by Dan Haug | Jun 5, 2019
This post is part of a series for 2019 Watershed Awareness Month, comparing water quality in a pair of local creeks to learn how land and people influence water.
Long Dick Creek and Bear Creek both start east of Ellsworth and join the South Skunk River between Story City and Ames. Both have agricultural watersheds with thousands of acres in both Story county and Hamilton county. Yet one is dirtier than the other. You might wonder why…
Hey! Wipe that smirk off your face!
“Long Dick” was the unfortunate nickname of a tall guy named Richard who explored the land near the creek when it was still wild prairie. “Bear Creek” was named because an early settler shot a black bear nearby. Since the 1860s, the prairie and the bears have disappeared and the man’s nickname has acquired other meanings, but we at Prairie Rivers of Iowa are serious about our water and our history and will have no giggling, thank you very much! If you have a problem with “Long Dick Creek”—or for that matter, “White Breast Creek,” “Squaw Creek“, or “Drainage Ditch 5″—you can follow the example of Newton High School and take it up with the US Board on Geographic Names.
Anyway, I was out doing some water testing this week and noticed some pretty high nitrate levels in Bear Creek (10mg/L) and even higher nitrate in Long Dick Creek (20 mg/L) . The same pattern held when I sampled in June of last year, using more precise equipment: 13mg/L in Bear Creek and 21 mg/L in Long Dick Creek. For reference, the drinking water standard for nitrate is 10 mg/L.
These are similar creeks with similar watersheds, although Long Dick Creek does have more livestock. I will wager that the difference is what’s been done in the land along the stream. For over a decade, researchers at Iowa State University have worked with farmers along Bear Creek to plant riparian buffers, study their effectiveness, and share the lessons nationwide. Long Dick Creek is pretty typical for Iowa streams. The stretch pictured (at 115th St) has a nice grass buffer, but there are other stretches without much space between the crop field and the water. Doing some quick GIS analysis with 2011 landcover, it looks like Bear Creek has more buffers, wider buffers, and better buffers, and that seems to have made a difference for water quality.
| Long Dick Creek | Bear Creek |
| 23,500 acre watershed | 18,500 acre watershed |
| 90% cropland in the watershed | 86% cropland in watershed |
| 116,919 animal units of swine in watershed | 32,536 animal units of swine in the watershed |
| 147,500 animal units of poultry in watershed | 18,000 animal units of poultry in the watershed |
| 73% cropland within 100m of creek | 63% cropland within 100m of the creek |
| 2% forest within 100m of creek | 8% forest within 100m of creek |
| 6% grassland within 100m of creek | 11% grassland within 100m of creek |
| 8% pasture within 100m of creek | 8% pasture within 100m of creek |
| 21 mg/L nitrate (June 16, 2018) | 13 mg/L nitrate (June 16, 2018) |
| 0.8 mg/L orthophosphate | 0.6 mg/L orthophosphate |
male dickcissel (photo credit: Rebel At on Wikipedia)
Prairie Rivers of Iowa recently received a grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation that will give us an opportunity to talk with landowners near Long Dick Creek and two other small watersheds about conservation practices that benefit both wildlife and water quality. We may never see a bear along Bear Creek (and I’ll bet the residents of Roland are fine with that), but with a few more prairie plantings to provide habitat, we’d have a good reason to rename the little stream east of Story City to “Long Dickcissel Creek.”
by Dan Haug | May 7, 2019
This is a good time of year to enjoy the South Skunk River Water Trail and other local waterways!
I joined the Skunk River Paddlers this weekend, paddling my kayak from Anderson Access to West Petersen Park. While the main purpose of the outing was fun, we also hauled out some tires, cleared some smaller obstructions, and made note larger logjams for followup. The water was chilly but the air was pleasant. Bluebells were blooming on the bank and we found live mussels in the water (this one is a plain pocketbook).
While central Iowa has been spared the extreme flooding that has devastated communities on the Missouri and Mississippi, it’s been a wet fall and a wet spring, and we saw the evidence of that on the river. Bark had been scraped off trees by ice flows, lots of bank slumping, and lots of exposed roots.
The roots here illustrate the value of riparian buffers. A good stand of perennial vegetation can hold a bank together and keep phosphorus out of the Gulf.
If you’re interested in establishing a riparian buffer on your farm, especially if you live near West Indian Creek, Long Dick Creek, Clear Creek, or Worrell Creek give Prairie Rivers of Iowa a call!
by Dan Haug | Mar 27, 2019
Several of our staff attended the Iowa Water Conference on March 12 and 13. The event brings together hundreds of smart, hard-working people that are working to improve water quality, restore aquatic habitat, and control flooding across the state of Iowa. We always learn a lot from both the presenters and the other attendees, and come away energized. Here are our top three lessons we learned this year:
1. Farms can simultaneously improve water quality and wildlife habitat
Adam Janke, Extension Wildlife Specialist, talked about how the practices being used for nutrient reduction can also benefit many of Iowa’s species of greatest conservation need. For example, trumpeter swans like CREP wetlands. Migrating ringneck ducks and Topeka shiners use oxbow wetlands. Meadowlarks use prairie strips. We will be pursuing these kinds of synergies in three watersheds with a National Fish and Wildlife Foundation grant, so it was great to hear specifics.
2. Retailers of agricultural products need to be part of water quality solutions
Chris Jones from University of Iowa shared some disturbing data from northwest Iowa. In the Floyd and Rock River watersheds, livestock production and manure application has doubled since 1980, but commercial fertilizer sales have remained the same. In those watersheds, nitrogen is being applied at 80-100 lbs/acre above the MRTN (Maximum Return to Nitrogen), leading to nitrate concentrations in the Floyd and Rock rivers that are twice as high as other streams in western Iowa. Clearly, some farmers aren’t thinking about their manure management plan or water quality when they purchase nitrogen fertilizer, and their retailers aren’t bringing it up. When our conversations about agriculture remain siloed (pardon the pun), water quality suffers.
However, at another session, we learned how ag retailers with the Agriculture’s Clean Water Alliance are showing leadership on water quality — including water quality monitoring in the Raccoon River and developing a code of practice for nitrogen application to reduce losses from farm fields while increasing return on investment (ROI). Precision agriculture tools are also being used to identify land where inputs aren’t generating a good ROI, and use that information to make conservation decisions that benefit both the bottom line and the environment. Gregg Schmitz of Nutrien shared an example where revenues from a 140 acre farm were increased by putting 70 acres into CRP and redeploying inputs into the other half. Surveys show that agriculture retailers and crop consultants are trusted sources of information for farmers, so their involvement will be essential to solving our water quality challenges. We’re grateful for the support of Key Cooperative and Heartland Cooperative on field days and producer engagement in the Squaw Creek watershed.
3. Water quality improvements are possible, but require a commitment of both time and money
Neil Shaffer, an award-winning watershed coordinator in northeast Iowa, shared some heartening success stories. Nitrate leaving the Staff Creek and Beaver Creek watershed was reduced by 47%. Brook trout were reintroduced to a tributary of Silver Creek. In both cases, it took over 8 years of monitoring and $3-5 million of funding for conservation practices to see those changes. We’re well aware that water quality requires a long-term commitment and are in this for the long haul.
by Dan Haug | Feb 13, 2019
An update on our watershed planning efforts is long overdue. Our NRCS Conservation Innovation Grant for the “Keigley” watershed project wrapped up in September of 2018. Here’s some of the highlights from 2017-2018 and what we’ll be doing next.
A change in focus: No more need to explain that by “Keigley Branch Watershed” we really mean “part of the South Skunk River.” In the future, we’ll be working with the entire 200,556-acre watershed that drains to the South Skunk River above the confluence with Squaw Creek in Ames. On paper, a single ten-digit hydrologic unit (HUC10) seemed like a more manageable project, but as we talked with the public it became clear that watershed plans and partnerships would be more effective if the river’s headwaters in Hamilton County were included sooner rather than later.
Headwaters of the South Skunk River watershed
A new Watershed Management Authority (WMA): The Headwaters of the South Skunk River WMA was formed in August 2018 with seven signatories:
- Story County Supervisors
- Story County Soil & Water Conservation District
- Hamilton County Soil & Water Conservation District
- City of Ames
- City of Story City
- City of Roland
- City of Randall
We hope more jurisdictions will join as the partnership takes shape. Good communication between the cities, counties, and conservation districts in a watershed leads to more and better projects that improve water quality and soil health.
Great public input: 80 people—56 residents, 15 high school students, and 9 ISU students—attended our public workshops. The goals and implementation strategies they suggested will provide a great starting point for the WMA to develop an actionable plan for conservation in the Headwaters of the South Skunk River watershed.
An interactive map of conservation opportunities: Between this project and Story County’s assessment of its watersheds, we have identified suitable spots for bioreactors, grassed waterways, constructed wetlands and other agricultural conservation practices across 728,144 acres! Check out our interactive map to get ideas for conservation practices that might work on your farm or in your watershed, along with an explanation of each practice.
Winter is a busy season for grant-writing. We are currently looking for funding to provide education and technical assistance to farmers and landowners in this watershed, to build partnerships with more groups in Hamilton County, to fill in missing information identified during the planning process, and to support the new WMA in completing a plan for the Headwaters of the South Skunk River watershed. This is just the beginning!
by Dan Haug | Sep 26, 2018
Look down from a plane in any part of the state and you will see Iowa farmers’ commitment to soil and water conservation etched into the landscape. Using aerial photos and Lidar from 2007-2010, the Iowa DNR and Iowa State University recently completed a statewide project to map and inventory six conservation practices.
The finished maps are available for most* of the Squaw Creek Watershed, so we tallied up the results. It’s encouraging to see that even in a flat part of the state, producers have been doing a lot to control soil erosion. Thank you for your stewardship!
- 100 acres of contour buffer strips
- 1,165 acres of grassed waterways
- 173 miles of terraces
- 230 water and sediment control basins
- 21 farm ponds
However, while Iowa has made a lot of progress in addressing soil erosion, we are just beginning to address nutrient losses. The dead zone in the Gulf this year was the size of Connecticut and shrinking it will require big changes in the way we farm. From the Nutrient Reduction Strategy, here’s one scenario to get us there.
- Nitrogen on all acres applied based on Maximum Return to Nitrogen
- 60% of row crop acres planted with cover crops
- 27% of cropland draining to a treatment wetland
- 60% of drained cropland treated with a bioreactor
It’s important to keep both those thoughts in mind. Let’s appreciate what farmers are already doing for conservation while being clear-eyed about the scale of the challenge.
*Two sub-watersheds in Hamilton County are still being checked for accuracy. We’ll add this data once it becomes available for download.
