When the first EPA funding was approved, the local advisory group became the Kampeska Watershed Advisory Board, and later the Upper Big Sioux River Watershed Advisory Board when Lake Pelican joined the team in 1996. With input from watershed farmers, a work plan was developed and restoration activities began. From a small idea of the Kampeska Izaak Walton League in 1989 to the present, the project has received three EPA grants, one from FEMA, and is undergoing a river basin study and workplan for a USDA PL566 grant that will continue watershed restoration activities to the year 2010. A grass roots beginning has become a locally led cooperation of government and voluntary landowners in the watershed. Inclusion of all stakeholders in the process is carefully nurtured.
Every possible effort is made to work with the landowners based on their needs.
A partnering cost share approach is used to maximize benefits. Practices include grassed waterways, animal waste management systems, crop residue management with conservation tillage, small wildlife dams, rotation grazing management, wetlands restoration, riparian protection, buffer strips, lakeshore stabilization, urban and rural chemical use education, and community information programs. The project works closely with the producer to help him increase profits with conservation cost shared practices that benefit the watershed. Landowners are responsible for twenty-five percent of installation costs. Some of the landowner match is in the form of in-kind services.