By MICHELE F. MIHALJEVICH
Indiana Correspondent

FORT WAYNE, Ind. — A project under way on the Middle St. Joseph River watershed is geared to improve water for drinking, recreation and habitats, officials said.

“We don’t want a river that detracts from local economies,” said Sharon Hall, program manager for the St. Joseph River Watershed Initiative (SJRWI). “We want the public’s perception of the river to be good. The river does provide water for Fort Wayne, but it also provides for recreation and wildlife. There are plenty of unique features that are worth preserving.”

A grant administered by the Indiana Department of Environmental Management will allow the SJRWI to develop a management plan for the Middle St. Joseph River watershed. Having such a plan will help officials understand the needs of the area and implement projects designed to fix any problems, Hall noted.
The Middle St. Joseph River watershed is a sub-watershed of the St. Joseph River watershed, which covers about 700,000 acres in Indiana, Michigan and Ohio. The sub-watershed includes more than 85,000 acres in parts of DeKalb County, Ind., and Defiance and Williams counties in Ohio.

It will take SJRWI officials about 2.5 years to research and develop a management plan, Hall explained, adding everything related to water quality will be researched.

“We’ll be testing water quality, we’ll be looking at land use,” she said. “If we find any problems, we’ll try to determine the source. We’ll be looking at where certain issues are and what needs to be done there. “The primary land use in the area is agriculture with a little bit of urbanization. But we’ll be evaluating all land uses. I won’t make any assumptions right now.”

The SJRWI, formed in 1998, completed a management plan for the entire watershed in 2001 and updated it in 2006. Plans have been developed for the Cedar Creek and Lower St. Joseph-Bear Creek sub-watersheds. The goal is to eventually work through the entire greater watershed, Hall said.

Once the plan is complete, the SJRWI will apply for grants to implement cost-share programs designed to solve any problems that might be found. Such projects could include buffer strips, use of cover crops and conservation tillage or finding solutions to problems with stand pipes, said Allen Haynes, natural resource coordinator for the DeKalb County Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD).

“We’re trying to identify the resource concerns and issues and find ways to productively help them,” he explained. “The plan helps us to know what the resource concerns are. It’s about human contact and human use.”

While the area is primarily agriculture, a management plan may also address urban issues such as storm water, he added. Farmers continue to do their share as there is increasing movement toward conservation farming, he noted.
“The agriculture community is very much aware and very much steps up to the plate to do their part. The economics of agriculture mean it makes more and more sense to adopt these practices,” he explained.

A steering committee made up of stakeholders such as farmers, SWCD officials, surveyors and other local agencies will contribute to the creation of the management plan. During public meetings at the end of 2010, more than 50 people attended two sessions seeking input on the project.

“There were concerns about producers who aren’t using no-till and the runoff from there,” Hall explained. “There were overall concerns about water quality and concerns about manure application. There were also concerns over habitat fragmentation and the loss of habitat.”

While no more public meetings are scheduled, the SJRWI welcomes public input during the process.