Utah - Nonpoint Source Water Quality Project

Northeast of Salt Lake City is the Chalk Creek watershed which flows into the Weber River, which supplies water to Ogden, and other Wasatch Front communities. Most of the agricultural land in the watershed is in range, with just 2,000 acres of cropland. Alarmed that Chalk Creek was the major source of sediment to the Weber River, landowners, water users, and resource managers, at the instigation of the Summit Soil Conservation District, began working together in 1991 on the Chalk Creek Nonpoint Source Water Quality Project. By 1994 a coordinated watershed resource plan had been developed and a Technical Advisory Committee (comprised of local, state, and federal agencies; private individuals; and groups) had been formed. Funding totaling nearly $830,000 has come from private landowners and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Utah Department of Agriculture, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's (FWS) Partners for Wildlife program, U.S. Department of Agriculture (Stewardship Incentives Program, Agricultural Conservation Program, and Water Quality Incentives Program), Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, and U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.

By 1997 many of the 100 major landowners in the watershed, working with the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and other agencies, had begun designing resource management system (RMS) plans for their own land. Plans had been completed for 42 properties; 31 of those were being implemented. The primary goals--reducing erosion and the amount of sediment entering the water, stabilizing and restoring eroded streambanks, and improving water quality--are being met by limiting cattle access, providing alternative water supplies, and planting riparian vegetation. "The main objective is restoring the woody vegetation in the riparian area because that's what's lacking, and it's the long-term solution to streambank erosion control," according to Shane Green, NRCS Project Coordinator for Chalk Creek. Grazing is restricted, but not prohibited in these riparian zones. Green explains, "We work with farmers to manage their grazing systems to favor woody riparian vegetation. They can graze the riparian areas for short periods in the spring and early summer when grasses, sedges, and herbaceous forages are more desirable for cattle than woody vegetation. We do not graze them in the fall or winter when grasses and herbaceous forages are dormant and cured and the willows and cottonwoods are the desirable forage--the only green thing left." Nearly eight miles of Chalk Creek have been protected with almost two miles of structural work, riparian fencing, and willow planting. Many upland areas have been fenced for grazing management.

One of the first participants in the program is Jerrold Richins. Although he has a job off the farm, he raises 10 head of cows, 10 horses, and 80 head of purebred sheep on the 936 acres his grandfather settled. Richins had the first demonstration project in the Chalk Creek valley and is now Green's "best salesman." With funding help from an EPA grant, he fenced 1,000 feet on both sides of Chalk Creek and planted willows, and he has installed some cross-fencing for rotational grazing. The buffers range from 10 feet to a couple hundred feet wide. "The 319 money from the EPA made it possible," Richins says. "I put in $9,000 worth of fence, and they paid 75 percent. I did most of the planting, at least in terms of labor, but they pay you to do the work as part of your project. I benefited a lot; it needed to be done, and they shared a lot of the expense."

Richins admits, "I didn't come by that all at once. At first I didn't want to fence the stream. I thought they were restricting me, and that's the way I think a lot of people feel. Fencing is not so popular. You feel threatened, as if you're losing all your rights. But to me now, I've seen what it's done. That's the way to put that stream back in optimum condition." He adds, "I'm pretty proud of it, plus it kind of eases the mind. I worried about that, when I first started, I wondered where that bank would go to. But now I feel pretty comfortable it will stay. The more years it gets to heal, the better. I try to be prepared for a serious flood like the one we had in 1983 when Chalk Creek was all out in my fields and all over the place. I'm hoping to bring back those banks, and fix the floodplain. It also has eye appeal. Another thing I've noticed is that there are more finches--I call them canaries--where the willows came in, and there are lots of eagles here in the wintertime; they roost in the cottonwoods."

Richins has lots of visitors to his demonstration project, including an annual field day with fifth graders from a local school. When he shows them his streambank restoration, he says, "I tell them it's just exactly like a cut on your finger. I take a red marker to my hand, mark stitches, add an antiseptic and a Band-Aid. Then I tell them: 'It's just like that on the streambank--the stitches are the jetties, willows and grasses are the antiseptic, and the fence is the Band-Aid to protect it while it heals."

Mike Jones is another Chalk Creek farmer. "I've lived here all my life, and I've seen them try a lot of things. I've seen them tying old trees and old cars with cables to try to hold the banks. In the 1960s and '70s, they put old cars in. In the early '80s there were floods that washed out everything. Then the Corps decided to dredge the river, dug it all out. That dropped the river, but all it did was to speed up the river and let it wash out even more."

Now, the river is fenced and cattle access limited. "Where the creek gets high every spring and cuts into the bank and washes away the farmland, we put rock barbs along the bank every 30 or 40 feet. The cement plant where Jerrold Richins works gave me the big rocks they didn't want to put through their crusher. We put pine trees on their side (we get unsold trees from Christmas tree farmers the day after Christmas), drill through the side of the trunk, and anchor them in the bank with galvanized wire. The trees catch a lot of dirt that washes down the river, so we're taking soil back from the river." Behind and in the pine trees, Jones adds, "we plant willows; we cut them down to a stick, soak them in water for a few days, and then stick them in the ground--and they grow like crazy." Jones has had help from FWS, "and Shane [Green] has given me guidance and help, but my family and I have done all the work." The stream looks a lot better and hasn't been washing the banks in at all, Jones says. "The project improved it 100 percent. I wanted to do something like this for a long time."

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