Section 319
              NONPOINT SOORCE PROGRAM  SUCCESS STORY
 Excluding Cattle from Stream Area Reduces Phosphorus Input
\A/citprhnH\/  Imnrnx/prl  Agricultural runoff and direct access by livestock contributed
                              phosphorus to an unnamed tributary of Poterfield Creek.
 High phosphorus levels, in turn, led to algal blooms in the tributary. As a result, Michigan's
 Department of Natural Resources and Environment (MDNRE) added the unnamed tributary
 to Michigan's Clean Water Act (CWA) section 303(d) list of impaired waters in 2002. The
 landowner installed cattle exclusion fencing and  nuisance algae conditions declined. On the
 basis of those  results, MDNRE has proposed to remove the Poterfield Creek tributary from
 the list of impaired waters in 2010.
 Problem
 Poterfield Creek drains into the lower Menominee
 River Watershed near the Village of Carney in
 Menominee County, Michigan. The Menominee
 River flows east and follows the boundary between
 the northeast corner of Wisconsin and the south-
 ern tip of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan before
 emptying into Lake Michigan's Green Bay (Figure 1).
 The topography in the Menominee River basin
 was formed and heavily altered by periodic glacia-
 tion, the most recent of which was the Wisconsin
 period (10,000-20,000 years ago). The region is
 characterized by lakes, glacial plains, end moraines,
 and poorly integrated east to west drainage.
 Because of the extensive amount of glacial activ-
 ity, the Menominee basin consists mostly of sand
 and gravel called outwash which is underlain by
 dolomite.

 An aquatic biologist from MDNRE observed
 nuisance algae growth in an unnamed tributary to
 Poterfield Creek that runs north to south across the
 Berger Cattle Ranch. Because the aquatic biolo-
 gist found that the tributary exceeded Michigan's
 qualitative goal for nuisance algae conditions,
 MDNRE added a 1.2-mile segment to the 2002 CWA
 section 303(d) list of impaired waters for excess
 algal growth and high phosphorus concentrations.
 MDNRE attributed the algal bloom to phosphorus in
 agricultural runoff from the cattle ranch.
                                    Approximate
                                   location of the
                                   Poterfield Creek
Figure 1. Poterfield Creek flows into the lower Menominee River.

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      Project Highlights
                                             Results
      In the early 1990s, cattle grazed in and around
      the Poterfied Creek tributary that  runs through
      Berger's Cattle Ranch (Figure 2). The landowner of
      Berger's Cattle Ranch installed fencing to exclude
      the cattle from the stream (Figure 3). The Michigan
      Department of Agriculture provided technical assis-
      tance. The partners used  CWA section 319 funds to
      monitor the tributary after the landowner installed
      the fencing.
       Figure 2. Cows on the Berger Cattle Ranch trample
       a small stream in the early 1990s. A bare hillside
       with an uncovered manure storage area (back right
       of the photo) contributed pollution to the stream.
       Figure 3. The same site on Berger Cattle Ranch in
       2005, after the landowner installed fencing. Note
       that the waterway is grassed, paddocks are fenced
       and bare hillslope in the background is revegetated.
                                             Recent monitoring by MDNRE's aquatic biologist
                                             observed an absence of nuisance algae growth and
                                             substantially lower total phosphorus concentra-
                                             tions downstream of the ranch, as compared to the
                                             upstream reference reach (Table 1).

                                             As a result of the aquatic biologist's determination
                                             that algae no longer impaired the 1.2-mile seg-
                                             ment of the unnamed tributary to Poterfield Creek,
                                             MDNRE has proposed to remove the waterbody
                                             from Michigan's 2010 CWA section 303(d) list of
                                             impaired waters.

                                             Table 1. Phosphorus (P) concentrations in
                                             milligrams per liter (mg/L), before and after
                                             the landowner installed fencing along the
                                             Poterfield Creek tributary
Sample date
Pre-project(1992)
Post-project (2008)
Upstream of
project (mg/L P)
Not sampled
0.052
Downstream of
project (mg/L P)
1.1
0.047
                                             Partners and Funding
                                             The landowner funded the fencing project. The
                                             Michigan Department of Agriculture provided
                                             technical assistance. Approximately $3,000 in  CWA
                                             section 319 funding supported post-project water
                                             quality monitoring.
PR
       I
       o
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Office of Water
Washington, DC

EPA841-F-10-0010
August 2010
For additional information contact:
Joe Rathbun
MDNRE Water Bureau
517-373-8868 • rathbunj@michigan.gov

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