Project name: Bloody Run Watershed size: 24,215 acres Year began: 2002 Year Complete: 2007 SWCD Contact: Clayton Phone: (563) 245-1048 Purpose: Improve water qualitlity
Soil and Water Conservation District(s): Clayton Other partners: Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship, Iowa Department of Natural Resources, Environmental Protection Agency, Natural Resources Conservation Service

Local landowners have contributed more than a quarter of a million dollars to conserving their land and improving the quality of water in Bloody Run, a coldwater trout stream in northeast Iowa.
Working through the Clayton County Soil and Water Conservation District, the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship (IDALS) Division of Soil Conservation funded nearly half a million dollars of cost-share for the project. The Iowa Department of Natural Resources contributed nearly the same amount with Section 319 water quality funds.

The project objective was to cut sediment delivery to Bloody Run by a third, and refine nutrient and manure applications on half the cropland acres.

Conservation practices applied in the watershed by landowners with technical and financial assistance from the project include, but are not limited to:

• more than 40 miles of terraces
• 5 grade control structures
• almost 2 miles of grassed waterways
• 1,775 feet of windbreaks
• 7 water and sediment control basins
• 310 acres of timber stand improvement
• 10,460 feet of resource protection fencing
• 15 acres of tree planting
• about 40 acres of contour buffer strips
• 169 acres of general and continuous CRP
  

One in a series of summaries of watershed projects in Iowa carried out by local conservation districts, the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship, Division of Soil Conservation, and other partners.

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