North Fork Crow River Watershed District Alternative Drainage Practices

The primary land use within the North Fork Crow River Watershed District is mainly row crop agriculture with extensive public and private drainage systems. A large portion of existing tile lines have open intakes that directly transport sediment and nutrients to open ditches leading to the North Fork Crow River (NFCR). The NFCR flows into Rice Lake that is impaired for aquatic recreation due to excessive nutrients. The District is planning on implementing agricultural conservation practices including 100 Alternative Inlets (Rock inlets or dense pattern tile intakes) and two saturated buffers, to reduce the nutrients, sediment and volume of water being transported by field tile. Implementation of these practices will reduce the nutrient loading from field tile and reduce pollutant loading into the NFCR and Rice Lake.