Formed in 2024 and launched in early 2025, ALUS Defiance is a farmer-driven program working directly with farmers in Defiance County, Ohio, to create, manage, and maintain new acres of nature and provide ecosystem services that best suit their farm operations. The program focuses on improving soil health, water quality, and wildlife habitat in Northwest Ohio, particularly within Defiance County, Ohio. 

Defiance County is a rural, agriculture-based community in the Maumee River watershed, the largest watershed in the Great Lakes. The City of Defiance is located near the confluences of the Auglaize, Tiffin, and Maumee Rivers. Once part of the Great Black Swamp, the area is now a productive agricultural region with remnants of wetlands and riparian forests.

Historically, the Great Black Swamp was a vast, forested wetland that was drained to make the land arable, leaving behind heavy clay soils. These soils require extensive field-tile drainage systems to manage water. This history underscores the importance of conservation ditches functioning as linear wetlands, which directly address runoff and water quality challenges unique to Northwest Ohio. The heavy clay soils benefit from drainage infrastructure but contribute to stormwater runoff, leading to turbidity, sedimentation, and algal blooms in Lake Erie. Habitat loss has also reduced native species like bobwhite quail and waterfowl.

ALUS Defiance is the first U.S. community to adopt the ALUS model, a Canadian initiative supporting farmer-led, nature-based projects tailored to local environmental and economic priorities. Guided by a farmer-majority Partnership Advisory Committee (PAC), the program collaborates with the Council of the Great Lakes Region, the City of Defiance, and Defiance County. Projects focus on wetland creation and restoration, conservation ditches, riparian restoration, and native grassland establishment to reduce nutrients and sediment while providing critical wildlife habitat.

Defiance County has a strong conservation history, with widespread adoption of practices like no-till farming, reduced tillage, and wetland restoration. However, additional efforts are needed to meet Lake Erie’s nutrient load reduction goals. ALUS Defiance provides a framework to implement nature-based solutions that have not been realized through current conservation programs. By offering new opportunities to provide additive ecosystem services, ALUS Defiance will contribute to enhanced agricultural productivity and improved water quality. Working together, the Defiance community aims to create lasting environmental and agricultural resilience.