Samer Kharbush, Watershed Planner for Vernon County, demonstrates a new conservation planning tool. Kharbush will share more information about the tool at the April 3rd Coon Creek Community Watershed Council meeting.
Conservation planning tool to be unveiled at watershed council meeting
COON VALLEY, Wis.– Understanding how to work with the landscape to reduce flooding and prevent soil loss can be daunting, but a new mapping tool is making this work a little easier.
The tool, called the Agricultural Conservation Planning Framework (ACPF), can help farmers and other residents determine how factors like grade, soil type, land cover, and more affect the way water moves on their land, in order to guide their conservation efforts and most effectively reduce hazards like flooding. The Vernon County Land and Water Conservation Department (VCLW) will debut the tool at the April 3 Coon Creek Community Watershed Council General Meeting.
“The ACPF provides a menu of conservation practices, and there are so many different ways we can use this tool to improve and optimize our land management strategies,” said Samer Kharbush, Watershed Planner with VCLW. “It is a very exciting and intricate tool.”
At a time when severe floods are becoming more frequent in the Coon Creek Watershed and all 14 of the watershed’s federal flood control dams are slated for decommissioning, land conservation practices that help prevent soil erosion and rain runoff matter more than ever.
“With the dams coming out, smaller practices are going to become more necessary and important,” Kharbush said. “This planning tool is going to be important for helping us decide where to put these practices.”
So far, the ACPF is ready to guide conservation planning in the Coon Creek Watershed’s Timber Coulee subbasin. Kharbush said he looks forward to expanding the tool’s coverage to other basins in the Coon Creek Watershed, and to other watersheds in Vernon County.
“The Natural Resources Conservation Service is getting a lot of funding for projects in the next couple years,” Kharbush said. “It would be great to get those projects on our landscape, and this tool can help”
Those interested in learning more about the ACPF, cultivating healthy soil, and strategies to reduce flooding are encouraged to attend the Coon Creek Community Watershed Council’s April 3rd meeting at the Coon Valley Conservation Club. The meeting starts at 6:30, with a community dinner beginning at 6:00. The event is free and all are welcome.
The mission of the Coon Creek Community Watershed Council is to continue the historic legacy of conservation leadership through improving and restoring our soil, water, and air as stewards of the Creek Watershed. We focus on strategies and practices that individuals can implement. Together, we are learning to make running water walk.