Buckeye Basins Newsletter: April/May 2001

Buckeye Basins is produced by the Ohio State University Extension, Community Based Watershed Management Team. It is compiled quarterly for watershed coordinators, Extension specialists, and natural resource professionals to include within their newsletters, programs or however they see fit.

In This Issue:

• Building Effective Water Protection Groups
• Study: Streams Vital in Removing Water Pollution
• Watershed Management Techniques for the Waterman Farm
• Streams: The Life Blood of the Land
• The Benefits of Streamside Forests
• Hypoxia in the Gulf of Mexico

Building Effective Water Protection Groups

Anne Baird, Watershed Management Agent, OSU Extension, SW District

Over 100 groups have formed around the state to protect and restore the streams, lakes, and wetlands of Ohio. These groups take on many tasks including education, data management, and decision-making. Group members represent many different sectors of the community including state and local government, non-profit recreational and environmental groups, landowners, farmers, homeowners, and businesses. In order to generate effective approaches to protecting water resources participants need an awareness of group dynamic principles. In the Facilitator's Guide to Participatory Decision Making Sam Kaner describes four key principles found in groups with high member involvement and ownership of decisions:

1. Full participation. All members are encouraged to speak up and say what's on their minds. The group then grows stronger because members become more courageous in raising difficult issues and sharing half-formed thoughts that may contain valuable ideas.
2. Mutual Understanding. In order for a group to reach agreements they can sustain and that contain the best ideas possible, participants must take some time and effort questioning each other, getting to know one another, and learning from each other. Over time, participants may gain insights into their own positions and discover mutual goals.
3. Inclusive solutions. Inclusive solutions are not compromises; they work for all participants with a stake in the outcome. They are usually not obvious but emerge from the integration of perspectives, needs, and goals, and typically involve the discovery of an entirely new option.
4. Shared Responsibility. Participants feel a strong sense of shared responsibility for creating and developing agreements and can voice objections even when this delays the group decisions. This commitment to shared responsibility is seen in the processes used in meetings, and in the overall expectation that everyone takes responsibility for making meetings successful.

There's a great deal of potential in the use of group decision making to protect water resources in Ohio but the process isn't smooth or sequential: Group members must be willing to tolerate ambiguity and conflict as they struggle to understand one another and the water resource they are working to protect.  

Study: Streams Vital in Removing Water Pollution

Eric Beech, Reuters News Service

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- Streams play a bigger role than previously thought in removing pollutants before they get to larger waterways, scrubbing as much as half of the excess nitrogen from fertilizer runoff and auto emissions, scientists said on Thursday.

A nationwide study of 12 streams found that the smaller the stream -- with its shallow depth and high surface-to-volume ratio -- the more quickly nitrogen was removed, scientists said in the latest edition of the journal Science.

Previously, experts studying pollution focused on larger bodies of water rather than small streams, considering them more like gutters that simply carried nitrogen to lakes, rivers and oceans.

Excess nitrogen can cause ecologically damaging effects in large waterways, including algal blooms, which can kill fish and other aquatic animals.

Bruce Peterson of the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, one of the study's 15 co-authors, said the finding could have important implications for land-use policies. He said human efforts to control streams by covering or channeling them have made them less effective at nitrogen removal.

Streams remove nitrogen by providing a habitat for nitrogen absorbing organisms and by releasing nitrogen from the water into the atmosphere. "Small tributary streams in our watersheds, the ones most likely to be plowed under or buried in culverts or destroyed by human activity, have a very important role to play in removing nitrogen from water,'' Peterson said.

"If we restored and took care of all the small streams on the landscape, our water quality coming down rivers would be greatly improved,'' he said.  The scientists studied streams in Alaska, Arizona, Kansas, Minnesota, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Puerto Rico and Tennessee.

They dripped trace amounts of ammonium -- a form of nitrogen -- into the streams and measured how much of it was absorbed by plants and animals and how much stayed in the water and was washed downstream. The researchers sampled water, algae and other plant life, bacteria, fungi and insects for six weeks at each site.

Watershed Management Techniques for the Waterman Farm

Leslie Zucker, Riparian Extension Associate, and Larry C. Brown, Professor, OSU Extension, Columbus

Watershed management techniques are being implemented at Ohio State University's Waterman Agricultural and Natural Resources Laboratory to eliminate the discharge of stormwater directly to streams on the site.  The overall plan being evaluated for the lab is in line with the long-term goals of Dr. Bobby Moser, University Vice-President and Dean of the College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences. The hope is that the facility will be a model for agricultural and natural resources teaching and research with zero-discharge concepts implemented to address water quality issues.

Waterman Laboratory is an active agricultural and natural resources landscape located between the urban community of Upper Arlington west of OSU's Columbus campus and the Olentangy River.  This teaching and research facility lies at the southeast intersection of Lane Avenue and Kenny Road.  The Lab currently includes an 80+ head dairy facility with pasture land, a forested area, two drainage channels that run west from Upper Arlington east through Waterman, and numerous field plot areas primarily for turf grass, crop and horticultural sciences research, teaching, and outreach activities. Construction of the new Waterman Lab office building will be started this year.

A collaborative, multi-disciplinary team is evaluating ways to demonstrate watershed management techniques friendly to agriculture, natural resources, and water quality.  Proposed water management activities include:

1. Construction of a two-cell wetland facility to harvest and treat run-off from a container nursery production facility.
2. Harvesting building roof run-off and then using the water to wash down feeding pads at the dairy facility.
3. Designing and constructing stream channel modifications for urban/agricultural land uses, including the retrofit of a multi-stage drainage channel design to an existing single-stage drainage channel; enhanced riparian areas; tree, stump and check-dam removal; and controlled animal access.
4. Design and implementation of a micro-irrigation teaching area with Master Gardeners for efficient water use and water conservation.
5. Design and installation of a field-scale water table management research-demonstration system.

Activities 1, 2, and 5 have been developed by undergraduate students and have already been implemented at Waterman.  Activities 3 and 4 are under evaluation, and a number of other concepts are being discussed. Although some water management changes on the Waterman Laboratory have already started, the team and cooperators are collecting land use information to be used in the development of the Waterman watershed plan that identifies practices in line with modern approaches to ecological systems. Many of the practices will be designed and implemented by students within the College of Food, Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, and the College of Engineering.  In addition, various stakeholder groups, such as the Ohio Land Improvement Contractors have offered equipment and expertise for practice installation during outreach educational demonstration field days.

For more information on water management activities at the Waterman Laboratory, contact Dr. Larry C. Brown, Department of Food, Agricultural, and Biological Engineering, 614.292.3826, or brown.59@osu.edu.

Streams: The Life Blood of the Land

J.P. Lieser, Watershed Management Agent, OSU Extension, East District

Everyone knows that water is essential for life to exist. Unfortunately, when looking at small streams it is common not to realize that they are a key component of the water resources that supports all life.

Most of us in our hurried lives view streams only while driving by on our way to someplace else. We may see murky water after a rainstorm, or bits of trash along a river bank and assume that the waterway supports no life and must be polluted. This observation often leads to an attitude of indifference or worse a lack of respect for the resource. Ultimately, this misconception could lead one to believe that small streams only function as drainage ditches or that they are a nuisance. However, if we look closely below the surface of the water, along the bottoms, underneath rocks and branches we often find our creeks teeming with life. Remember though that streams not only provide wildlife habitat, they are also the building blocks for larger streams and rivers. Thus, small streams are very important to our human water supply.

To gain a full appreciation of streams importance to the land it is useful to compare stream systems to the capillaries, veins and arteries within our own human bodies. Streams transport the essential fluids (water) throughout a watershed much as veins carry blood throughout our bodies. A healthy stream network begins with many small headwater streams that distribute water to the majority of the watershed. These headwater streams then flow into larger streams, which eventually flow into a river. The ultimate danger in supposing that a small stream is unimportant is this - if we straighten, dam or alter a stream or its watershed, parts of the stream system may survive, but the health of the watershed will be degraded. This is analogous to the fact if we lose some blood we are ok, but as more and more blood is lost the body weakens and eventually dies.

The Benefits of Streamside Forests

Jerry Iles, Watershed Management Agent, OSU Extension, South District

(Part 2)

In part one last month I discussed the important role that streamside forests play in streambank stabilization, trapping sediment and limiting nutrients from entering streams, rivers and lakes. In addition to these attributes streamside forests provide and enhance both terrestrial and aquatic habitat.

• The shade provided by the streamside forest is a critical factor, which allows the water temperature to remain cool and constant. Temperature disturbance can limit the diversity and abundance of fish and other aquatic organisms found in streams. Many of these species can only tolerate a very limited range of temperature shift. An increase in temperature caused by direct sunlight will result in decreased availability of dissolved oxygen. This lack of dissolved oxygen can cause severe stress in many species and result in a disturbance felt throughout the aquatic food web.
• Woody debris, in the form of fallen branches and trees from streamside forests, provides excellent in stream habitat for fish. These logs provide shelter and protection for both prey and predator. They are also an important component of the physical structure of a stream because they aid in the formation of pools and riffles that are essential in a healthy stream system.
• The annual cycle of leaves and other organic matter that fall from streamside forests are an important food source in smaller streams. Aquatic insects or other macroinvertebrates gather, shred and process this organic matter provided by the forest. Detritus is the term for this decaying organic matter, which provides the critical base for a healthy aquatic food chain.
• Not just aquatic species but several small mammals such as muskrat, mink, raccoon and otters reside and rely on habitat provided by riparian or streamside forests. "Birds are the most commonly observed terrestrial wildlife in riparian corridors. Nationally over 250 species have been reported using riparian areas during some part of the year." (Johnson 1971)

In addition to all the previously mentioned benefits of streamside forests one always should think about the aesthetic and human value of these special areas. Picture yourself walking along your favorite cool, shady creek or river this summer and you will understand how a healthy stream and stream corridor should feel. Our challenge is to restore Ohio's streams to look and feel like your favorite place.

Hypoxia in the Gulf of Mexico

Dana Oleskiewicz, Watershed Management Agent, OSU Extension, Northeast District

In aquatic ecosystems hypoxia is defined as a lack of dissolved oxygen. This lack of available oxygen creates an environment, which is unable to sustain aquatic life.

Hypoxia is caused by eutrophication, which is an enrichment of the water with nutrients such as phosphorus and nitrogen. With an increase in nutrients, the system becomes productive as plant growth increases. When these plants die, they decompose which is a biological process that uses the available oxygen in the water column. In hypereutrophic systems where productivity is very high, oxygen depletion can be so severe that it causes hypoxia. This condition adversely affects the fish and aquatic insects that require oxygen to live.

In the Gulf of Mexico, hypoxia exists as a large bloom of non-oxygenated water located near the mouth of the Mississippi River. The shrimp industry has been impacted by this water condition. Brown shrimp migrate away from shore into the open water during their life cycle. Due to the zone of hypoxia, these shrimp must migrate further away from the shoreline than they normally would to reach oxygenated water. This fact has been reflected in the shrimp industry, as fisherman must travel longer distances to obtain this commodity.

Public concern about hypoxia in the Gulf of Mexico has prompted an initiative to address the situation. A team of scientists was assembled to review data and generate an Action Plan that would detail potential causes and recommend solutions. The task force determined that the primary cause of hypoxia is nitrogen loading to the Gulf from the Mississippi River. The source of nitrogen is from watershed run-off in the Mississippi River Basin, which is impacted by land use near tributaries of the Mississippi such as the Ohio River.

The strategy to confront the hypoxia problem, as decided by the task force, involves six points; 1) reduce nitrogen loading, 2) implement solutions on a sub-basin scale, 3) actions taken should also help the freshwater riverine systems of the Mississippi basin, 4) promote incentives for adopting Best Management Practices instead of using environmental regulations, 5) the initiative needs to be funded, and 6) explore existing federal programs that will also help reduce hypoxia in the Gulf of Mexico.

To carry out the above strategy, the Action Plan makes several recommendations for the Mississippi River basin. Such as, farming practices within the watershed should be performed to reduce nitrogen loss from the land into the waterways. This means reducing the use of nitrogen as a fertilizer, proper application of manure, and effective handling of manure storage. It is advised to create and restore natural wetlands and to make use of riparian buffers as a nitrogen filter. Point source reduction of nitrogen loading should be addressed with tertiary treatment of domestic wastewater. Finally, flood control is necessary and would be possible if the river diversions in the Louisiana delta are allowed to restore back to a natural condition.