|
roject name: Buckeye Creek
Watershed size: 10,464 acres
Year began: 2005
Year Complete: Ongoing
SWCD Contact: Wapello
Phone: (641) 682-0752
Purpose: Improve water quality, reduce flooding
|
|
Soil and Water Conservation District(s): Wapello
Other partners: Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship, Wapello County Board of Supervisors, Southern Iowa Development and Conservation Authority, Cardinal High School Future Farmers of America, Natural Resources Conservation Service
|
When 79 local landowners were asked if they would implement best management practices to improve water quality and reduce localized flooding within the Buckeye Creek Watershed, 60 percent of them said they were interested.
After extensive focus group activity with landowners in 2005, the Wapello County Soil and Water Conservation District named Buckeye Creek the highest priority watershed in the county in need of conservation assistance.
The Wapello District applied for watershed protection and water quality improvement cost-share funds from the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship (IDALS) Division of Soil Conservation. IDALS has since offered technical assistance and $282,000 in cost-share funds to local landowners for conservation improvements. The district also prioritized USDA EQIP funds toward the watershed, and worked with the Wapello County Board of Supervisors, to secure funds from the Southern Iowa Development and Conservation Authority. By the end of 2008, landowners had invested about $250,000 and total investment was nearly $1 million.
Goals of the project include building more than 9 miles of terraces and a number of flood control structures, as well as establishing other conservation measures, to cut sediment delivery to Buckeye Creek by 54 percent and to substantially reduce flooding along Buckey Creek from moderate rains. School classes are monitoring water quality using the IOWATER program.
|
Project coordinator Neal McMullin (left) and IDALS technician Doug Jarr (right) talk with Loretta Bechert and her son Kurt about their farmable terrace. The terrace and a flood control dam (below) are among the conservation measures installed as part of the Buckeye Creek project.
|
