Beaver Lake Watershed News

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1 Beaver Lake Watershed News Being Thankful for Landowner Involvement and Interest Hello Beaver Lake Watershed Resident, Landowner, or Manager, Winter 2016 This newsletter is being sent to you because our records show that you own or reside on streamside property in the Beaver Lake Watershed. If you would prefer to receive a digital copy only or have your name removed entirely from this mailing list, please notify the Beaver Watershed Alliance by calling Inside this issue: Being Thankful for Landowners War Eagle Watershed News 1 2 Wow, we are making some progress toward maintaining and improving the water quality of Beaver Lake and its watershed! This progress is largely due to your interest in taking care of natural resources and your participation in learning more and establishing best management practices on your property. To you, the Beaver Watershed Alliance gives thanks. If you are just a casual reader of this newsletter up to this point, and have not yet checked in about how we might be able to work together, I hope that you will continue to read and will check in with us at some point. Chances are that you have some forest, pasture, streamside, lakeside, lawn and garden, landscape, construction site, wildlife or other management goals or needs where best management tips can not only save you some money, but also produce healthy wildlife, and clean water. We ll be here when you are ready to check in, and hope you keep reading along until that time comes! Beaver Lake Watershed Volunteer Spotlight Connecting with War Eagle Landowners 3 Streamside Landowner Workshop Set for March 5 th 3 Land Conservation: What Are Your Options? Beyond Traditional Development 4 4 The Greenland High School EAST Program monitors a stream restoration sight on the West Fork White River The Northwest Arkansas Master Naturalists assist in preparing our newsletter to be mailed out to you. They are a helpful bunch! Work Planned in West Fork & Lakeside Watersheds 5 Lakeside Opportunity Assessment Wraps Up Upcoming Events And Streamside Assessments 5 6 Special thanks to sponsors and partners: Mt Olive Water Association Community By Design and the Ecological Design Group volunteered to share their knowledge of low impact development and walkable communities to municipal decision makers and watershed landowners in Huntsville at a Watershed Lunch N Learn. Page 1

2 War Eagle Creek Watershed News Dear War Eagle Creek Watershed resident, landowner, or land manager, Winter is upon us! It seems to happen every year: by the time I get used to the summer heat, fall comes along with pleasant weather...then suddenly it s winter! Behind those harsh, freezing temperatures is actually a season great for fishing, hunting, and exploring what nature has to offer. Winter is also a good time to plan ahead for spring and summer. We will still be providing free tree and shrub seedlings to landowners in the War Eagle Creek Watershed. If you are interested in planting a new riparian buffer or enhancing an existing one, schedule a free site assessment with us! I would love to visit with you on your property about which trees might work best where you would like to plant. Increasing the width of your riparian buffer can significantly decrease your chances of experiencing streambank erosion and loss of land later on. Removing vegetation from riparian areas is a leading cause for increased streambank erosion. Sometimes these issues can get exponentially worse over time, and we have seen cases where Our Watershed Lunch N Learn series has been very informative for landowners, residents, and officials from Huntsville and Madison County. landowners have lost acres of good bottomlands over the course of a few years. In other news, the Watershed Lunch N Learn series was a big success! We had several members of the community in and around Huntsville attend these meetings and learn about topics such as floodplain management, low impact development, and stormwater management on construction sites. We will be hosting more workshops in the coming year, so keep up with our newsletter to find out more about those events. We have continued to work with the Huntsville High School EAST Program on a water quality monitoring project in Holman Creek and Town Branch in Huntsville. These students have done a great job collecting and analyzing samples over the last year, and we look forward to continuing our work with them! Please don t hesitate to contact me if you are interested in learning more about best management practices you can implement on your property to help improve land and water quality, such as increasing your riparian buffer with our free trees and shrubs! I look forward to hearing from you! Bryant Baker Program Coordinator bryant@beaverwatershedalliance.org Cell: , Office: The Huntsville High School EAST Program continues to monitor water quality in Holman Creek and Town Branch in Huntsville. Page 2

3 Connecting with War Eagle Landowners It has been a little over a year since we started working on the War Eagle Creek Riparian Management Education and Demonstration Project. In that time we have connected with over 100 different landowners in the War Eagle Creek Watershed! From War Eagle to Witter, we have met landowners through countless focus group meetings, community events, educational programs, site visits, and volunteer events. These 100 landowners collectively own approximately 10% of the land in the War Eagle Creek Watershed! Even more exciting is that over 50 landowners have invited us onto their property for a site visit, half of which resulted in BWA assisting in the implementation of a new best management practice such as planting trees along streams. We are so glad to get to work in such a beautiful area as the War Eagle Creek Watershed. The people who live or manage land in this watershed have been very welcoming and eager to learn about important land and water quality issues. This project will continue until September 2016, so if you live in the War Eagle Creek Watershed and haven t checked in with us to see how we might be able to help you achieve your land management goals, give us a call at or We would love to hear from you! Streamside Landowner Workshop Set for March 5 th Our annual Streamside Landowner Workshop is set for Saturday, March 5 th at Carroll Electric in Huntsville. This has been a great workshop the past two years, with topics such as stream work permitting, stream restoration, streambank stabilization, riparian buffers, and how to plant trees in riparian areas covered. This year will be no different! We plan to have guest speakers from the Natural Resources Conservation Service, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Watershed Conservation Resource Center, and U of A Cooperative Extension Service present on the topics most relevant to your goals and concerns as a streamside landowner. The exact times of the workshop have not been set, but it generally lasts from 9 am until lunch (which is provided) followed by a hands-on demonstration of streamside planting in the early afternoon. Please contact Bryant baker at or bryant@beaverwatershedalliance.org if you would like to go ahead and RSVP. Page 3

4 Land Conservation: What Are Your Options? Interested in conserving your land even after you are no longer around to manage it? Would you like to know that your land will always be a farm or forest and be properly managed by capable hands to best steward land and water quality? In this area either the Northwest Arkansas Land Trust (NWALT), Natural Resource Conservation Service, Nature Conservancy, Arkansas Natural Heritage Commission, or Ozark Regional Land Trust can potentially help you with your conservation goals. If you would like to ensure that your land is properly managed and conserved after you are no longer around, consider donating, selling, or bequeathing it to a land trust. A local option for donating or selling your land, entering into a conservation easement, or bequeathing land to a group who will manage and conserve it permanently is NWALT. The mission of NWALT is to protect and enhance the quality of life in Northwest Arkansas through the permanent protection of land. It is the only local and accredited land trust in the state of Arkansas. The primary service area of NWALT includes Benton, Washington, Madison, and Carroll Counties (including the Beaver Lake Watershed). If you are interested in finding out more about conserving your land with the Northwest Arkansas Land Trust, contact them at or info@nwalandtrust.org. Beyond Traditional and Into Conservation Development Development of urban areas is an important topic here in exponentially-growing Northwest Arkansas. Over the years we have learned about the implications of urban development for stormwater runoff, pollution, water quality, and wildlife habitat. Key points include: 1) more impervious surfaces (concrete, asphalt, roofs, etc.) increase runoff and decrease groundwater infiltration, 2) sprawling urban areas can greatly diminish habitat for wildlife, and 3) there are types of development that have a much smaller impact on a watershed. Low impact development (LID), or development that utilizes techniques aimed at not altering how much water flows away has become increasingly utilized around the country. This includes using detention basins, rain gardens, bioswales, and pervious 25% shallow Natural Ground Cover 40% evapotranspiration 30% evapotranspiration 10% runoff 55% runoff 25% deep 10% shallow 75%-100% Impervious Surface pavement to reduce runoff and increase groundwater infiltration. Another type of development that often includes LID techniques is high density development. It sounds counterintuitive, but high density development actually minimizes the impact that new structures and surfaces have on water quality by placing more housing units on less space. For instance, a subdivision with one house per acre takes up more land, all of which is impacted by roofs, driveways, sidewalks, and roads. A subdivision with eight houses per acre, however, uses less space and reduces the environmental impact per housing unit. High density development, when done correctly, can help keep the city out of the country and money in the pockets of developers and home buyers! This is vital to the long -term stability and health of our watershed. If the urban area can stay smaller and more concentrated, that leaves more land for forests and pastures, which can positively impact and conserve water quality for future generations. 5% deep When an area becomes urbanized, there are substantial increases in runoff and decreases in groundwater infiltration due to the amount of new impervious surfaces. Page 4

5 Work Planned in West Fork and Lakeside Watersheds A 4.3 million dollar request to the Natural Resources Conservation Service for the West Fork White River Watershed Restoration Initiative has been submitted, and we should be hearing back soon whether or not we will have 4.3 million more dollars to assist landowners with stabilizing streambanks and establishing pasture and forest best management practices. The request, being headed up by the Watershed Conservation Resource Center and BWA, is part of an extensive team of partners offering 4.3 million matching dollars for a total of 8.6 million on the project. The West Fork of the White River is a high priority tributary to Beaver Lake as is the Lakeside Area, so a fairly intensive follow-up after our opportunity assessments is in order. While the Lakeside and West Fork Watersheds are high priority areas where a lot of resources will be devoted over the next year, the rest of the Beaver Lake Watershed is also important, and BWA will be providing staff to assist landowners in the Richland Creek Watershed and the East and Middle Forks of the White River Watersheds. Please contact us at or by ing info@beaverwatershedalliance.org to find out more! Lakeside Opportunity Assessment Wraps Up The Lakeside Watershed Opportunity Assessment recently ended. Over 2,316 individuals including hundreds of landowners around Beaver Lake and along the Lower White River participated by attending community input meetings, inviting BWA to visit their properties, implementing best management practices (BMPs), or attending an educational program or volunteer event. Almost 200 BMPs were implemented on nearly 100 properties and included controlled grazing, dirt road maintenance, development of a forest management plan, removal of an illegal dump site, removal of invasive plants, implementation of a no mow zones next to creeks, outlet scour protection, selfassessment of property, rain garden installation, reforestation, riparian buffer creation or enhancement, septic system maintenance, and soil testing for fertilizer recommendations. Because of this project, we were able to identify several landowners who are interested in implementing larger-scale stream restoration or other projects. This helps us focus our efforts during future grants to best serve those who need resources and want to improve land and water quality in the Beaver Lake Watershed. Just because the project is over doesn t mean we will stop working in this area, however! For those of you who live in the Lakeside and Lower White areas, you can still qualify for free tree and shrub seedlings to improve or create riparian buffers or reforest your property. If you are interested in finding out more about how we can help, give us a call at or info@beaverwatershedalliance.org. Page 5

6 NONPROFIT ORG U.S. POSTAGE PAID FAYETTEVILLE, AR PERMIT # E. Emma Ave., Ste. M438 Springdale, AR Inside: Free trees, shrubs, and grasses are available! Program Time Date Location Rain Garden Maintenance 3:00 pm 12/21/15 Madison Co. Water Facilities Board, Huntsville Rain Garden Maintenance TBD 12/22/15 Madison Co. Recycling near St. Paul Adopt-A-Highway Cleanup TBD 01/27/16 Valero Station (17410 E. Hwy 412, Springdale) Forest Management Workshop TBD 01/30/16 Hobbs State Park Richland Creek Cleanup 9:00 am - 1:00 pm 02/27/16 Goshen Community Bldg. (244 Clark St, Goshen) Streamside Landowner Workshop 9:00 am - TBD 03/05/16 Carroll Electric, Huntsville Riparian Planting Event 9:00 am 03/12/16 Various locations War Eagle Creek Cleanup 9:00 am - 1:00 pm 03/19/16 Withrow Springs State Park RSVP is requested and encouraged. Some programs have a small maximum capacity, others may need to be changed due to weather, and some still have times to be determined. Checking in with us before a program will ensure that you do not show up for an event that has been moved or rescheduled. Please call us at or send an to info@beaverwatershedalliance.org to RSVP or request more information. Page 6 Beaver Lake Watershed Meetings & Volunteer Opportunities Free Landowner Property Visits If you are a landowner that is currently interested in finding out more about how you can help maintain and improve the water quality of Beaver Lake and the health of its watershed while also saving some money or improving wildlife habitat and other natural resource values on your property, then call or info@beaverwatershedalliance.org today to arrange a FREE appointment. We will be more than happy to meet with you at your convenience about your particular concerns, goals or interests. We look forward to hearing from you!