What's being done to help Clear Creek?
The Clear Creek Watershed Enhancement Project has a number of conservation practices for country, farm and urban living.
Landowners in the Clear Creek watershed can improve the creek by partnering with the Clear Creek Watershed Enhancement Project.
James Martin, watershed project coordinator, can work with you to evaluate your property and identify
practices that can help both the creek and your property. Martin can also help find financial assistance
to install those practices. Landowners participating in the watershed project can generally get improved
financial assistance opportunities.
Conservation practices in the Clear Creek watershed to improve water quality include
no-till practices, livestock management, grade stabilization structures, wetlands, buffers and filters, and
nutrient management.
No-till practices in the Clear Creek watershed are a recycling process as they use last year's crop residue
to provide ground cover, protecting against soil erosion from wind and water. This type of practice controls the loss
of nutrients and pesticides that attach to soil particles.
Livestock management is a conservation practice that is working in the Clear Creek watershed.
This practice limits livestock access to stream, resulting in reduced pollutants. Along with this is rotational grazing
and fencing which keeps livetock out of the stream, allowing streambanks to heal, and reduce streambank erosion.
Grade stabilization structures reduce water flow and slow erosion by being built across a grass waterway or other
gullies.
Wetlands were once widespread across Iowa, but many were drained for agricultural uses. The Clear Creek Watershed Enhancement Project plans to use
wetlands to help filter out nutrients and sediment.
Helping to slow sediment and filter runoff before it reaches the stream in the Clear Creek watershed
are vegetative conservation buffers. In addition, buffers reduce erosion from wind, help stabilize
streambanks and provide habitat for wildlife.
Another popular conservation practice in the Clear Creek watershed is nutrient management. This type of management
helps keep excess nutrients out of surface and groundwater. The result of this management is reduced costs for landowners
because they only use the necessary amounts and types of fertilizers. Using nutrient management also creates better
water quality and is fairly easy to implement.
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What can I do to help?
Landowners can consider installing conservation practices to control the amount of sediment,
nutrients and other pollutants reaching Clear Creek.
Financial assistance is available, and the benefits extend beyond cleaner water - often conservation
practices can produce financial benefits, create recreational opportunities and provide habitat for wildlife.
IOWATER monitoring is a way that residents of Clear Creek
are working to improve the watershed. Volunteer monitors collect information
on the levels of nitrates, nitrites, dissolved oxygen, pH, chloride and phosphate in the creek and its tributaries.
Some monitors also report on the water's temperature and color, on biological life in the monitoring area, which
is often an indicator of water quality. The public then can view water monitoring results from across the state at
IOWATER.
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What is the future of Clear Creek?
Cleaner water can return to Clear Creek if landowners can maintain a high level of conservation practices in the
watershed. Landowners are installing many conservation practices that will make Clear Creek the beauty it once was.
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