Ravenswood Media - Online Documentary Video Production / Nature and Wildlife

Ditch design has changed very little in the last 200 years and it is due for another look. Though seldom thought of as a technological feat, the building of a well-designed ditch can be revolutionary for farmers and, just as important, the conservation community.

The Upper St. Joseph River office of The Nature Conservancy is bucking the old system by testing an innovative ditch design. Called the 2 Stage Ditch and developed by Andy Ward at Ohio State University, the concept involves a lot of science, but really boils down to simply adding a mini flood plain to the typical ditch design. The goal is to slow the flow of water from rushing nutrients and sediment into the Great Lakes and Gulf of Mexico, where they cause hypoxic “dead zones.” The 2 Stage Ditch gives the plants and micro-organisms living in the ditch a chance to reduce the nitrogen in the water before it blossoms into deadly algal blooms.

Ravenswood Media filmed the construction of a 2 Stage Ditch in Northeast Indiana last month with the intention of encouraging the spread of the technology throughout the Upper Midwest. The challenges are huge, as there are tens of thousands of miles of ditches throughout the region, but farmers welcome the deviation from the norm because it saves their fields from eroding away.

“We’ve spent a lot of time slogging around in ditches which isn’t ideal.” says McGowan. “But we also got a peek at the wonderful diversity of life that inhabits those ditches.” A ditch is no longer just a ditch, especially when it is a 2 Stage Ditch…