Author: Brad Crawford

By Posted on Posted in Uncategorized

The Daily Erosion Project (DEP) estimates precipitation, runoff, sheet and rill erosion, and hillslope delivery in near real time, on over 2000 watersheds in the Midwest (Figure 1). It does this by running the Water Erosion Prediction Project (WEPP) model with a combination of remotely-sensed precipitation weather stations, remotely-sensed crop and residue cover, remotely-sensed topography, and soils databases.

It is an update and expansion to the Iowa Daily Erosion Project (Cruse et al.,… Read more ›

By Posted on Posted in Clean Water, Flood Mitigation, Watershed Management Authority

In September 2016, the Iowa Watersheds Project ended with the completion of over 150 built structures including ponds, terraces, wetlands, water and sediment control basins, and on-road structures. The Iowa Flood Center received $4.5M from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for the five-year project aimed at mitigating flood risk in select Iowa watersheds.

The specific goals of the project aimed to:

  •     Maximize soil water holding capacity from precipitation;
  •     Minimize severe soil erosion and sand deposition during floods;
  •     Manage water runoff in uplands under saturated soil moisture conditions;
  •     Reduce and mitigate structural and nonstructural flood damage
Phase I – Hydrologic Assessment

Hydrologic assessments were completed to further understand the hydrology, assess risk, and prepare a plan to minimize future losses in watershed participating in this study.… Read more ›

By Posted on Posted in Farming

Farmers and landowners in the Turkey River Watershed are invited to a farm profitability workshop on Friday, Feb. 24 from 8:00 a.m.-10:00 am at the Fayette County Fairgrounds Dance Pavilion in West Union.

As profit margins get tighter, farm profitability is more important than ever. Attendees will learn about profitability analysis as a way to evaluate and improve farm performance.

At the workshop, Dan Bahe, AgSolver precision business planning specialist, will explain the profitability analysis process and the basic information needed to get started.… Read more ›

By Posted on Posted in Clean Water

Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey today encouraged eligible groups to apply for grants to support projects that will improve water quality in the state.  Approximately $1 million is available through the Watershed Improvement Review Board to support qualifying projects.

Funds are available to local watershed improvement committees, soil and water conservation districts, public water supply utilities, county conservation boards, cities and counties.… Read more ›

By Posted on Posted in Clean Water, Flood Mitigation

The City of Monona, a member of the Turkey River Watershed Management Authority, has been approved to move forward with a project to redirect storm water runoff associated with the Monona City Aquatic Center. The funding was secured through a new program related to Iowa’s State Revolving Fund (SRF).  Monona applied to SRF in July of 2013 and received final approval in October. … Read more ›

By Posted on Posted in IFloodS

Access Rainfall and Soil Moisture/Temperature Data using the Iowa Flood Information System and any of the following three methods

METHOD 1 (Step by step instructions)
  1. Visit http://iowafloodcenter.org
  2. Launch IFIS >> http://ifis.iowafloodcenter.org/ifis/en/
  3. Click Launch IFIS (View Screenshot)
  4. From the dashboard, click LAUNCH in the STATE OVERVIEW tab. (View Screenshot)
  5. Click Rain/Soil Moisture Gauges under the DATA RESOURCES tab. 
… Read more ›

By Posted on Posted in IFloodS

Finding a location for two of the four University of Iowa XPOL radars was easy. They will remain at their current home base locations near Iowa City and Cedar Rapids overlooking the Clear Creek Watershed for the IFloodS campaign.  For the other two destined for the Turkey River basin in northeast Iowa — well, there was work to be done.

As is typical, finding the “ideal” radar locations proved to be challenging. … Read more ›

By Posted on Posted in Uncategorized, Watershed Management Authority

West Union’s green pilot streetscape project and partnership with the Iowa Economic Development Authority (IEDA) will be featured on an educational television program, “Profiles Series” with host Larry King, on Monday, May 6, 2013 at 6:00 am on the Discovery Channel. The half-hour program will include other feature segments and commentary by host Larry King from the studio. A production team gathered footage in West Union on November 1, 2012.… Read more ›

By Posted on Posted in Flood Mitigation, Watershed Management Authority

GUNDER —Ron McCartney wears several hats with the Turkey River Watershed Management Authority. He is WMA secretary/treasurer, a Clayton County supervisor, and he farms land impacted by Turkey River flooding.

“This is completely different than anything we’ve done in the past,” said McCartney. “We’ve had a lot of water quality projects in this area, but this is the first time someone is taking a shot to see if it’s possible to affect water flow.… Read more ›

By Posted on Posted in Flood Mitigation, Watershed Management Authority

The Turkey River Watershed Management Authority is working on a five-year pilot demonstration project with IIHR – Hydroscience & Engineering at the University of Iowa and the Iowa Flood Center.

The project’s goal is to create state-of-the-art hydrological modeling of the water flowing through the Turkey River Watershed, said Lora Friest, executive director of Northeast Iowa RC&D in Postville.

The Iowa Flood Center has put its own stream stage sensors at 11 locations in the watershed and at other locations.… Read more ›

By Posted on Posted in Uncategorized

Engineers at Oregon State University have developed a new interactive planning tool to create networks of small wetlands in Midwest farmlands, which could help the region prevent massive spring floods and also retain water and mitigate droughts in a warming climate.

The planning approach, which is being developed and tested in a crop-dominated watershed near Indianapolis, is designed to identify the small areas best suited to wetland development, optimize their location and size, and restore a significant portion of the region’s historic water storage ability by using only a small fraction of its land.… Read more ›

By Posted on Posted in Flood Mitigation, Watershed Management Authority

The Turkey River Watershed Management Authority met on March 28th at the YMCA in Postville. Approximately 60 attendees, including the TRWMA Board, listened to presentations given by NRCS Iowa State Conservationist, Jay Mar and Larry Weber, the Director of IIHR Hydroscience and Engineering and Iowa Flood Center.

Before the presentations, the TRWMA Board accepted a recommendation from the TRWMA Executive Committee and voted unanimously to recommend the Iowa Flood Center select Otter Creek in Fayette County for modeling.… Read more ›