A Greene County resident is in his second year as chair of the Beaver Creek Watershed Management Authority. 

Chuck Wenthold says the organization stretches from Boone and Greene counties to Camp Dodge in the Des Moines area. Individuals from the different counties, cities and soil and water conservation districts along the creek are members. Wenthold tells Raccoon Valley Radio the different conservation practices the BCWMA encourages landowners to do.

“Things that we’re looking at is encouraging soil health, that ties into the cover crop process, (and) trying to get more farmers to do the cover crops. Edge of field practices, including saturated buffers, also bioreactors (which are) basically they are a large containment, run the water – like tile water – through wood chips to help pull nitrites out and things like that, before it goes into the creek. (We are also) Looking at oxbow restorations and also some wetland restorations.” 

Wenthold notes following an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Farmer to Farmer Grant of $490,000, they also hired a coordinator, Laura James, who is a recent Iowa State University graduate.

“She really impressed us through the interview process. She’s based out of the NRCS (Natural Resources Conservation Service) office in Boone. She’s getting started with things and meeting with the different entities that are part of the watershed and working with farmers, over the course of the next year, to implement some of these practices.”

Wenthold adds the watershed management authority’s two big priorities are improving water quality and flood prevention.