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Forest and Grazing Land Management Improve Water Quality in
Big Eagle Creek
Waterbody Improved Dissolved oxYgen (D°) concentrations resulted in the
impairment of Big Eagle Creek and placement on Oklahoma's
Clean Water Act (CWA) section 303(d) list of impaired waters in 2008. Pollution from forested
and grazing lands contributed to this impairment. Implementing conservation practice systems
(CPs) to promote better land management decreased the runoff of sediment, bacteria, and
other pollutants and resulted in improved water quality. As a result, Oklahoma removed the DO
impairment in 2018 from its CWA section 303(d) list. Big Eagle Creek now partially supports its
Cold Water Aquatic Community (CWAC) beneficial use.
Problem
The Big Eagle Creek watershed covers approximately
218,754 acres (ac) in LeFlore and McCurtain counties
in Oklahoma before draining to the Mountain Fork of
the Little River (Figure 1). Land use in the watershed
is about 87% forested and 8% grasslands and pas-
ture. The watershed ranges from steep slopes in the
western Ouachita Mountains to the gentler slopes of
the Athens Plateau (level IV ecoregions). There are four
older, smaller poultry operations in the lower por-
tion of the watershed (which produce approximately
200,000 - 260,000 broilers per year), and the primary
agricultural products from the watershed are poultry
and cattle.
Water quality monitoring in the early 2000s deter-
mined that challenges with forest land and grazing
lands management contributed to a 2008 listing of the
20.5-mile creek as being impaired by DO, when 19%
of samples were beiow acceptable criteria. A CWAC
waterbody is considered impaired for DO if more than
10% of samples fall beiow the "not attaining" criteria
of 6.0 milligrams per liter (mg/L) from April 1 through
June 15 or beiow 5.0 mg/L during the remainder of the
year. Based on these results, Oklahoma added seg-
ment 410210060160_00 to the CWA section 303(d) list
in 2008 for nonattainment of the CWAC beneficial use.
Figure 1. Big Eagie Creek is in southeastern Oklahoma.
Story Highlights
Approximately 20 landowners in the watershed
worked with the Taiihina and Little River conservation
districts, the Natural Resources Conservation Service
(NRCS), and the Oklahoma Conservation Commission
(OCC) to implement CPs through Oklahoma NRCS's
Environmental Quality incentives Program (EQIP) and
genera! conservation technical assistance program and
through the OCC's State Cost Share Program (SCSP).
From 2002 to 2020, landowners improved their man-
agement of animal waste, forests, and grazing lands,
Legend
Mountain Fork, Little River |
Big Eagle Watershed Streams]
Big Eagle Creek Watershed I
County Boundaries
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which reduced runoff of sediment, nutrients, and
other pollutants by reducing bare soil and increasing
vegetative cover and infiltration. Landowners imple-
mented CPs, including animal mortality facilities (2),
brush management (145 ac), critical area planting (2
ac), fence (5,381 feet (ft)), fire break (72,037 ft), forest
stand improvement (130 ac), heavy use area protec-
tion (454 square ft), herbaceous weed control (63 ac),
nutrient management ("123 ac), pasture and hayland
planting (99 ac), pest management (434 ac), ponds (8),
prescribed burning (698 ac), prescribed grazing (145
ac), roofs and covers (2), tree and shrub site prepara-
tion (639 ac), tree and shrub planting (740 ac), and one
waste storage facility.
Results
The OCC documented improved water quality in Big
Eagle Creek due to the installation of CPs through its
statewide nonpoint source Rotating Basin Ambient
Monitoring Program. By 2018, DO concentrations had
improved, and less than 5% were beiow acceptable
criteria (Figure 2). Based on these results, Big Eagle
Creek was removed from the 2018 CWA section 303(d)
list and now partially supports its CWAC beneficial use.
Partners and Funding
The OCC monitoring program is supported by U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) CWA sec-
tion 319 funding at an average annual statewide cost
of $1 million. Approximately $600,000 in EPA section
319 funds support statewide water quality educational
efforts through Biue Thumb. Approximately $283,013
of these federal and state matching funds have been
devoted to Big Eagie Creek.
From 2002 to 2020, NRCS invested a minimum of
$401,000 for CP implementation in Oklahoma through
EQIP. In addition, many practices were funded by
landowners based on recommendations through NRCS
general technical assistance. Finally, the OCC, Little
River and Talihina conservation districts, and landown-
ers funded more than $19,230 worth of CPs (at least
$9,855 of which was funded by landowners through
the SCSP).
exceedances:
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19%
Big Eagle Creek Dissolved Oxygen
19% 16% 14% 14% 5%
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5%
0%
I !
2006
2008
2010
2012
2014
2016
2018
2020
2022
2024
Figure 2. Big Eagle DO concentrations increased with the installation of CPs.
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U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Office of Water
Washington, DC
EPA 841-F-23-001P
December 2023
For additional information contact:
Shanon J Phillips
Oklahoma Conservation Commission
405-522-4728 • shanon.phillips@conservation.ok.gov
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