations and mussels and plants and waterfowl and different bird species.

And so that really helped us, really focused our research and our monitoring at the site on what do we need to be concentrating on.

And we've been monitoring many of those, we call 'em key ecological attributes, KEAs, but we've monitoring many of those metrics since about 2007.

So we have about 18, 17, 18 years of that data.

And we can use that data on an annual basis then to, to assess is the site, is the site being productive?

Is it, are we maybe hitting some kind of tipping point where we need to be concerned about something, but it really helps us kind of manage the site and assess the site.

When you put all that information together, it's a really good study on, on how do you do restoration and how do you assess restoration.

- So is Emiquon kind of a model or could it be a model for other projects around the country?

- I think most definitely it's a model for how to do these restorations, what it takes to do this kind of restoration.

It's been a long process.

There's a lot of sites like Randy mentioned, along the Illinois River, along the upper Mississippi River basin where the similar, similar type of restorations could happen.

And I think this could be, Emiquon could be serve as a really informative model on how do you, how do you do that?

How do you do, how do you change a cornfield back into a backwater lake?

- And Randy, this, this property, most of the Nature Conservancy's property are off the beaten path, but this one isn't too far from Peoria and there's folks living around it.

What kind of activities can people take advantage of on the Emiquon project?

- Yeah, yeah, so that's, that is kind of one of the, the unique aspects of the preserve.

We're a little bit in the middle of nowhere.

We're about 40 miles south of Peoria, but we are along a relatively major local highway.

So we're relatively easy to find anyway.

And we do welcome the public.

We have a public use area with some, some visitor infrastructure.

There's about a mile and a half of walking trail, a viewing platform with, with spotting scopes, a lot of interpretive signage that talks about the history of the site, the restoration, the history of the river valley, and a lot of the changes that have occurred.

And we have a number of public events.

Some of those things are, are open, you know, year round all the time.

You know, we have, we have public fishing, paddling, of course, you know, wildlife viewing and, and hiking and walking.

But we have a couple of guided things coming up as well.

So paddling and hiking up to the top of the, the ridge, the bluff that overlooks the site.

A chance for folks to fish from the bank.

Normally we allow, we only allow fishing from boats, so folks, folks will be able to fish from shore as well as some science days where our folks that, that lead some of our science work and as well as some of our partners will talk about our water management, the, the underwater community, the the invertebrates and, and a lot of the other tiny little things that kind of drive the productivity of, of the site and whatnot.

And let's see, what else am I missing?

Paddling, ridge hikes.

- Bird.

- Oh, and then a, yeah, a guided birding hike during fall migration with some of our partners that are just tremendous birders.

- You can learn even more about Emiquon by watching our 30 minute documentary, "Nature Returns to Emiquon" and you can find that at wtvp.org.

A recent study by Waste Management and Recycling services shows 45% of Americans don't know what can and cannot be recycled.

64% say more knowledge would increase their recycling involvement.

Well now the Illinois EPA is partnering with an app that could help more people recycle.

The Recycle Coach app will provide Illinoisans with a locally tailored recycling education system.

After you enter your address, the app displays a calendar with your pickup information.

You can even set reminders.

And if you don't know if something is recyclable, there's a search tool.

The Recycle Coach app is free in the Apple App Store and Google Play.

Currently, Peoria, Tazwell and McLean counties are live along with the cities and towns of Bloomington, Creve Coeur, Deer Creek, east Peoria, Normal, Pekin, Peoria, and Tremont.

And more communities are expected to come online soon.

A rare household hazardous waste collection event is coming to central Illinois soon, and anyone in the state can take advantage of it.

The event is Saturday, October 4th at the Interstate Center in Bloomington.

The event is free, but you must register online by September 26th.

Household hazardous waste includes used motor oil, old gas, batteries, cleaning products, and more.

For a full list of accepted and unaccepted waste and to register, go to the website, ecologyactioncenter.org.

Thanks for joining us for "Eco Watch".

If you'd like to watch again, share with a friend or watch past episodes, just look for us wtvp.org.

I'm Mark Welp.

See you again soon.

(soft music) (soft music continues) (soft music continues) - [Announcer] This program is made possible in part by the Backlund Charitable Trust established to educate and create awareness of environmental issues.