A group of SCHS students recently traveled to Des Moines, Iowa, to present information on the Shell Creek Watershed at the International Soil and Water Conservation Society Conference. The conference took place August 6-9. Three Newman Grove Public School students – Zander J., Aleeya M., and Halie N. – and three Schuyler Central High School students - Grant A., Max A., and Hayden B. – presented in an oral symposia presentation as well as a poster presentation.
The Shell Creek watershed encompasses over 300,000 acres in portions of Boone, Madison, Platte, and Colfax counties in the Lower Platte North Natural Resources District. This area has a history of chronic flooding, soil erosion and poor water quality. Concerns about these issues led a group of farmers to form an organization in 1999 called the Shell Creek Watershed Improvement Group (SCWIG). This group promoted conservation practices for over 20 years, in partnership with local, state, and federal agencies.
These grassroots efforts led to the implementation of a comprehensive watershed management plan. In 2018, Shell Creek was removed from the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Water Act List of Impaired Waters for the herbicide, Atrazine. This was a monumental success for SCWIG, residents in the Shell Creek Watershed, and Nebraska as a whole.
Over the years, SCWIG has prioritized education outreach to improve public awareness and encourage conservation throughout the watershed. In 2002, teachers and students from Newman Grove High School and Schuyler Central High School formed the Shell Creek Watershed Student Monitoring Group. The group has since evolved to include Columbus Lakeview Public Schools, following the Shell Creek from Northwest of Newman Grove to Southeast of Schuyler.
The students involved in the monitoring group spend two days each month, May through August, testing water for physical and chemical factors that contribute to erosion and water quality degradation. Consistent, annual monitoring allows water conservationists and local farmers to take appropriate actions that help to protect the stream. Recently, new technologies have been added to the project such as drones and GIS.
The following is a summary of the information the students presented at the symposia, titled, “Understanding a Midwestern Watershed: An in-depth analysis of a farmer-led watershed group support, student water quality monitoring, human dimensions analysis, and hydrologic impacts in the Shell Creek Watershed.”
1) The functionality, conservation actions, and impact of SCWIG: this includes identifying the needs & challenges of the group, the approach to promoting conservation adoption amongst farmers, and the role of partnerships in financial & technical support.
2) Student water quality monitoring by Newman Grove students: students gave detailed descriptions on the history of the volunteer program, the water quality analysis being conducted, and associated outreach and education efforts.
3) Shell Creek watershed producer perceptions of water quality and attitudes to conservation practices: All producers (886) in the watershed were surveyed, with 22% (n=194) responding, and 17.7% of respondents very concerned about water quality impacting their farm. 79.9% of respondents are implementing no-till and 31% are implementing cover crops, although most do not consider themselves early adopters of conservation (88%).
4) The use and impacts of conservation practices on flooding in the watershed by using a high-resolution remotely sensed conservation practice dataset (1990-2020) to understand the use of conservation practices including reduced or no tillage, cover crops and crop rotations in this watershed. It uses Fast Causal Inference (FCI) and Fast Greedy Equivalence Search (FGES) to assess the cause-and-effect relationships between the implementation of different conservation practices, water quantity, and quality variables.
The students were joined at the conference by Newman Grove teacher and Lower Platte North Natural Resources District (LPNNRD) board member, Mark Seier; FFA advisor Hal Moomey; SCWIG member, local producer, and LPNNRD board member Matt Bailey; LPNNRD Assistant Manager, Ryan Chapman; and UNL Extension Educator, Katie Pekarek attended the conference. Additional LPNNRD staff and UNL staff helped with preparing materials for the presentation.
Mark Seier has led the Shell Creek Watershed Monitoring Project at Newman Grove for many years. He explains the student group as a combination of hands-on learning and good old-fashioned playing in the mud which keeps students engaged and wanting to learn more. Teachers have realized that the project is the perfect way to expose high school students to important issues in their community.
For the past 21 years, the students have compiled all their data and related information onto an extensive website. At the end of each summer, students also summarize their data and present it to the LPNNRD staff, board of directors and concerned citizens. This year, the presentation will be held at the Newman Grove High School on November 13th.
