Project name: Viking Lake Watershed size: 2,119 acres Year began: 2005 Year Complete: 2007 SWCD Contact: Montgomery Phone: (712) 623-9680
Purpose: Improve water quality Soil and Water Conservation District(s): Montgomery Other partners: Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship, Iowa Department of Natural Resources, Natural Resources Conservation Service, Iowa Department of Transportation, Rural Development, Southwest Regional Water District

For years, Viking Lake in Montgomery County had a statewide reputation as a blue ribbon lake for catching crappies, along with bass and catfish.

But more recently, the lake was awash in sediment. Before the lake was drained in 2006, “the water looked like buckets of green paint had been poured into it in places,” says Russell Field, manager of Viking Lake State Park.

Viking Lake was on the state list of 303d impaired waters, with excessive algal growth. Primary problems in the watershed were gully erosion, sheet and rill erosion, and nutrient loading in runoff water.

Now, after the Viking Lake Watershed Project transformed the lake and its water in 2006, Field tells a much different story. “The lake was drained, and 22 sediment control structures were built across gullies in the park that were feeding sediment to the lake,” Field says. Neighboring landowner also built about 20 structures outside the park, on privately owned land, and applied a host of other best management practices.

“The lake has been restocked with both black and white crappie, largemouth bass, catfish, bluegill, red ear sunfish, and walleye. I predict we will see a return to the great fishing we used to have here,” Field says.

“We can see a secchi disk 8 feet deep now and water quality is exceptional,” says Dan Case, an environmental specialist with the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship (IDALS) in Red Oak. “The water is clear because we’ve closed off every major gully that was sending sediment to the lake before.”

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.