By Kathleen Chester

Daryl and Karen Tisue were named 2009 Rathbun Lake Protectors at the Rathbun Land and Water Alliance's fourth Annual Protect Rathbun Lake meeting held recently in Allerton. Rathbun Lake Protectors are nominated by each soil and water conservation district in the six county Rathbun Lake Watershed and then approved by the RLWA for their extraordinary contribution to the protection of Rathbun Lake water quality.

RLWA president and Rathbun Regional Water Association CEO, John Glenn, said the conservation practices and actions taken by the Tisues to protect Rathbun Lake illustrates their level of dedication to protect the watershed. "The Tisues installed terraces, water and sediment basins, and two large structures," said Glenn. "The two large structures reduce sediment delivery to Rathbun lake by 1,483 tons per year and 3,113 pounds of phosphorous per year," he added. The couple also installed a livestock manure settling basin.

An honorary Rathbun Lake Protector award was presented to Lyle Asell of Chariton for his support of water quality protection during his career with the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service and Iowa DNR. Glenn said that no one person is more responsible for past and current activities to protect Rather Lake than Lyle Asell.

"Lyle dedicated countless hours and expertise to guide and support land and water resource protection at Rathbun Lake. Protecting Rathbun Lake has become a local, state, and federal priority in a very large part due to the efforts of Lyle Asell," said Glenn.

The evening's speaker, Livestock Risk Management specialist, Walt Hackney, congratulated the landowners for their efforts and said they should be proud of what they have accomplished. "I couldn't be more impressed with what you all do in this part of the state to protect your water," he said.

NRCS environmental specialist, Velvet Buckingham, who coordinates the Protect Rathbun Lake Project, said close to 250 landowners are cooperating with the project. "Plans for the coming year include working with landowners to install 173,000 feet of terraces, two debris basins, 13 structures and 45 water and sediment basins," Buckingham said.

Rathbun Lake Protectors also recognized at the annual meeting are as follows:

The W.B. Smith Family - Lucas County; Austin Bennett - Wayne County; and Norman and Judy Jenkins, Decatur County.

More than 1,000 landowners farm or own land in the 354,000 acre Rathbun Lake Watershed which occupies the counties of Appanoose, Clarke, Decatur, Monroe, Lucas and Wayne. Rathbun Lake is home to Honey Creek Resort and is also the water supply for RRWA, which serves 70,000 people in southern Iowa and northern Missouri.

For more information regarding the RLWA, visit rlwa.org.