We spend thousands of tax dollars each year to remove sediment from our open streams, but spend practically nothing to keep it from eroding back into the stream. Landowners in other counties are reducing their drainage costs by installing filter strips along their open streams and drainage ditches. The filter strip, if planted with hay, can be baled twice a year. Such cutting allows the grass to take up more of the trapped nutrients and thus improve the water quality of the stream. A well maintained corridor will restrict grass growth in the channel and allow water to flow unobstructed downstream.
Livestock degrade a stream in two ways.
First, they trample the stream banks and destroy the vegetation that provides protection from erosion. The banks and stream bottom are easily eroded with the next rainfall. Second, the fecal matter deposited in the stream is a direct load of nutrients that degrades the water quality. We'll supply the materials if you construct the fence. Funds for fence construction are supplied by an EPA 319 Grant administered by the Indiana Departmemt of Environmental Management and by Friends of the Limberlost .