Conversion of wetlands in cultivated agricultural landscapes is one of the primary drivers of wetland loss in Alberta, Canada, despite a provincial wetland policy that prioritizes wetland avoidance. While other sectors of the agricultural industry have established initiatives to maintain wetlands, a common narrative within the conventional cropping sector is that wetland retention leads to lost acreage and overlap of crop inputs, and that there are financial benefits associated with wetland drainage. The objective of this research was to explicitly quantify crop productivity within drained wetland basins, in an effort to better understand the extent to which producers financially benefit from drainage practices. Working collaboratively with canola producers in central Alberta over the 2019 growing season, wetland basins within four quarter sections were mapped using an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, and wetland basins with clear evidence of surface drainage were identified. Agricultural input and yield data provided by producers was then used to quantify profitability within each drained basin. Average profit for drained basins for each producer ranged between − $145/acre and $76/acre, with an average of $55/acre across all operations. This is compared to an average profit of $203/acre for non-wetland areas across all operations. The results suggest that the financial benefits of drainage are highly variable, and for many drained basins, producers may experience financial losses that may be overlooked when profits are examined only at the field- or operation-level. While this study included a small number of operations, and was limited to one type of crop over a single growing season, the results still provide important insight into the extent to which producers benefit financially from the practice of wetland drainage.

尽管省级湿地政策优先考虑避免湿地，但在加拿大艾伯塔省，将湿地转变为耕地的农业景观是造成湿地流失的主要原因之一。虽然农业的其他部门已经制定了维护湿地的倡议，但常规种植业的一个共同说法是，保留湿地会导致土地面积损失和农作物投入重叠，并且湿地排水带来了经济利益。这项研究的目的是明确量化流域湿地流域的农作物生产力，以期更好地了解生产者从流失实践中获得经济收益的程度。在2019年生长季节与艾伯塔省中部的油菜籽生产商合作，使用无人飞行器绘制了四分之四区域内的湿地盆地图，并确定了具有明显地表排水迹象的湿地盆地。然后，将生产者提供的农业投入和产量数据用于量化每个流域内的获利能力。每个生产商的流域平均利润在145美元/英亩至76美元/英亩之间，所有业务平均利润为55美元/英亩。相比之下，所有业务范围内非湿地地区的平均利润为每英亩203美元。结果表明，排水的经济效益是高度可变的，对于许多流域来说，生产者可能会遭受财务损失，而仅在现场或运营层面检查利润时，这些损失可能会被忽略。虽然这项研究包括少量手术，