Prior to releasing the strategy in 2015, Illinois EPA identified priority watersheds throughout the state, further indicating whether they were nitrogen or phosphorus priorities. IFB has a vested inter-est in supporting a variety of projects across these watersheds, regularly providing technical, financial, educational, and outreach resources to the efforts, which often involve multiple counties and a variety of point and non-point source stakeholders. In 2020, IFB worked primarily in the Mississippi North Central (Flint/Henderson) watershed and the Embarras River watershed and plan to extend this work into 2021 and beyond.
The Mississippi North Central watershed lies in parts of six counties in northwestern Illinois and covers approximately 1,546,232 acres. The watershed has been identified as an NLRS priority watershed but currently does not have a watershed plan in place, making this a prime location for IFB and local county Farm Bureaus to be involved in conservation efforts.
In order to help address issues within the watershed, IFB, along with Hancock, Henry, Knox, Warren-Henderson, and Mercer County Farm Bureaus, worked to raise support for an Illinois EPA Section 319 grant application to develop a watershed plan, including specific proposals for implementing conservation practices in one or two high-priority sub-watersheds. Due to COVID-19 restrictions in 2020, the partners shifted their focus from hosting in-person meetings to collecting letters of support for the grant application from county Farm Bureaus, SWCDs, and state and federal lawmakers. The grant application was submitted in August 2020 and the group plans to host meetings to raise awareness and gather feed-back from the agricultural community.
The Embarras River watershed, located in southeastern Illinois, covers approximately 1,558,063 acres across 12 counties. In fall 2019, stakeholders within the watershed worked together to support and apply for Illinois EPA Section 319 grant funding to update the Embarras River Watershed Management Plan, which would expire in 2021. Without a watershed plan in place, stakeholders within the watershed have a decreased chance of receiving funding from certain state and federal programs for implementing conservation practices.
Involving stakeholders in the planning and implementation processes are critical to the success of watershed plans. In order to ensure success in the Embarras River watershed, IFB, alongside 11 county Farm Bureaus (Crawford, Champaign, Clark, Coles, Cumberland, Douglas, Edgar, Effingham, Jasper, Lawrence, and Richland), local SWCDs, and Illinois Extension, hosted nine watershed planning meetings in January 2020 (prior to COVID-19 meeting restrictions). These meetings provided farmers and landowners an opportunity to share their concerns and interests across the entire watershed, as well as the tools they desire to help address those concerns. IFB staff created a summary report of findings from the planning meetings, which provided high-level takeaways from each meeting within the watershed, as well as background information on previous and current watershed update efforts. In addition, IFB and their partners hosted a webinar in April 2020, sharing the report and updating stakeholders on next steps.
