Great Lakes Sediment and
Nutrient Reduction Program
Grantee Success Stories
Northland College
Northland College’s Mary Griggs Burke Center for Freshwater Innovation continues work on its Sediment Reduction Project on North Fish Creek to reduce pollution from the largest source of sediment flowing into Lake Superior’s Chequamegon Bay. Learn more about their multiphase streambank stabilization project by visiting the Burke Center website and check out a video chronicling the project linked here.
Blanchard River Watershed Partnership
The Blanchard River Watershed Partnership (BRWP) has finished a project to convert seven acres of frequently flooded cropland, located on the banks of the Blanchard River, into a restored floodplain. The project will provide wildlife habitat with Ohio native plants, create additional space for flood storage, capture sediments and nutrients from nonpoint source runoff, and will be used as a living laboratory to conduct education and outreach events.
Sixth graders at Donnell Middle School became involved as professors at the University of Findlay planned a series of soil and water education days. Students learned about soil and water erosion, watersheds, HABs, native plants, conservation practices, and visited one of BRWP’s rain gardens on the University of Findlay campus. Students were then tasked with evaluating the BRWP’s project site to come up with potential designs and features which were shared with engineers and the Nature Conservancy, who served as a partner on this project. The students’ ideas were considered when selecting the native plants and sign design for the project site.
When the project was officially completed in June of 2023, the students came back to the project site and participated in a ribbon cutting ceremony and received medals. You can read more about the project in this Courier article and see photos of the students engaged in project work here.
Fulton County Soil and Water Conservation District
Fulton Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD) assists many landowners annually with the installation of various types of conservation practices. These practices are designed to improve water quality, reduce sediment loading to water bodies, and satisfy landowner objectives. Recently, the SWCD has been working with a landowner who has gone above and beyond the conservation activities normally installed on the land. Brad, a landowner located in the Brush Creek watershed, approached the SWCD concerning gully erosion and large washouts on his land draining into Brush Creek.
After some planning, surveying, and designing, the SWCD was able to assist Brad with the installation of a trapezoidal, 2,850-foot-long grassed waterway that drains 193.5 acres of cropland. Stacking additional practices, Brad installed a 25-foot by 32-foot Type D rip-rap rock pad at the end of the waterway, ensuring that the waterway had an adequate outlet. Brad then installed a 15-inch blade headwall structure on the bank of an open ditch to eliminate a large washout occurring at the edge of the crop field. To improve water quality, Brad also seeded a grass filter strip along Brush Creek to eliminate sediment loading to the creek.
Stacking these four practices together serve as an excellent example of the SWCD efforts to reduce phosphorous, sediment, and nitrogen levels in the Western Lake Erie Basin. As a result of the partnership between the GLSNRP and the Fulton SWCD, opportunities remain available for landowners like Brad to install essential practices to improve our environment at a low cost.
Fox-Wolf Watershed Alliance
Fox-Wolf Watershed Alliance’s GLSNRP grant initiated a new opportunity for farmers to come together for watershed-wide impact. Emily Dufeck, with the Winnebago County Land and Water Conservation Department, engaged with local farmer Jim Luedtke as part of the grant outreach process and discovered the possibility to enhance Rat River watershed soil health and water quality benefits through producer-led dialogues. A few months later the Muddy Bottom Farmers Producer-Led Group held their first meeting. The group has since been awarded a grant through Wisconsin’s Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection and their Producer-Led Watershed Protection Grant Program. Read more about the Muddy Bottom Farmers here.