An update on the Village of Wrightstown Plum Creek Project!

Background

In 2021, Fox-Wolf was awarded a grant from Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI) to install water storage and streambank restoration practices at and near Plum Creek. This project leverages $600,000 in GLRI funding and $200,00 from the Village of Wrightstown to slow and detain water runoff from upland agricultural fields and restores portions of the tributary stream leading to and a portion of the Plum Creek.

The Village of Wrightstown will be installing an agricultural runoff treatment system, or ARTS for short, (learn more about ARTS here) to capture the runoff from agricultural fields just on the outskirts of residential development, and Outagamie County will design and install check dams to continue to control and slow the water as it flows to Plum Creek.  Streambank restoration techniques will be employed in Plum Creek near the mouth of the Fox River and its adjacent tributary to return the section of Plum Creek to it’s natural width and restore healthy streambank conditions.

Update

Since the original award, Outagamie County and Village of Wrightstown engineers and project staff have worked to site the project components – check dams, ARTS, and streambank restoration – in the most effective locations.  Check dams were installed behind village hall in December of 2023.  Final plans for the remaining project components were finalized in late 2024, with the ARTS sited between St. John’s School / Wrightstown Health and Dick’s Foods / Plum Creek Plaza (see site plan above).  Streambank restoration will occur on portions of the tributary that runs to Plum Creek to repair the steep, eroding banks as well as on Plum Creek using rock bendway weirs, which absorb the impact of stream flow and prevent streambank erosion.

The project is currently pending final permits from the WDNR and construction is anticipated to start soon!

ARTS

Water runs to the ARTS system via surface water runoff from upland agricultural fields.  The water is captured in the sediment forebay, where it is held to allow sediment to fall out.  As the forebay fills, water flows over a berm and into treatment cell #1 and then into treatment cell #2.  While in the cells, wetland plants take up phosphorus for plant growth and additional sediment sinks to the bottom.  A water control structure is installed at the end of the ARTS system to meter water out and through the Phosphorus Removal System (PRS) which contains filter media to absorb the remaining phosphorus.  After the water is held sufficiently long in the PRS to allow for treatment, it is discharged at a controlled rate.

CHECK DAMS

Riprap will be used to create small dams that slow water down. Several are installed throughout the ravine.

BENDAWAY WEIRS

Due to the large cross sectional footprint of Plum Creek in this section, 2 sections of “bendway weirs” will be installed. These bendway weirs are constructed using riprap which is placed in barbs that stick out into the stream. The barbs keep the baseflow stream flow in center of stream and away from the erosion-prone outside bends of the streambanks. After storm events, when the stream rises, the bendway weirs are pointed upstream in a way to redirect high velocities back to the center of the stream which will reduce erosion as well. The area behind the barbs becomes locations where sediment will fall out as well.

Keepers of the Fox is a program of the Fox-Wolf Watershed Alliance that works cooperatively to protect, sustain, and restore the water resources of the Lower Fox River watershed.  For more information, contact Katie Woodrow, Lower Fox River Watershed Program Director at Katie@fwwa.org or 920.915.5767