Project name: Hacklebarney Watershed size: 44,250 acres Year began: 2001 Year Complete: Ongoing SWCD Contact: Montgomery Phone: (712) 623-9680
Purpose: Improve water quality Soil and Water Conservation District(s): Montgomery, Adams Other partners: Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship, Iowa Department of Natural Resources, Natural Resources Conservation Service, Montgomery and Adams County Board of Supervisors, Pheasants Forever, ISU Extension, Southwest Iowa Rural Water District

Like many of the watershed projects in Iowa, the Hacklebarney Watershed Protection Project was designed for multiple benefits. On farms, the conservation practices are reducing sheet and rill erosion, reducing gully erosion, and improving wildlife habitat. Off the farm, the practices are improving water quality and recreational opportunities, extending the life of lakes downstream, and reducing flooding.

Terraces, a long-standing conservation practice in southwest Iowa, are everywhere in the Hacklebarney project. Two leaders of terrace use on their farms are Robert and Roger Cerven, who have 90 percent of their land terraced.

Roger and Robert use terraces and no-till, along with some alfalfa in a rotation, as their conservation system. The Cerven’s neighbors have terraces, too. Many are the result of the Hacklebarney Watershed Project. Robert helped organize the original Public Law 566 Watershed Project in 1984, and later helped the Montgomery Soil and Water Conservation District guide a second effort.

This second watershed project, funded by the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship, was aimed at improving soil resources on the farm and improving water quality in Viking Lake and the Nodaway River Basin, as well as reducing flooding.

Nearly $2 million has been spent on both projects to apply more than 24 miles of terraces, 33 grade stabilization structures, 27 water and sediment control basins, 58 acres of riparian forest buffers, and almost 500 acres of filter strips and buffer strips.

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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