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(&Z) NONPOINT SOIREE SICEESS STORY
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PRO^°
Wisconsin
Restoration oi Pleasant Valley Branch Through Stream Corridor
Rehabilitation
Waterbody Improvsd Excess sedimentation from agricultural sources degraded water
quality and habitat in Pleasant Valley Branch. As a result, the entire
creek was added to Wisconsin's 1998 Clean Water Act (CWA) section 303(d) impaired waters list
for degraded habitat. The Dane County Land and Water Resources Department (LWRD) led efforts
to implement best management practices (BMPs) to control sediment from agricultural nonpoint
sources, which resulted in improvement in this nearly 6-mile-long stream. As a result, Pleasant
Valiey Branch was removed from the state's impaired waters list in 2016.
Problem
Pleasant Valley Branch is a tributary to Kittleson Valley
Creek and is in the Gordon Creek watershed (Figure
1). Wisconsin placed Pleasant Valley Branch, totaling
5.92 miles (ID = 367), on its 1998 CWA section 303(d)
list of impaired waters for degraded habitat. Biologists
beiieved the stream had the potential to be a high-
quality trout stream.
Habitat and fish assessments of Pleasant Valley Branch
(WBIC 908500, HUC 070900030501) in the early and
mid-2000s found that the stream continued to faii
to support its fish and aquatic life use. A fish survey
conducted by the Wisconsin Department of Natural
Resources (WDNR) found a pollution-tolerant fish
assemblage, made up predominantly of white suckers,
creek chubs and brook stickleback. The lack of trout
appeared to be the result of degraded fish habitat due
to sediment deposition in the stream. Streambank ero-
sion caused by excessive livestock pasturing along the
stream and soil erosion within the watershed were the
likely sources of the deposited sediment. Although the
habitat score averaged 45, which is considered "fair,"
other scores were noted as "poor," including the bank
erosion, fish cover and soft sediment metrics, and the
coldwater index of biotic integrity (IBI).
Project Highlights
The Pleasant Valley Branch subwatershed was part of
a multifaceted effort to improve the riparian cor-
ridor and habitat of the stream, while also addressing
nonpoint source issues in the watershed as a whole.
From 1998 to 2014, the Dane County LWRD worked
Pleasant \ \
Valley ;
Branch /
Gordon Creek
Watershed
Figure 1. Pleasant Valley Branch is in southern
Wisconsin's Gordon Creek watershed.
with landowners to implement practices along the
riparian corridor. Concurrently, a consortium of public
and private partners worked with landowners in the
watershed to improve barnyards and to reduce the
amount of sediment and nutrient runoff from agricul-
tural lands and pastures. These projects showed that
targeting the application of conservation practices on
agricultural lands with the highest pollutant loading,
rather than randomly throughout the watershed,
will result in cleaner water. Between 1998 and 2014,
landowners in the subwatershed installed three grade
stabilization structures and eight water/sediment
control basins, restored 27,556 feet of streambank
and 11 acres of wetlands, and implemented numerous
agricultural BMPs (Table 1). The estimated total cost
of BMPs implemented in the Pleasant Valley Branch
subwatershed between 2010 and 2014 was over
$900,000.

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Table 1. Agricultural BMPs installed in the Pleasant
Valley Branch subwatershed (1998-2004)
Practice Type Installed
Amount
Residue management, no-till/mulch-till
3,041 acres
Nutrient management
3,405 acres
Comprehensive nutrient management plans
9 plans
Conservation cover
843 acres
Contour farming
854 acres
Stripcropping
75 acres
Fence
32,301 feet
Filter strip
36 acres
Grassed waterway
2,010 feet
Animal trails and walkways
3,890 feet
Access road
550 feet
Results
In response to the installation of BMPs within the
Pleasant Valley Branch subwatershed, the WDNR
conducted another set of assessments of Pleasant
Valley Branch in 2009 and 2013. Prior to rehabilita-
tion, the stream was rated "fair" to "good" for habitat,
using a quantitative habitat index, with fine sediments
making up an average of 71 percent of the stream
bottom. After rehabilitation, this percentage decreased
by over half, and the habitat rating rose to "good" and
"excellent." Mean bank erosion (measured length of
raw, eroding bank) dropped from a mean of 2.5 feet
before the projects were implemented to a mean of
1.5 inches afterwards (Figure 2).
The health of the fishery, as measured by the cold
water IBI and catch-per-unit effort (i.e., extrapo-
lated number of trout per mile), showed immediate
improvement. The pollution-tolerant fish assemblage
was replaced with a community of pollution-sensitive
coldwater species, consisting of brown trout, mottled
sculpiri and brook lamprey. The coldwater IBI increased
at all sites from "poor" and "fair" to "fair" and "good"
after the restoration. The numbers of trout increased
70 to 150 percent and, in some cases, well over that
by taking areas that held few or no trout to the point
where they now hold 40 to 70 individual fish over the
same station length.
Based on the evaluation monitoring results, the stream
meets its potential use, and the WDNR removed
Figure 2. Pleasant Valley Branch at CTH H (upper
crossing) before restoration in 2003 (top) and after
restoration in 2008 (bottom).
Pleasant Valley Branch from the CWA section 303(d)
list of impaired waters in 2016 for its degraded habitat
impairment. As an added benefit, U.S. Geological
Survey water quality data showed a 55 percent
decrease in phosphorus loading to the stream during
storm events.
Partners and Funding
The restoration of Pleasant Valley Branch was sup-
ported by numerous partners and programs that
provided technical assistance, BMP implementa-
tion, and local assistance, including Dane County
LWRD, private landowners, WDNR'sTargeted Runoff
Management Grant Program, Wisconsin Department
of Trade and Consumer Protection's Soil and Water
Resources Management Grant Program, University
of Wisconsin-Madison's College of Agriculture and
Life Sciences, University of Wisconsin Extension, The
Nature Conservancy, U.S. Geological Survey, Iowa
County Land Conservation Department, Green County
Land and Water Conservation Department, and the
U.S. Department of Agriculture's Environmental
Quality Incentives Program, Wildlife Habitat Incentives
Program, Conservation Reserve Program, and
Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program. U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency CWA section 319
grant funding from 2005 to 2015 helped to cover the
cost of WDNR Nonpoint Source Program staff, BMPs,
and monitoring costs associated with the project.
&
PROt*°
2
o
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Office of Water
Washington, DC
EPA EPA 841-F-17-001W
November 2017
For additional information contact:
Jim Amrhein
Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources
608-275-3280 • jarnes.amrhein@wisconsin,gov
Amy Callis
Dane County Land & Water Resources Department
608-224-3740 • callis.amy@countyofdane.com

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