Fall 2013 | DeKalb County AG Mag | 13
lessen the impact of future floods, according to the study documentation. Farmers have been central to the process since work began in January. “The watershed is significantly impacted by what farmers do on their land,” Zurbrugg said. “... Early on in this process we wanted to make sure that the agricultural community was involved and on board.” The community foundation held outreach sessions in February and March in which the group asked farmers to identify problem areas on a map that the study could target for its research. At the October meeting of the steering committee, which oversees the project, the 30 problem areas still were under discussion, according to the meeting agenda. According to DeKalb County’s comprehensive plan, the combination of flat land and fertile soil in the county naturally creates drainage issues, and cropland accounts for 88 percent of the county’s land use.
pollution. Johnson said he consults on the use of filter strips, which filter the runoff from fields and tree buffers that help hold the soil together near streams. Most farmers in the county now employ minimum tillage, which leaves crop residue on the surface to slow the drainage of water, Steimel said. “An important step in information gathering has been the knowledge of the farm community,” said Dean Lundeen, a community foundation board member and farmer. “The nature of DeKalb County topography means nearly every farmer is in a drainage district ... so with this knowledge, local farmers have aided the committee in pinpointing areas of concern.” Zurbrugg hopes that the study will be a model for the rest of the county. “If this planning process generates the results that we want it to, then we think that the community and the DeKalb County Community Foundation would like to repeat it with the balance of watersheds in DeKalb County,” she said.
The groups have also worked with farmers to find ways to limit erosion and sedimentation, which contribute to river
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