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               Section 319
               NONPOINT SOURCE PROGRAM SOCGESS STORY
 Installing Agricultural Best Management Practices Leads to Increased
 Dissolved Oxygen Levels in Beaver and Doga Creeks
Waterbodies Improved
                                   Low dissolved oxygen (DO), attributed primarily to practices
                                   associated with cattle production, resulted in impairment of
 Oklahoma's Beaver and Doga creeks. As a  result, Oklahoma added Beaver Creek (in 2004) and
 Doga Creek (in 2006) to the state's Clean Water Act (CWA) section 303(d) list of impaired waters.
 Implementing best management practices (BMPs) helped to reduce erosion from grazing lands
 and, thus, decreased sediment and nutrient runoff into the creeks. DO levels improved, prompting
 Oklahoma to remove Beaver and Doga creeks from the 2010 CWA section 303(d) list for low DO.


 Problem
 Beaver Creek (22 miles long) (Figure 1) and Doga
 Creek (10 miles long) are in Osage County in north
 central Oklahoma. Watershed land use includes
 mostly cattle production with some forage and
 wheat production. Poor management of livestock
 and grazing lands, as well as a lack of healthy ripar-
 ian areas, contributed to excess sedimentation and
 nutrient runoff into the creek. Excess nutrients from
 runoff in the watershed can lead to the overgrowth
 of nuisance algae, and the subsequent breakdown
 of the algae can then cause DO levels to decrease.
 Water quality assessments in 2004 showed that
 60 percent of the water samples in Beaver Creek
 were below (i.e., did not meet) state criteria
 for warm-water aquatic communities. In 2006,
 21 percent of the samples from Doga Creek were
 below the DO criteria. A waterbody is considered
 impaired for DO if more than 10 percent of samples
 (based on no more than five years of data before
 the assessment year) fall below 6.0 milligrams per
 liter (mg/L) from April 1 through June 15 or below
 5.0 mg/L during the  remainder of the year. On the
 basis of these assessment results, Oklahoma added
 both creeks—Beaver Creek in 2004 and Doga Creek
 in 2006—to the state's CWA section 303(d) list for
 failing to support the fish and wildlife propagation
 designated use because of DO impairment.
 Project Highlights
 Landowners implemented BMPs with assistance
 from Oklahoma's locally led cost-share program and
 through the local Natural Resources Conservation
 Service (NRCS) Environmental Quality Incentives
 Program, Conservation Reserve Program,
 Grassland Reserve Program and general technical
Figure 1. Oklahoma's Beaver Creek flows through
Osage County.

assistance program. These projects focused on
keeping livestock away from the stream, protect-
ing riparian areas and improving grazing lands.
Since 2004, landowners in the two watersheds
have added 125 acres of livestock access control,
built 2,590 feet of livestock exclusion fencing,
and installed two new ponds to provide alterna-
tive watering sources and to keep livestock out of
the creeks. Riparian areas were protected using
seasonal residue management on 23 acres and
establishing herbaceous cover on 64 acres. To
improve the condition of pasture and rangeland, pre-
scribed grazing was implemented on 21,541 acres
and 555 acres  received nutrient management plans.
Producers planted range grasses and forage on
333 acres,  practiced better forage harvest manage-
ment on 329 acres, planted conservation cover on
189 acres, implemented critical area planting on
one acre, and used integrated  pest management
on 9,792 acres. Brush management occurred on

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                  Beaver Creek
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