The Wrightstown Plum Creek Project is complete!
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 came in just under budget of the $600,000 in GLRI funding and $200,00 from the Village of Wrightstown. While the project had some challenges and delays, the goals to slow and detain water runoff from upland agricultural fields and to restore portions of the tributary stream leading to and a portion of the Plum Creek were achieved!
Using a combination of practices, an area that was degraded and inaccessible has been improved. An agricultural runoff treatment system, or ARTS for short, was installed to capture the runoff from agricultural fields just on the outskirts of residential development, and check dams were installed adjacent to Village Hall to continue to control and slow the water as it flows to Plum Creek. Streambank restoration techniques were 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.
These permanent practices will provide nutrient (phosphorus) and sediment reductions year over year from the time of installation in perpetuity!
- Total reduction of 948 lb of phosphorus annually!
- Total reduction of 640 lb of sediment annually!
- Treatment of 150 acres of runoff, an estimated 58 million gallons of water!
These numbers, while they can be difficult to quantify and visualize, mean a significant improvement in the amount of soil and algae-fueling nutrients making their way into the Fox River!
