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<br />Watershed Heroes
<br />to the Rescue!
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<br />Lundy and three other members of the FCAB participated in the conference and were astounded
<br />at the wealth of knowledge they found there. "I was really impressed with the caliber of the
<br />presentations at the conference. It was a very well directed and highly informative experience," says
<br />Lundy. In fact, according to Lundy, his team was so impressed with the conference's riparian buffer
<br />demonstration, "we decided that buffers were the way to go to improve the quality of the water in
<br />our creek." He continued, "grasses can be plowed up if the landowner decides to change
<br />agricultural habits while trees are much more permanent features with better root systems for
<br />runoff control and bank stabilization." FCAB now works with the NRCS, Geode RCD, a
<br />nonprofit group, and many volunteers to plant trees that act as buffers along the banks of Flint
<br />Creek twice a year. Last summer, more than 75 volunteers planted 11,000 trees and it seems to be
<br />working. In areas where the most trees have been planted, fecal coliform levels have dropped.
<br />Funding for the project comes from three sources - an EPA section 319 grant, USDA's
<br />Conservation Reserve Program, and landowner matching funds.
<br />
<br />Sheila Ehrich, a corn and soybean farmer in Faribault, Minnesota, couldn't say enough good
<br />things about her experiences with the conference. "The conference taught me practical,
<br />down-to-earth techniques that I could take home and use on my 1,000-acre farm," said Ehrich. "I
<br />needed to know how to figure out how much crop residue to leave after harvest, and they took us
<br />out in the field with a 100-foot tape measure and showed us how."
<br />
<br />Participants also receive integrated pest management (IPM) scouting reports from Amana during
<br />the growing season, results of a late spring nitrogen test and fall stalk test, a videotape of the plots
<br />being harvested (showing real-time yield), and a full financial analysis of all the plots.
<br />
<br />[If you are interested in participating on a team at the next Watershed Heroes Conference on June 5-7,
<br />2000, in Amana, Iowa, contact Jim Porterfield, Technical Specialist, Land, Water, and Forestry Resources,
<br />American Farm Bureau Federation, 225 Touhy Avenue, Park Ridge, IL 60068. Phone: (847) 685-8782; fax:
<br />(847) 685-8969; e-mail: jimp@fb.com. Visit the conference web site at www.fb.com/connect/Watershed.}
<br />
<br />1999 National Watershed Awards Spotlight Outstanding Volunteer Projects
<br />
<br />What do three watershed programs have in common with the Dow Chemical Company? Not
<br />much, except the fact that they all-won the prestigious 1999 CF Industries National Watershed
<br />Award. Each year, CF Industries, one of North America's largest interregional cooperatives,
<br />recognizes one corporation and three communities nationwide for their outstanding cross-sector
<br />partnership efforts to protect the country's watersheds. The awards are administered by The
<br />Conservation Fund, a national, nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting America's legacy of
<br />land and water by using innovative conservation techniques, education, and community-based
<br />activities. All four winners this year have programs or projects that hinge on voluntary partnerships
<br />forged to protect water quality.
<br />
<br />Sun River Watershed Project
<br />
<br />It took five long years, but the Sun River Watershed team in Montana finally began to reverse the
<br />damage caused by 30 years of careless disregard of the areas water resources. Years of irrigation,
<br />overgrazing, and the growth of nonnative weeds had taken a toll on Muddy Creek. After a
<br />much-needed stakeholder meeting that included landowners, the irrigation districts, townspeople,
<br />the counties and communities, conservationists, and environmentalists, the Sun River Watershed
<br />team began working with the Bureau of Reclamation, the local irrigation district, and other groups
<br />in a public/private partnership to restore the river and its tributaries. So far, the team has reduced
<br />erosion by 75 percent (from 200,000 tons of sediment annually to below 50,000 tons), restored
<br />21,000 feet of stream bank and fish habitat on the Sun River and its tributaries, released thousands
<br />of insects to control noxious weeds, improved irrigation efficiency and decreased water
<br />consumption through the use of irrigation weather stations and automated canal gates, and
<br />implemented grazing management on 50,000 acres of rangeland. In fact, irrigation return flows
<br />into Muddy Creek have been reduced by approximately 50 percent - from almost 600 cubic feet
<br />per second (cfs) down to approximately 300 cfs.
<br />
<br />For more information, contact Alan Rollo, Watershed Coordinator, Sun River Watershed, 12 Third Street.
<br />NW, Great Falls, MT 59404. Phone: (406) 727-4437; e-mail: arollo@mcn.nef.
<br />
<br />MARCH 2000, ISSUE #60
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<br />NONPOINT SOURCE NEWS-NOTES
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