The RIM Program: Minnesota's New Approach to Wetlands Restoration

Before its settlement by Europeans, Minnesota has approximately 13 million acres of wetlands. Since that time, over 9 million acres, or about 75 percent, have been lost. In the southwestern, central, and northwestern agricultural regions, this figure reaches 95 percent because of extensive wetlands drainage in the 1960s and early 1970s. Now, an innovative Minnesota state program under the Reinvest in Minnesota (RIM) Act o 1986 is helping to bring wetlands back. The RIM Reserve Wetlands Restoration Program pays landowners to restore their previously drained wetlands and convert them back to their natural state.