Despite a rainy start to the day, nearly 60 people gathered for a bus tour of the Otter Creek Watershed in Northeast Iowa on June 8. Participants saw rural and urban conservation practices designed and installed to reduce flooding in the watershed.

The tour began and ended in West Union, Iowa, where downtown infrastructure has been upgraded to enhance stormwater management.… Read more ›

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 ›

permeable parking lot in Monona

A press release by the DNR  regarding the permeable paver parking lot in Monona has garnered a lot of attention. The video in the release on February 10, 2015 has been viewed by hundreds of thousands of people. The DNR has also fielded many calls inquiring about the project. The permeable paver parking lot was completed in 2014 by the City of Monona in an effort to reduce the water quantity and improve the water quality of a nearby un-named tributary that eventually feeds into the Turkey River.  … Read more ›

POSTVILLE, IOWA – May 20TH, 2014 – Five rainfall and soil moisture gauges have been placed in the Otter Creek watershed, a sub-watershed of the Turkey River that covers a 30,000 acre area from West Union to Elgin in Fayette County.  The gauges measure hourly rainfall, soil moisture, and soil temperature at each location.  Data is available online at http://ifis.iowafloodcenter.org/ifis/main/?v=bRead more ›

Between Sunday May 11th and Monday May 12th, 2014, the Turkey River Watershed received on average 2.43 inches of rainfall. Two Iowa Flood Center rain gauges placed in  the watershed recorded the 2.55 and 2.31 inches of rainfall(rain gauge data can be accessed here).  Attached is a series of pictures that contrasts how agricultural lands in the Turkey River Watershed received and responded to the rain that fell over that 48 hour period.  … Read more ›

CALMAR, IOWA – April 16TH, 2014 – Northeast Iowa RC&D hosted a meeting on April 16th at Northeast Iowa Community College in Calmar for all producers in the Turkey River Watershed. The meeting provided an opportunity for landowners from seven counties to learn about the Turkey River Watershed Management Authority’s (TRWMA) planning efforts and more importantly for the producers to provide input and insight to the group, which is working on a plan to reduce flooding and improve water quality in the Turkey River Watershed.… Read more ›

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 ›

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 ›

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 ›

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 ›

Turkey River Watershed HUC 12 WatershedsAs our comprehensive watershed planning process begins in the Turkey River Watershed and the Iowa Flood Center (IFC) looks to implement a Watershed Demonstration project, it has become apparent that we need to start identifying sub-watershed projects in the Turkey River Watershed for both the comprehensive watershed plan and the IFC watershed demonstration project.

We will know on February 19th whether the Iowa Watershed Advisory Council has selected the Turkey River Watershed for funding a HUC 12 watershed project in partnership with the Iowa Flood Center, and we plan to operate on the assumption that the Turkey River Watershed is one of the 3 out of 4 watersheds that is selected.… Read more ›