This fall, the Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) will accept sealed bids for roughly 30 agricultural leases for the 2025-2029 crop years.
In a public release, the IDNR said the leases will be developed to "promote ecologically sound agricultural practices to improve soil health, minimize soil erosion, improve water quality, and reduce chemical impacts to benefit wildlife populations and their
habitats."
Agricultural and Wildlife Lease Program Manager Mike Chandler said that the IDNR's first objective is always the management of wildlife and natural resources. To support these initiatives, a heavy focus has been placed on soil health.
In the past few years, a cover crop program and soil testing have been implemented to promote the nutrition and tracking of agricultural soil.
"We're about two years into the cover crop program," Chandler said. "The sites that we're bidding out this year, it will be new for those sites because they're catching up on the cycle."
Chandler said that these improvement efforts are made possible through the work of both the IDNR and those leasing the sites.
"We try to get to know them because we're working together to get this done. It's certainly not a one-way street," Chandler said. "I always spend a lot of time talking to our tenants, trying to get to know them...We can learn from everybody; both of us can learn from each other."
Optional pre-bid meetings will be held virtually at the end of October, with bids due two weeks later. The bids will be publicly opened in mid-November and extended through December.
Illinois' procurement website, BidBuy, will announce the sites available for bidding. Bidders must register through BidBuy before being considered eligible to enter a contract.
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