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Duck, Apple & Ashwaubenon Watershed Project
Are You Located In The Duck,
Apple and Ashwaubenon Creeks
Priority Watershed Project?
The Duck, Apple and Ashwaubenon Creeks Priority
Watershed drains 265 square miles (169,910) acres
of predominantly agricultural land in Outagamie
and Brown counties and the Oneida Nation Reservation in
east central Wisconsin. It is located within the
Lower Fox River Drainage Basin.
The Duck Creek Watershed , approximately 152 square miles
in surface area,
lies within Brown County (33 percent) and
Outagamie County (66 percent).
Duck Creek originates in
Burma Swamp, a large (approximately 2000 acre)
wetland
located in central Outagamie County. A total of 71 miles of
named and unnamed streams are located in the watershed and
all enter Green
Bay at or near the mouth of Duck Creek. Land
use in upstream portions
of the watershed is predominately
agricultural while downstream areas are
dominated by residential
and urban uses in and near metropolitan Green Bay.
The Apple
and Ashwaubenon Creeks Watershed is 113 square miles in
size;
approximately 60 percent lies within Outagamie County and 40 percent is
located in Brown County. There are 171 miles of names and unnamed
streams in the watershed, all of which empty into the Fox River. Land
use in the watershed is primarily agriculture and residential, though
industrial areas do exist in the urban areas of Green Bay and the north side
of Appleton. Many intermittent tributaries discharge to Duck, Apple
and Ashwaubenon Creeks and serve as the transport system for pollution to
the system. The creeks are generally flashy and tend to flood with
snowmelt and rain runoff; the headwaters are often dry in summer.
Aquatic life habitat and macro invertebrate communities in these headwaters
are generally fair to poor in condition. Sediment and phosphorus
loading from upland agricultural fields are the major sources of nonpoint
pollution in the watershed.
Will You Qualify For Funding?
The Duck, Apple and Ashwaubenon (DAA) Creeks
Watershed provides cost-sharing money for a variety of conservation
practices. The Watershed started in 1995 and is scheduled to run until December 31, 2009.
The purpose of the Watershed is to assess nonpoint pollutants in the
watershed and guide the implementation of control measures.
Currently the DAA Watershed Project has ample
funding for many conservation practices but this may not be the case in the
future due to possible budget cuts. Give us a call at (920) 832-5073. Our technician can help plan out your
conservation practice.
Cost Shared Conservation
Practices
"New Rate" column = County Cost Share.
Some practices subject to cost sharing maximum
Watershed History Overview
Nonpoint source (runoff) pollution cannot be easily traced to a single point
of origin such as a point source effluent discharge from a wastewater
treatment plant or industrial plant. Nonpoint source pollution occurs
when rainwater or snow melt flows across the land and picks up soil
particles, organic wastes and fertilizers that become pollutants when
carried to surface and/or groundwater. These soil particles and
organic wastes contain phosphorus and nitrogen, the same compounds found in
commercial fertilizers. Soil particles also become sediment in the
small streams, the Fox River and their receiving water, the bay of Green
Bay. Nonpoint source pollution in the Duck, Apple and Ashwaubenon
Creeks Watershed has lead to a general decrease in the quality of these
streams and their tributaries. A decrease over time in the number of
wetlands, through filling in and development, and ditching and conversion to cropland, has lead to degraded
water quality and unstable baseflows. Secondary sources of nonpoint
pollutants in the Duck, Apple and Ashwaubenon Creeks watershed originate
from streambank erosion and gully erosion resulting in sediment deposition
in the creeks.
In Outagamie County's portion of the DAA Watershed Project there is
approximately 170,000 pounds of phosphorus delivered to streams annually
from runoff erosion. The goal of the DAA Watershed is to reduce
Phosphorus delivery to streams by 50%. This will be accomplished by
installing a variety of conservation practices such as: Reduced Tillage,
Cover Crops, Nutrient Management, Manure Storage, Barnyard Runoff Control,
Milkhouse Wastewater Control, Grassed Buffer Strips, Grassed Waterways,
Sediment Detention Basins, Wetland Restoration and Intensive Grazing.
Landowners and/or farm operators receive financial and/or technical
assistance to install conservation practices. They are reimbursed
50%-70% of the cost to install the conservation practices.
The DAA Watershed currently has assisted over
315 landowners in Outagamie County with installing conservation practices on
their land. With their cooperation the DAA Watershed was able to
achieve about 70% of its phosphorus reduction goal so far.
Newsletters
Contact the Watershed Staff
Main Phone (920) 832-5073
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DAA
Watershed