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Turkey Creek Watershed Protection Project
The Turkey Creek watershed project area encompasses 61,000 total acres with the majority of the project area, approximately 57,750 acres, being in Carroll County, while approximately 3,250 acres is located in Ray County. There is no urban land located within the drainage area. Land uses in the project area includes an estimated 60 percent in row crop production; 30 percent in grassland including Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) land; and the remaining 10 percent is devoted to other uses such as roads, farmsteads, and livestock facilities. There are approximately 310 landowners located in the project area which is all agricultural. Row crop farming is the primary land use for the area, but there are several fairly large livestock confinement units for hogs, beef cattle, and dairy cows. While none are large enough to require a permit, eleven are registered with the MDNR as Class II operations. Most of these operations have a small lagoon and apply waste products by spreading the material over fields near the waste storage structure. Timing of the present applications is not always the best for water quality.
Excessive chemicals, nutrients, and animal wastes are problems identified by the Department of Natural Resources in the watershed. Landowner contacts resulted in the same concerns being identified, and the producers are searching for solutions both to take care of the environment and to stay in compliance with all governmental regulations. The objectives identified by landowners were to improve waste treatment and handling for each livestock operation, to reduce the amounts of pesticides and fertilizers applied to cropland, to further reduce the level of soil erosion and sedimentation, and to treat 75 percent of CRP ground released with no-till farming, rather than conventional tillage.
PROJECT DESCRIPTION
Producers in the Turkey Creek watershed will be asked to develop Total Resource Management (TRM) plans which include BMPs for livestock waste management, the proper use and application of pesticides and fertilizers, and the installation of erosion control practices to reduce sedimentation. Cost-share incentives will be available to those producers who develop and implement plans to improve water quality. Integrated crop management specialists from the private sector, the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), and the University Extension Service will be available to advise operators on the proper use and application of pesticides, animal waste and fertilizer. An incentive will be offered to those producers who use this service to properly apply correct amounts, which should reduce the runoff of improperly applied or over applied chemicals. Funding to install these practices will come from the AGNPS SALT Cost-Share Program administered by MDNR's Soil and Water Conservation Program and from the Federal Environmental Quality Incentives Program.
There has been no water quality sampling in the past that the District is aware of, but the Stream Team from Norborne High School has agreed to sample water at two locations recommended by WPCP staff which include one site on Turkey Creek upstream of the confluence of Wakenda Creek and one site on East Fork Wakenda Creek near the confluence of Wakenda Creek. The Stream Team will include water temperature, pH, conductivity, nitrate-N, ammonia-N, phosphorus, dissolved oxygen and macroinvertebrate tests in their procedure.
OBJECTIVES
The Turkey Creek Watershed Protection Project has the goal of informing and educating 95 percent of the land users within the project area. To accomplish this goal, an ambitious information and education program has been scheduled. Eleven workshops targeting producers from all the major land use areas will be scheduled. Six field days at good demonstration sites will be selected and toured during the project, which will include a waste management demonstration and a streambank stabilization site.
PRODUCTS
Fact sheets relating to BMPs and ICM will be developed and published in a joint effort of the SWCD, NRCS and University Extension. A landowner survey of land users' knowledge of BMPs will be taken at the start of the project and again at the end to measure results of the educational efforts. Success stories from the use of BMPs and ICM will be compiled and published to share with operators in the project area. A newsletter will be published by the District twice per year during the life of the project and will be mailed to all the landowners and operators in the project area. Additionally, news articles relating to workshops, field days, and project information will be published in the local papers to publicize the project.
Project Period: October 1, 1997--September 30, 2002
PROJECT SPONSOR
Carroll County SWCD
COOPERATING AGENCIES
EPA/DNR
CONTACT
Carroll County SWCD
Route 1, Box 211C
Carrollton, MO 64633
Pat Davis 660-542-3361
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