Kentucky - Environmental Education, Water Quality

Along the north fork of Elkhorn Creek in Scott County, a riparian buffer strip doubles as a 1.5 mile environmental trail running between Western Elementary School and the county's Great Crossings Park. The trail, part of it paved for handicapped accessibility, is on a 99-year easement from the late James Taylor. Using some of the $30,000 in water quality funds made available annually through the county's Fiscal Court, cost-share assistance was provided for a mile or so of fence to keep the cattle out of the Elkhorn Creek riparian zone and to provide alternative water systems for the cattle.

The environmental trail has involved a host of individuals, groups, and agencies. The Scott County Conservation District and the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) provided technical assistance and design. The conservation district engaged a master stone mason from Scotland to restore a historical spring built by one of the county's first settlers. The Fish and Wildlife Service provided a grant for high school students, many of them members of the district's Junior Board, to make and put up wood duck boxes. The students also built and installed bluebird nest boxes. The Kentucky Division of Conservation provided funds for signs and other educational material along the creek and trail, and the Department of Forestry helped identify trees for identification signs. The Junior Board also established an amphitheater. The handicapped accessible sections of the trail were funded in part by the Kentucky Highway Department, with a grant through the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act (ISTEA).

NRCS District Conservationist Bill Bailey says a trail committee is putting in wildflower plantings and continues its environmental education efforts and a campaign to inform people about Elkhorn Creek and the trail. He hopes to see an environmental education building added. Bailey believes Scott County is highly unusual--if not unique--in providing public funds for such water quality projects. In fact, Bailey says, much of his work in the county is carried out through the annual funding provided by the Fiscal Court. The program has been expanded from livestock exclusion and alternative water sources to include support for research, funding for water quality monitoring, and similar projects.

Cathy Taylor, who manages the land adjacent to the easement, says, "For me, it's worked very well. For anyone who's a property owner--when anyone even suggests coming through your property--you want to run and hide, but that's not been the case at all here. We knew the people involved and there was something in it for us, too--county funds plus state and Federal funds. That solved a practical problem for us--it probably would have cost us a lot to fence it ourselves." Taylor, who earned a degree in landscape architecture, thought "this was a wonderful idea because it works for everybody. It's a really important thing for the creek. It's interesting and important to me to take a long-term view. We got too far away from the benefits of natural process; we're so busy controlling the environment that we forget that an awful lot will happen on its own."

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