For this two-year project, HEI will provide project management—including various team and stakeholder meetings—and present the planning project to city and local business leaders.
Middle Cedar Watershed Planning – 2017 Conservation Collaboration Grant
Background
The zone of low oxygen within the Gulf of Mexico has led to the need for strategies to reduce the amount of nutrients, like nitrogen and phosphorus, carried by surface water runoff throughout upstream river basins. Many states, including Iowa, have developed strategies to reduce the amount of nutrients from reaching the Gulf. The Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, and Iowa State University published the Iowa Nutrient Reduction Strategy (INRS) in November 2012. The INRS establishes load reduction goals of 41% and 29% in annual instream load reductions for nitrate-nitrogen and total phosphorus, respectively. The Iowa Agriculture Water Alliance (IAWA) works with farmers and convenes partners to drive adoption of conservation practices and other innovations to improve water quality. The IAWA received a NRCS Conservation Collaboration Grant (CCG) focused on increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of watershed planning to help achieve INRS goals quickly. The IAWA retained HEI to provide professional consulting services for the CCG.
The Project
HEI’s work focused on several specific areas:
- Developing a concept for how watershed planning and identifying locations for conservation practice implementation can occur more effectively, while remaining consistent with the EPA’s 9-element watershed planning process
- Developing the Integrated Agricultural Conservation Planning Framework–Prioritize, Target, and Measure Application (IAPA) to provide better information to improve watershed planning and targeted practice implementation
- Completing a retrospective analysis of the Lime Creek Watershed Plan, illustrating how the IAPA information products can be used and their value
- Developing Targeted Conservation Recommendations using an approach based on practice cost effectiveness and the ability to achieve INRS goals for the Middle Cedar Watershed
The work completed by HEI is serving as a blueprint that can be replicated in other watersheds across Iowa and the region.
- More rapid development of future watershed plans by developing Targeted Conservation Recommendations.
- More clarity than ever before for prioritizing and targeting projects and their cost-effectiveness.
- Effective information for expediting stakeholder engagement and facilitation.
- Cost-effective and efficient practices that achieve state water quality goals.
Project Details
Client: Iowa Agricultural Water Alliance
Location: East-Central Iowa
Project Highlights
- More rapid development of future watershed plans by developing Targeted Conservation Recommendations.
- More clarity than ever before for prioritizing and targeting projects and their cost-effectiveness.
- Effective information for expediting stakeholder engagement and facilitation.
- Cost-effective and efficient practices that achieve state water quality goals.
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