The Upper Macoupin Creek
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The Upper Macoupin Creek Watershed Partnership aims to reduce phosphorus losses from agricultural lands in the Upper Macoupin Creek watershed in Illinois. The watershed covers 137,694 acres, with 61% in agricultural use. The partnership includes various local, state, and federal organizations working to promote conservation practices. They received $1 million in funding over 5 years through the Regional Conservation Partnership Program to provide financial and technical assistance to farmers for practices like reduced tillage to lower phosphorus levels in the creek.
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The Upper Macoupin Creek
- 1. The Upper Macoupin Creek Watershed Partnership Kris Reynolds, Natural Resource Conservationist CCA, 4R NMS Certified, SSp American Farmland Trust LEADERSHIP FOR MIDWESTERN WATERSHEDS: APPLYING LESSONS LEARNED TO AFFECT LANDSCAPE-SCALE CHANGE
- 2. Saving the land that sustains us Protecting farm and ranch land Promoting sound farming practices Keeping farmers on the land
- 3. Upper Macoupin Creek Corn and Soybeans dominate the rolling topography 850 Landowners and Operators • 52% Non-Operating Landowners 137,694 acres in watershed • 61% in agriculture • 22% in forestland
- 4. Upper Macoupin Creek Watershed Partnership County Boundaries RCPP Bullard Lake Coop Branch Hurricane Creek MRBI Dry Fork Honey Creek Spanish Needle Creek
- 5. Why Macoupin Creek? 1 of 3 HUC 8 watersheds in Illinois yielding >2 lb/acre/year total Phosphorus non-point source losses History of good conservation practice participation in County Reduce the amount of Phosphorus to Macoupin Creek!
- 8. Watershed Partners American Farmland Trust Blackburn College CHS Shipman Cities of Gillespie & Carlinville Environmental Tillage Systems Illinois Corn Growers Association Illinois Department of Agriculture Illinois Environmental Protection Agency Illinois Stewardship Alliance M&M Service FS Macoupin County Farm Bureau Macoupin County Pork Producers Macoupin County SWCD USDA-NRCS
- 9. Retail Partners Environmental Tillage Systems CHS M & M Service FS
- 10. RCPP (Regional Conservation Partnership Program) Approved for $1 million in funding for financial and technical assistance in the UMC watershed $1 million in partner contributions 5 year program RCPP is a way to target cost share dollars for farmers (EQIP, CSP, ACEP/ALE) to your project. It is not a grant program and isn’t meant to cover your organization’s costs…
- 12. Saving the Land that Sustains Us www.farmland.org Saving the Land that Sustains Us
Editor's Notes
- ‘AFT is a national non profit and our mission is…
- Corn and soybeans dominate the landscape
- we chose a collection of sub watersheds that all drain to a common point Macoupin creek drains into the Illinois river and then to the Mississippi HUC 8 is approximately 600,000+ acres 3 sub watershed currently have MRBI funding 3 additional watersheds will be eligible for funding through RCPP
- AFT approached local office about the potential for working in the watershed in 2015 Steering committee comprised of 8 farmers (outside the district board) and landowners in watershed, and local partners-- Most efforts in Illinois focus on Nitrate-Nitrogen reduction watersheds. Illinois Nutrient Loss Reduction Strategy Science assessment identified Macoupin creek as… Promote best practices to reduce P losses, specifically Strip-tillage, no-till and Cover crops. Components of a Conservation Cropping system Utilize Practices identified in the ILNLRS to reach ultimate goal of 45% P reduction Macoupin County installs several structural practices annually to control Ephemeral Gully Erosion Demand for practice assistance exceeds the funding currently available.
- Combination of state and local partners AFT leads coalition of state and local partners working to reduce P pollution in the watershed—Coordinates partners and steering committees, education and outreach, measurements and evaluation Blackburn—stream monitoring and forestland improvements Municipalities—Drinking water supply lakes Local SWCD and NRCS are essential partners trusted by the local farmers and landowners It is not the number of partners, but the diversity in the partnership.
- Retailers partnering with retailers to offer custom strip-tillage equipment and services at a discounted rate for the watershed. Discount is used as RCPP contribution. “the discount is the retailers’ contribution to the RCPP project” Farmers can apply for practice incentives through CSP and EQIP for RCPP and MRBI funding to offset equipment and application cost.
- Approved in fall of 2016 with the first round of sign-ups for program in Fall of 2017 AFT had funding from other sources…– if you need funding for your own organization, don’t look to RCPP! But if you already have ed/outreach funding and you need your farmers to have access to cost share, THAT is what RCPP is for! Also note that AFT’s role as project coordinator is to figure out what’s already going on in the realm of reducing P loss, and coordinate all those activities, most of the contribution dollars was funding that other organizations were already going to be spending. Now their activities are coordinated and we’re working together to id gaps, etc. Partners coordinate efforts for field days and other outreach and education activities in the watershed.
- Monitoring sites Sub watershed comparative analysis to be completed this coming year Analysis will give us the ability to focus additional FA and TA in sub watershed
- This is the project area – the big watershed is Macoupin Creek – that’s too big for us to work in. So we chose a collection of sub watersheds that all drain to a common point