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The Coon Creek Watershed:
A Success Story of Cooperative Conservation |
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This aerial photograph appeared in the December 1995 issue of the National Geographic© magazine. The ridge pictured in the photo is located in the Coon Creek Watershed in Vernon County. |
| One of the world's most remarkable series of conservation events has taken place in the Coon Creek Watershed in southwestern Wisconsin. This transformation happened through the first large-scale erosion control demonstration project in the US. |
| Originally a pristine woodland a century and a half ago, the area suffered ruinous agricultural degradation through early farming practices. Farm income failed not only because of the depression, but because productivity of the land was washed down the Mississippi. |
| The Coon Creek area is not hilly. The bedrock is extremely flat. The valleys and hillsides developed as millions of years of erosion shaped the landscape. The soils are very young however, geologically speaking. They developed from wind blown silt that was deposited when the glaciers west of the area receded. This three to ten foot layer of parent material has developed into ten-inches of topsoil over the last 10,000 years. This is the soil we farm. Early erosion has destroyed over one-half of the original topsoil. We now farm a layer of topsoil and subsoil mixed together. |
| In the early part of the century, damaging floods occurred every two or three years because of the poor condition of the upland woods and cropland. Average soil loss was 10 to 20 times higher than could sustain soil productivity. Upland silts literally filled the floodplains. |
| In Coon Valley, up to 13 feet of silt have filled low-lying valleys. You can see the thick layer of silt along streams where the water current has eaten away at the streambank. At least one old mill has been buried under the silt. The topsoil eroding from the hillsides not only affected the valleys in the Coon Creek area, but made its way to the Mississippi River and on into the Gulf of Mexico. |
"Coon Valley is one of a thousand farm communities, which through the abuse of its originally rich soil, has not only filled the national dinner pail…but has created the Mississippi flood problem, the navigation problem, the overproduction problem, and the problem of its own future continuity."
(From Aldo Leopold's essay "Coon Valley: An Adventure in Cooperative Conservation" 1935) |
Due to the efforts of a multi-disciplinary group of pioneering conservationists, a few farmers willing to risk a new way of farming, and the newly created Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), conservation planners used the degree of land slope to separate land use. Relatively flat bottomland and land sloping from 2-20% was usually cropland or pasture. Slopes from 8% to20% were put into contour strips. The 20-30% land was fenced for pasture by the CCC crews, and the steeper land was used for woods. These same guidelines were used on ridges to separate land use. |
| Today, conservation practices have reduced valley sediments 94% since the 1930s, and restored farmland productivity. Most woods are ungrazed and managed, flooding has been greatly reduced, wildlife is more abundant, and trout fishing in the area is unmatched in the Midwest. |
| The upstream branch of Coon Creek, Timber Coulee, is now the heaviest fished trout stream in Wisconsin and also the most productive. This is because upland soil conservation work has reduced erosion and is allowing more rainfall to infiltrate into the soil, improving spring flow and providing better water quality. With upland conservation practices slowing runoff, it now takes a very hard rain to cause excessive flooding in the valley. |
| The woods have never been this thick before. After the glaciers, the Native Americans burned back the trees to encourage Forbs and grasses for deer and other grazers. Early settlers grazed cattle and burned the woods in the spring. The Coon Creek project discouraged grazing and burning. The result is the first natural stand of mature trees in probably 10,000 years. About 44% of the watershed is now forested. Ungrazed hillside woods can absorb rainfall at the rate of 17 inches per hour without runoff occurring. |
| Wildlife numbers have also increased. One of the reasons is the habitat created along the edge of the woods by shrubs, which the early conservation plans encouraged. Another reason for the increase in wildlife is due to additional wetlands along the creek. |
| This conservation ethic continues today, with creative partnering and a commitment to preserve and enhance existing natural resources. |
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