Hoosier boaters provide $1.1 million
to protect water quality, reduce soil erosion
The state is awarding 30 grants that will improve lakes and rivers in 33
counties and the money is being provided by Hoosier boaters.
The grants, which supplement local budgets for local projects, will help
fund lake and watershed diagnostic studies, lake and watershed management
plans, post-construction monitoring, engineering feasibility studies, design
and construction, and land treatment projects.
The grant monies come from annual fees for boat registration. Five dollars
from each registration is reserved for the DNR grant program. The grants are
approved by the State Soil Conservation Board and administered by the DNR
Division of Soil Conservation.
“This is a great example of Hoosiers working together to improve our
environment,” said Larry D. Macklin, director of the DNR. "These projects
are funded by boaters and they will certainly be beneficiaries of the
enhancements.
“But the projects do more. They will restore not only natural beauty but
also ecosystems,” he said. “They’ll result in more varieties of fish –
better fishing, boating, and other recreation. In the end, all Hoosiers
benefit.”
The grants continue a 13-year program that provides technical and financial
assistance to local units of government and organizations. The projects
address soil erosion- and nutrient-related problems affecting public-access
lakes and streams.
The counties with projects receiving grants are: Allen, Brown, Cass,
Clinton, Decatur, Fulton, Greene, Howard, Jackson, Jasper, Jefferson,
Jennings, Kosciusko, LaGrange, Lawrence, Marshall, Miami, Monroe,
Montgomery, Newton, Noble, Orange, Parke, Posey, Pulaski, Randolph, Ripley,
Scott, Steuben, Sullivan, Wayne, White and Whitley.
(Complete list of grants follows.)
The projects improve water quality through the installation of grass cover,
filter strips and projects such as wetlands, to reduce sedimentation and
nutrient runoff. The grants will also fund studies to document water-related
problems and solutions.
The 2001 grants bring to 230 the number of projects that have received state
boating-funded monies since 1988. Those projects have enhanced 133 rivers,
lakes and streams and 65 watersheds in 51 counties.
“This time of year it is important to remember that the projects funded by
these grants will also add to Indiana’s attractiveness to thousands of
visitors from out of state,” Macklin said. “Further, these grants will
expand work already completed and further protect Indiana’s lakes and rivers
for years to come.”
The grant recipients, grouped by type of project, are:
Lake diagnostic studies
Steuben County (Lake Gage and Lime Lake): $13,500 to help the Lake Gage and
Lime Lake Association investigate turbidity levels and Eurasian watermilfoil
colonization of the two lakes.
Post-construction monitoring
Kosciusko County (Lake Tippecanoe): $48,000 to the Tippecanoe Environmental
Lake and Watershed Foundation to conduct performance appraisals for four
grant-funded pollutant control projects, including the Kuhn Ditch sediment
trap/wetland, Henwood Creek stabilization structures, Indian Creek
nutrient/stormwater control basins, and Hanna B. Walker Drain sediment trap.
Watershed diagnostic studies
Cass, Fulton, Pulaski, and White counties (Indian Creek): $42,000 to the
soil and water conservation district to identify environmentally sensitive
areas and determine conservation needs of the 71,211-acre watershed.
Jackson County (White Creek): $33,300 to the soil and water conservation
district to evaluate the 28,500-acre downstream portion of White Creek
watershed.
Jasper and Newton counties (Curtis Creek): $36,000 to the soil and water
conservation district to develop a database of watershed characteristics and
priorities for future watershed land treatment actions.
Engineering feasibility studies
Kosciusko County (Little Barbee Lake): $16,200 to the Barbee Lakes Property
Owners Association to investigate the feasibility of a wetland restoration
adjacent to Putney Ditch.
Kosciusko County (Webster Lake): $5,400 to the Webster Lake Conservation
Association, Inc., to explore the feasibility of retrofitting eleven storm
water drains in the town of North Webster with some type of pollutant
removal filters and to prepare design specifications and plans for the
structures.
Kosciusko County (Webster/Backwaters Lake and Tippecanoe River): $21,600 to
Webster Lake Conservation Association, Inc., to determine the feasibility of
constructing a storm water filter or wetland area at the northwest corner of
Webster Lake.
Marshall County (Myers Lake): $15,000 to the Myers Lake Property Owners
Association to explore the engineering feasibility of pollutant management
from sites in the 858-acre Myers/Lawrence Lake watershed.
Design studies
Kosciusko County (Lake Wawasee): $54,000 to the Wawasee Area Conservancy
Foundation to carry out design work for an enhanced wetland along Dillon
Creek, a sediment trap in the Bayshore Channel, check dams along Dillon
Creek, and check dams along Martin Ditch.
Design/construction projects
Brown and Monroe counties (Lake Lemon): $59,488 to the Lake Lemon
Conservancy District to continue ongoing design/construction work related to
shoreline erosion control.
Kosciusko County (Lake Tippecanoe): $63,750 to the Tippecanoe Environmental
Lake and Watershed Foundation to transform a highly erodible 10-acre crop
field into an approximately five-acre wetland on Smith Drain with five areas
of adjacent grassed prairie buffer.
Aquatic vegetation management plans
Kosciusko County (Webster Lake Chain): $27,495 to Aquatic Control, Inc., to
develop a GIS-based comprehensive aquatic vegetation management plan that
would be applied to the seven lakes within the 50-square mile watershed
terminating at the Webster Lake dam.
Continuing watershed land treatment projects (by county):
Allen – St. Joseph and Maumee Rivers – $65,000
Cass, Miami – Twelve Mile Creek – $50,000
Clinton – Wildcat Creek – $38,000
Decatur, Jennings, Ripley – North Fork of Vernon Fork of the Muscatatuck
River – $50,000
Howard – Kokomo Creek – $30,000
LaGrange, Noble – Witmer Lake – $15,000
LaGrange, Steuben – Big and Little Turkey Lakes – $70,000
Montgomery, Parke – Lake Waveland – $30,000
Noble, Whitley – Goose and Loon Lakes – $40,000
Randolph, Wayne – Middle Fork of East Fork of Whitewater River –
$30,000
Sullivan – Middle Fork of Busseron Creek – $30,000
New watershed land treatment projects
Greene, Lawrence, Monroe counties (Indian Creek): $20,000 to the soil and
water conservation districts to implement conservation practices including
fencing livestock out of the stream and providing alternative water sources,
installing grassed waterway and grade stabilization structures, stabilizing
stream banks, pasture and hayland planting, and rotational grazing to
prevent nutrient loading.
Jefferson and Scott counties (Quick Creek): $20,000 to the soil and water
conservation district to apply conservation practices to the 6,707-acre
watershed flowing into Hardy Lake.
Jennings and Ripley counties (Brush Creek Reservoir): $18,000 to the soil
and water conservation districts to control erosion and introduction of
nutrients into the reservoir from the 9,315-acre watershed.
Orange County (Lost River Karst Region): $25,000 to the Orange, Washington,
and Lawrence work team to stabilize sinkholes, reduce massive sediment loads
through management of residue and nutrient/pests, and establishment of cover
crops and filter strips.
Posey County (McFadden Creek): $30,000 to the soil and water conservation
district to work with adjacent landowners to install buffers and filter
strips to prevent gully erosion.
More information about the DNR Division of Soil Conservation is available
at:
http://www.IN.gov/dnr/soilcons/index.htm
Media contacts:
Deborah Messenger, 317-233-3872
or Jim Ray, 317-233-3871
================================================
PLEASE DO NOT REPLY TO THIS MESSAGE
Wild Bulletin provides information about Indiana’s natural resources and
recreation. To subscribe to Wild Bulletin go to:
http://www.IN.gov/dnr/fishwild/listsrv.htm
Visit the DNR Division of Fish and Wildlife website at:
If you ever want to remove yourself from this mailing list, you can send
mail to majordomo@ai.org with the following command in the body of your
email message:
unsubscribe wildbulletin
or from another email account:
unsubscribe wildbulletin