In 2021, an Oregon farmer turned 70 acres of his barley farm into a wetland. Four years later it attracts thousands of birds and helps endangered fish survive

When Karl Wenner looked across his farm near Klamath Falls, Oregon, he saw something that many farmers would probably consider a problem: water.

His roughly 400-acre Lakeside Farms had long been used to grow barley, but part of the property regularly flooded. The farm also sat close to Upper Klamath Lake, an important wetland and waterbird habitat that has struggled with water-quality problems.