Your project assignment for this semester is to design a Wetlands Research Laboratory on the Otte/Jacob Farm between Ulen and Hawley, Minnesota. Fresh water is the human community’s most precious resource and there is not enough of it for everyone, including those of us in North Dakota and Minnesota. There are some portions of our state and world that have too much water and other places that never have enough. In order to meet the demands of our future generations we will all have to learn to conserve the water that we have and to eliminate as much waste as possible. Additionally, we will have to stop using water to transport waste of every kind finding alternative methods to these time honored habits. Further, we will have to cease mining water from deep aquifers as it does not appear that they are able to replenish themselves quickly, if at all, making them a truly finite resource. The site for your project is 11502 240th Street North, Ulen, Minnesota. This is the farm of two of our studio collaborators, Dr. Marinus Otte Director of the Wet Eco Systems Research Group and Dr. Donna Jacob of the same group. As you can see from the maps on Blackboard and from our site visit there is a section of the farm that is ancient prairie grassland that has been undisturbed for centuries. There are also two existing ponds in the existing wetland areas that are potential assets for your water harvesting efforts.