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C-T Photo/Laura Schuler

CAPTION: Several landowners, conservation officials, county commissioners and government representatives attended a “first contract” signing Wednesday at the Litton Agri-Science Learning Center to mark the beginning of a four-year initiative designed to reduce water run-off into the Grand River and preserve nutrients in the soil. Pictured are, front row, from left: Jimmy Stewart, Carroll County commissioner; Nelson Heil, Carroll County presiding commissioner; David Martin, Carroll County commissioner. Middle row, from left: Shawna Searcy, field representative for Congressman Sam Graves; Dave Johnson, NRCS district conservationist; Larry Kemble, chairman of the Carroll SWCD; Melvin Littrell, initiative participant; J.R. Flores, NRCS state conservationist; Steve Radcliff, chairman of the Livingston SWCD. Back row, from left: Scott Roy, MDC private lands conservationist; Bryan Hopkins, director of the Missouri Department of Natural Resources Soil and Water Conservation program, and Mike Lair, 7th District state representative.

Conservation efforts in the Lower Grand Watershed have received a huge financial boost in the amount of $8.5 million over the next four years in federal cost share assistance that will go directly to farmers and ranchers with land in the watershed through the National Resources Conservation Service.

A "first contract" signing ceremony for the project took place Wednesday at the Litton Agri-Science Learning Center. Those signing the first contract were Steve Radcliff, chairman of the Livingston County Soil and Water Conservation District, of Chillicothe, Melvin Littrell, representing land owners within the watershed, also of Chillicothe, and J.R. Flores, Natural Resources Conservation Service state conservationist of Columbia, Missouri.

The Livingston and Carroll Lower Grand Watershed Project, which includes nearly 400,000 acres in parts of Livingston, Carroll, Linn and Chariton counties is part of the Mississippi River Basin Healthy Watersheds Initiative, which will extend from 2010 to 2013. The focus area of the Lower Grand Watershed involves approximately 155,000 acres of cultivated cropland and about 150,000 acres of pastured grassland.

In Livingston County, work will center around the Muddy Parsons Creek area east of Chillicothe with about $700,000 annually earmarked for that work.

Watershed Plans Advance
NRCS awards design contract for 2,235-acre reservoir in Sullivan County
Constitution-Tribune, Oct 05, 2010

The USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) has awarded an architect-engineering services contract for the design stages of a 2,235-acre reservoir in Sullivan County (northeast of Livingston County) that could provide a source of water for residents in 10 counties in north-central Missouri while reducing soil erosion and flooding.

Harold Deckerd, NRCS assistant state conservationist, says the reservoir is part of a project in the East Locust Creek Watershed that also includes 94 small, floodwater-retarding structures. More than 70 of those ponds already have been constructed in the watershed since the project was begun in 1987.

The large, multi-purpose reservoir was added to the watershed plan in 2007 to address water-supply needs for the region. The reservoir could provide water for residents in Adair, Chariton, Grundy, Linn, Livingston, Macon, Mercer, Putnam, Schuyler and Sullivan counties. An additional benefit will be the water-based recreation that the reservoir will provide.