The Rathbun Land and Water Alliance is the recipient of a $491,800 grant awarded by the Iowa Watershed Improvement Review Board to assist in Rathbun Lake water quality protection activities.

The Alliance is one of only 13 organizations statewide to receive the highly competitive award and has been successful five consecutive years in obtaining funds for the Rathbun Lake project, which helps protect Rathbun Lake by improving its watershed. The recent award brings the total allocated to the Alliance by WIRB to more than $2.2 million and represents 10 percent of all monies distributed through the WIRB program.

Mark Rosenbury, chairman of the 15 member WIRB Board which is tasked each year with awarding the $5 million appropriated by the Iowa Legislature for watershed improvement, says there is good reason RLWA consistently ranks at the top of all applications received statewide.

“I’ve served on the WIRB Board since its inception in 2005 and have witnessed how the Alliance very effectively targets where the problems are in their watershed and how very effectively they quantify the results,” says Rosenbury.

Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship Water Resources Program Specialist, Jerry Neppel, who administers the WIRB funds, agrees.

“Since receiving the first award five years ago, RLWA has developed a very good track record of doing what it is they said they would do in their application,” says Neppel.

Rosenbury explains that the cooperation from the landowners in the Rathbun Lake Watershed also impressed the board.

“In the past four years cooperating farmers in the Rathbun Lake Watershed have agreed to make changes on 13,000 acres resulting in sediment reduction to the lake by 20,000 tons per year and 80,000 pounds of phosphorous per year,” says Rosenbury. “That is just downright impressive.”

Each WIRB Board member has the opportunity to rank each application and Rosenbury says RLWA received the number one rank from every single board member.

“They ranked far above the other applications principally because the application was well written, targeted and they could show a record of success,” he adds.

Rathbun Regional Water Association Environmental Management Specialist, Marty Braster, says one of the project’s keys to success is the targeted application of best management practices or simply stated, knowing where to spend the money for the best results.

“The use of GIS to identify priority land in the Rathbun Lake Watershed for the targeted application of BMPs achieves the cost effective reduction in sediment and phosphorus delivery to the lake and its tributaries,” he explains.

Braster is quick to point out that while this type of planning is essential, much of the project’s success can be attributed to the professional staff that work at the field level to implement the planned BMPs. Two full time environmental specialists with IDALS, Division of Soil Conservation, Velvet Buckingham and Susania Ernst, work directly with landowners in the six southern Iowa counties of Appanoose, Clarke, Decatur, Lucas, Monroe and Wayne.

“These individuals identify and contact the landowners to encourage their participation in the project by applying BMPs for the priority land that they own or farm,” Braster says.

Braster explains that the Alliance has five years in which to install the BMPs outlined in the grant application, which includes the treatment of more than 4,000 acres that will reduce the annual delivery of sediment by 6,000 tons and phosphorus by 20,000 pounds.