Articles from the past two years:

Two-Stage Ditch Field Day:

September 23, 2008: Good food, great speakers, and a beautiful day awaited attendees of the Two-Stage Seminar hosted by The Nature Conservancy and the Steuben County Soil and Water Conservation District. Fifty five people from all areas of the state attended the conference, which was held at Pokagon State Park's Potawatomi Inn. Various professional speakers from Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, and North Carolina  spoke about the benefits and applications of the Two-Stage design, including erosion control and and improved drainage function. Participants received a toolkit of materials to take home with them. After a catered lunch, participants travelled out to the newest Two-Stage ditch in the area. The ditch is located on 675 E, just off of US Hwy 20, east of Angola, in Steuben County.

If you have any questions about Two-Stage Ditch design and application, please call The Nature Conservancy at 665-9141 or the SWCD at 665-3211, x 3.

Toledo Bus Tour 2008:

           In September, our District, along with several other Soil and Water Conservation Districts in the area, the St. Joseph River Watershed Initiative, and the St. Mary’s River Watershed Project, helped sponsor “A Day at the Bay.” This road trip to Lake Erie included a bus and boat tour in the Maumee River Basin. It was an opportunity intended to enable local agronomic business owners to learn about some of the valuable programs and projects that are happening in the Maumee River Basin and how these programs can benefit both agriculture and the environment, but it was also a firsthand opportunity for me to see these benefits.

            The Maumee River Watershed is a 6,500 square mile watershed, including 4,000,000 acres, 1.7 million people and 94 kinds of fish. It is fed by seven rivers, beginning in Allen County and running through DeKalb and Steuben County, before flowing into Ohio; ending up in Lake Erie. Soil erosion from throughout the watershed produces sediment that flows into the Toledo Harbor. As sediment accumulates, the depth of the shipping channel and bay used by commercial ships and recreational boaters is reduced. Annual dredging of sediment deposits is required to maintain a safe depth for navigation.

            Each year, 800,000 cubic yards of silt are dredged annually from the harbor in order to keep these shipping lanes open. Toledo Harbor is the second largest port on the Great Lakes, with 12 million tons of goods passing through this port every year. Duluth, Minnesota, is the largest port in the Great Lakes. If the ports on the Great Lakes were to shut down due to an abundance of sediment, 17 million more trucks per year would be on our roadways.

            The Port of Toledo is 7 ½ miles long, and is dredged 500 feet wide. Dredging in this port began in 1867. Sediment dredged from Lake Erie is held in a confined disposal facility, planned and designed to receive this silt and safely contain the contaminants, preventing them from reentering the lake. Preventing soil erosion in the watershed would not only improve water quality, but save on the enormous costs of yearly dredging. These confining facilities are at maximum capacity, so this is becoming another issue of vital importance to our environment and economy.

            But there is good news. Water quality is improving, the amount of sediment has decreased over the last ten years by 25-45 percent (depending on the source), and some species of fish are returning to Lake Erie. This improvement is due largely from the efforts of many individuals and groups to install conservation practices such as conservation tillage, filter strips, grassed waterways, fencing to prevent livestock from entering water bodies, and rain gardens, and landowners taking part in conservation activities such as reducing the amount of fertilizer they are using as well as using a no-phosphate type, and taking care of their septic systems.

            Our first stop that day included a stop at the new Two Stage Ditch site in Steuben County. The project is being funded by The Nature Conservancy and The Joyce Foundation, with support from the Steuben County Surveyor, Commissioners, and local landowners, and educational assistance from the Soil and Water Conservation District. The project is in the Creel Ditch, which is a tributary of Fish Creek, and is located in east central Steuben County. It flows west to east and the majority lies between US 20 and Metz Road. A good place to view the project is from County Road 675 E, just south of US 20. The Two-Stage Ditch benefits include decreasing erosion caused by the scouring of steep sides, improving drainage, decreasing sediment and nutrient transport, and reducing maintenance.

This conservation practice incorporates a floodplain, called benches, into the ditch by removing the ditch banks roughly 2-3 feet above the bottom for a width of about 10 feet on each side. This will allow the water more area to spread out and decrease velocity. Small ditches in the headwaters of a watershed are places were this would be applicable. Although there is a larger initial investment than a typical ditch maintenance activity, future maintenance costs are expected to go down. So far, two-stage projects have focused on rural/ag areas, but this practice also has potential in urban areas.

Due to the larger upfront cost, average property owners would not normally undertake this project, but seek assistance from local officials and conservation groups to become the catalyst and help lead the project. This project helps people think holistically about their ditch; that it is part of a system, flowing into Lake Erie or Lake Michigan, and all factors need to be considered when making decisions about the entire system to avoid unintended consequences of doing something on their land.

In addition to being a stop on the bus tour, the Nature Conservancy and the SWCD recently hosted a conference at the Potawatomi Inn and at the site for individuals to discover the benefits and technical details of designing and installing a two-stage ditch. People from all over Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio attended this seminar. Fifty-five individuals enjoyed a beautiful day at Pokagon State Park and at the two-stage ditch site.

The next stop on our bus tour was Toledo Harbor. There, we boarded the Sand Piper Tour Boat to see the port, the Confined Disposal Facility, and the channel dredge project. During the boat tour, we listened to presentations from the Toledo-Lucas County Port Authority and the Army Corp of Engineers on the status of the port and disposal facility. It was here we learned all the aforementioned facts about the harbor.

Our final stop was the Bowling Green Wind Farm. The Bowling Green Wind Farm Project began as a joint venture between the City of Bowling Green Public Utilities and American Municipal Power. Over the span of two years, four wind turbines were erected at the Wood County Solid Waste District at a cost of 8.8 million dollars.

When the project began, it was estimated that the turbines would produce 6,981 megawatt hours per year, but the turbines have performed well above that, actually producing 7,245 megawatt hours. With the sale of electricity from the turbines, it was originally thought the project would pay for itself within twenty years. After an outstanding performance, it is now thought the project will pay for itself in just 13 years.

Each turbine can provide power to between 50 to 400 homes a day depending on the wind speed and the time of year. Spring and fall are excellent times of year for electricity production, but summer and winter aren’t as good. It takes 9 mph winds to begin producing electricity for the electrical grids. Anything slower than this produces just enough to run the turbines.

Not only did we have a gorgeous day for such a trip, but I returned from the bus tour with a greater understanding of the impact of sediment in our watersheds. But along with this knowledge came the realization that we can make a difference in our environment by our actions, even the smallest ones. For information on conservation practices you can do on your property to decrease sediment and improve water quality, please contact the SWCD office at 260-665-3211, ext. 3. We also have various cost-share programs available in several areas of the county, which may be able to help with the installation cost of several practices.

2007 Pigeon Creek Watershed activities:

           ANGOLA --- Nearly 20 projects supported by new grants and continuing funding from state and federal sources helped expedite improved soil and water conservation practices in Steuben County last year.

            Kayleen Hart, Steuben County Soil and Water Conservation District (SCWD) Resource Conservationist, says the projects are intended to improve surface and lake water quality throughout the Pigeon Creek Watershed (PCW), which covers most of the county.

            The projects follow the completion in 2006 of the PCW Management Plan that was commissioned by the Steuben County Commissioners and the SCWD.  The plan was developed by V3 Companies, Ltd, of Illinois with financial support provided by an Indiana Department of Environmental Quality (IDEM) 319 grant.

            “Completion of the management plan provides a platform from which to seek funding for a range of soil and water conservation practices because it focuses on specific steps that, if followed, will reduce soil erosion and improve water quality throughout the watershed,” Hart says. Applicants for such funding could include the SCWD, related county agencies, lake associations, and others who intend to enhance water quality throughout the watershed.

            Most of last year’s conservation projects were implemented in Steuben, Otsego, Scott, York, and Fremont townships.

             Implementation of the Management Plan began in January, 2007, with the hiring of a Resource Coordinator, working out of the Surveyor’s office, to begin putting certain land treatment practices into place. Among them were more than 14,000 feet of filter strips, 2,900 feet of grassed waterways, five water and sediment control basins and six structures on six farms that are designed to curtail soil particles and crop nutrient runoff from entering watershed surface waters.  Funding for the position and projects was provided by the IDEM 319 Phase One Implementation Grant.

            In July, a grant was awarded to the SWCD, to compliment and expand on the IDEM grant.  Hart says that six projects supported by a $40,000 Watershed Land Treatment Grant from the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, Lake and River Enhancement (LARE) agency, provided installation of 33 acres of filter strips, 18,300 feet of livestock fencing, three livestock watering structures, and about 100 acres of hay and pasture plantings.  The grant also authorized six acres of trees to be planted on private land this spring.

            The District is seeking an additional $50,000 from LARE this year because of the high interest in similar projects that is being shown by property owners within the PCW.

            Hart says the District is also working with other local groups and lake associations who would like to obtain funding for special projects that would augment water quality in their area.  She says that the District is consulting with IDEM and LARE on those requests.

            In addition to these activities, more than 128 acres of farmland filter strips were re-enrolled in the on-going Conservation Reserve Program (CRP). Funding by the Environmental Quality Incentive Program (EQIP) enabled the planting of 13.7 acres of trees on farmland, installation of an animal waste storage unit, building of 3,200 feet of livestock fencing and placement of 45 acres in an animal waste management program.  CRP and EQIP are federal programs administered by the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service in Steuben County.

The Watershed Concept

By: Kayleen Hart

Resource Conservationist

Steuben County Soil and Water Conservation District

Recently, a customer called our office to inquire about the Lake and River Enhancement Program a neighbor had told her about. She explained that her neighbor urged her to call our office before she planted trees because she might be eligible for cost-share assistance under a watershed program we had. She called in for the information, but also added that she didn’t think she was eligible because she didn’t live in a watershed. This prompted me to think that I really couldn’t explain how our programs helped improve water quality if part of the public didn’t know what a watershed is.

            A watershed is all of the landscape that drains to a specific point. Depending on what you are discussing, this could be very broad or very narrow. For example, Steuben County is encompassed by two huge watersheds, the St. Joseph East, which ultimately drains into Lake Erie and the St. Joseph West, which travels to Lake Michigan; or you could narrow the concept down to figuring out the watershed of a single farm if you are putting a waterway into a field which is experiencing gully erosion.  No matter what size watershed you are talking about, everyone lives in one. In fact, everyone lives in several.

            In Steuben County, the two St. Joe Watersheds are broken down into five smaller sub-watersheds (see watershed map): Crooked Creek, St. Joe River, Fish Creek, Pigeon Creek, and Turkey Creek. Our office has received state-funded grants in several of these watersheds to offer cost-share assistance to landowners. We first meet with the landowners to find out what their particular needs are and then assist them in developing a conservation plan for their land. The next step is to use this plan as a tool to put the actual conservation practices on their land to reduce nonpoint source pollution (NPS) from ending up in our water.

NPS comes from many widespread sources. Sediment, fertilizers, animal manure, pesticides, oil, road salt, fecal material from failing septic systems, pet waste, and debris from paved areas are transported over the land by runoff, snow melt and wind. This eventually enters our streams, wetlands and lakes, or gets into the groundwater and damages aquatic habitat and aquatic life and reduces the capacity of water resources to be used for drinking water and recreation.

             At the present time, our office has Lake and River Enhancement (LARE) Watershed Land Treatment grants in Pigeon Creek, Turkey Creek, and a sub-watershed of Fish Creek (Ball Lake). LARE grants are State programs funded by the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, Division of Fish and Wildlife, from a portion of the state’s boat tax.  There are also several Federal programs that work to put conservation on the land in all the watersheds in the county, such as the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) and the Environmental Quality Incentive Program (EQIP), which are run by the USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), also located in our office.

            How does putting conservation on the land help the lakes in our county? Since the Pigeon Creek Watershed makes up the largest portion of our county, I’ll use it as an example. This watershed is located in the central portion of Steuben County and accounts for 76,325 acres (36.8 percent) of the county. This watershed also contains the “Chain of Lakes”: Long, Golden, Big and Little Bower and Hogback Lakes, as well as West Otter, Fox and Pigeon Lakes. In this watershed, as well as all the other watersheds, a majority of the land is cropland. Seventy one percent of the Pigeon Creek Watershed is agricultural. Therefore it is extremely important to the watershed and ultimately to the streams and waterways which feed our lakes to put land treatment practices, such as tree plantings, filter strips, and grassed waterways into place. When you combine the federal and state assistance our office has offered landowners and the financial contributions they have made to the projects, it amounts to 3.3 million dollars of conservation put on the land in this county since 1993. Each year, this accounts for a significant sediment reduction load going into our lakes.

            The next greatest percentage of land use in the Pigeon Watershed is the urban community (12 percent). It is important with the great increase in development around the county, and especially around many of the lakes, that we continue to educate developers and contractors as to the proper way to put sediment and erosion control measures into place while they are building in order to reduce the amount of sediment that moves from the construction sites into our lakes. It is also important to educate the urban community how little things they do, such as proper use of fertilizer, may have a big impact on water quality.   

            By working on these two areas, the SWCD hopes to improve not only the water quality in our lakes in Steuben County, but ultimately in the water that drains into the Great Lakes. If you have any questions about watersheds or any of the programs our office offers, please call us at (260) 665-3211, ext. 3, or check out our website at www.steubenswcd.org for more information.