1. The Missouri Watershed Initiative Building Science into Watershed Management Decisions University of Missouri Extension Watershed Science and Stewardship Center

2. Do We Start With the Science? u Identify local concerns and issues u Locate documentation to support or reject concerns and issues u Identify local and state resource people to provide assistance and education u Provide ample opportunity for local watershed community to have input

3. Identifying Watershed Issues - Process * Community representation * Issues reflect local concerns * Objective assessment – data collection, base line data * Peer-reviewed research - professional, WIAC * Local communities assisted with interpretation and implementation of findings * Process is monitored and evaluated Assessment Action Planning Plan DevelopmentPlan Implementation

4. State-level water quality issues u Ranking by WIAC 1) management practices to minimize off-site movement of nutrients and chemicals; 2) design of manure waste handling and land application systems to reduce losses to the environment; 3) nutrient, chemical and sediment loading in groundwater, streams and lakes; 4) ecological impacts of nutrient, chemical and sediment contamination in streams and lakes; 5) identify and quantify social benefits and costs of alternative strategies regarding the issue of water quality; 6) watershed-based documentation and representation of social, economic and environmental data for watershed planning and policy analysis.

6. Locally Identified Watershed Concerns u Seasonally stratified lake u Generally high levels of turbidity, nutrients, manganese and iron; vary by season. u Pesticides concerns: atrazine, alachlor, cyanazine, metoachlor, metribuzin, simazine, treflan. u Sedimentation u Fecal coliform u Taste and odor

7. Assessment Process u To characterize the physical, biological, social and economic dimensions of the watershed and its residents/stakeholders. u Evaluated known information and data and gathered other needed data and information to provide a complete description of the watershed. - Water resources- Plant resources - Soil resources- Air resources - Animal resources- Human resources

8. Assessment Process u Conducted 11 assessment projects: - Water biology - Fish species - Macro-invertebrates - Geology - Tourism - e. coli sources - Sediment sources - Groundwater - Economics baseline - Environmental baseline - Farm and farmer characteristics

9. Watershed Characteristics - Farms u Crop producers - 59% grow commercial crops u Livestock producers - 72% have cattle mean = 75 (6-300 head) u Crop rotations: - Continuous soybeans - Com-Soybeans - Com-Soybeans-Wheat Practices: - Cropping - 43% - no-till; 48% minimum-till - Information - from bag or container labels, custom applicator or dealer

10. Watershed Characteristics - Farmers u Age - low 50's (27-72) u Education - 1/3 college degree- u 2/3 high school diploma u Employment u - 45% - had a non-farm job - 42% - farm income provided 20% or less of total household income - 38% - all farm income from family

11. Watershed Characteristics - Septic Systems u 58% - Septic tank w/ open pipe to pasture, road, ditch or creek - 60% had never serviced their tank - 20% serviced tank every 5-1 0 years - 20% serviced tank every few years or even more frequently u 16% - Sewage lagoon without a septic tank u 10% - Septic tank with soil absorption fields

12. Sediment, Invertebrates, Fish Sediments - sediment entering the lake is deposited in the upper arms with little material reaching the southern end. - A cursory geological assessment found that the predominate source of sediment in the reservoir comes from shoreline erosion. Benthic invertebrates - Total number of taxa, species diversity, biotic index. Values indicated Long Branch Creek was in a "fair" condition compared to other similar streams in the Prairie Region. Fish - Fish species collected in Long Branch Creek were tolerant of highly variable conditions - low dissolved oxygen, high temperature and high turbidity and sediment loads.

13. Long Branch Watershed Sub-basins Sub-basin Acres 1 9,809 2 3,481 3 6,532 4 9,662 5 15,286 6 10,567 7 10,954 Total 66,291

14. Land Use, by Sub-basin - baseline

15. Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP) Analysis u Designed to reduce nutrients, pesticides, and sediment in drinking water reservoirs u Replace rowcrops with grass u More than 3,300 acres enrolled –Approximately 5% of the watershed –17% of cropland acres –Concentrated in northern end of watershed u Revise SWAT to reflect change –Assign CREP acres to sub-basins u Predict environmental benefits of CREP

16. CREP Land Use Changes

17. Annual Sediment Yield, by Sub-basin

18. Annual Average Sediment Loss

19. Annual Atrazine Loss, by Sub-basin

20. Annual Average Atrazine Loss

21. Watershed - Economic Baseline 1999-2009 u Population is projected to increase - 1.6 % annually in Macon County and 1.1% annually in Adair County. u Jobs are projected to increase at a rate of 1.3% per year, for a total of 3,100 jobs - only 50 of these jobs are expected to be in the Long Branch Watershed. u Per capita income (before inflation) is projected to increase at a rate of 1.5% annually. u County revenues and demand for expenditures are expected to grow, but the demand is projected to increase faster than revenues, creating a challenge in the delivery of public services. u Tourism, primarily related to Long Branch Lake, generates an estimated $4 million annually.

22. Economic effects of Implementing CREP Into the Watershed u Year 1 - Add 5.5 jobs and TPI of $106K u Year 2 - Total payments decrease as CREP incentive payments go from 75% to 25% - this results in a loss of 1.9 jobs and reduction of $38K in TPI u Year 3 – Only the annual CRP payment is made – the result is a loss of 1 job and $18K in TPI u 15-year total - $3.4 million in incentives and payments put into the hands of a few producers

23. Economic effects of reduced crop production – Loss of 25.7 jobs total (.1% of total employment) – Reduced personal income of $248,000 This loss of jobs associated with agriculture production may be cancelled out by an increase in jobs associated with more tourism based on cleaner lake environment

24. E. coli source tracking u Bacterial pollution associated with human or animal feces may contain pathogenic microbes which can cause human disease. u Fecal E. coli are non-pathogenic “indicators” of the possible presence of disease-producing organisms from human or animal feces. u Each strain of fecal E. coli has a “personal” DNA pattern/signature

26. Long Branch Watershed Characteristics Fecal coliform u Fecal coliform – At 2 of 6 sites sampled, E. coli were beyond the state level of 200 pp/100 ml. Total countSource identified 2800Human, horse, cow 2000Cow, human, horse, sewage 4500Cattle, goose, human, sewage 920Sewage 138Sewage, human 200Cattle, horse, human 890Sewage, human, chicken

27. How this has worked….. u Watershed community asked to respond to a TMDL for bacteria u DNR tells them to write plans to address horse and cattle concerns in the watershed u DNA source tracking identifies human sewage as a significant component u Watershed residents ask DNR to look at what the science has identified as contributors to problem u Watershed plan written addressing not only cattle and horse issues but also on-site sewage and human waste.

28. What is underway? u Based on lake erosion assessment, the city, Corps of Engineers and Mo. Department of Conservation are examining feasibility plan for bank stabilization and water outlet control structure, establishing riparian vegetation, and wetland development at points where creeks empty into lake.

29. What is underway? AgNPS SALT Project u Funding to implement BMPs to address nutrient, pesticide and soil run-off. * $750,000 * 7 years * Macon and Adair County SWCDs * Cost-sharing funds for conservation practices - $457,500 * Educational programming funds – $21,300 * Equipment - $22,500

30. Science in the public interest u Action planning process 1. Water Management - Promote long-term public awareness and participation. 2. Environmental & Economic Impacts from Agricultural Practices - Encourage responsible land use that promotes environmental and economic viability through educational endeavor that improve water quality 3. Water Quality - Monitoring and modeling of water quality to determine changes 4. Water Conservation & Management – Incorporate BMPs that reduce pesticide and nutrient loading, bacteria loading and erosion runoff.

31. Conclusions u Provide science based information to watershed citizens so they have the knowledge to make decisions that will have long term effects on improving water quality and their local communities. u This must incorporate the economic and environmental aspects of the community and must incorporate local citizens that are willing to work towards improving their watershed communities.

32. Thank you! Bob Broz and Bill Kurtz University of Missouri Columbia, MO 65211 (573) 882-0085 KurtzW@missouri.edu brozr@missouri.edu