Lake Monroe, Bloomington's freshwater source.
(Adam Pinsker, WFIU/WTIU News)
A new voluntary cost-share program is available to landowners in the Lake Monroe watershed.
In an effort to reduce soil erosion and water pollution, Friends of Lake Monroe will fund up to 75% (to a max of $10,000) of the cost to implement practices such as planting cover crops, fencing livestock out of streams, installing permanent vegetation along streams, and installing heavy use area protection where livestock gather.
Maggie Sullivan, Lake Monroe Watershed Coordinator with Friends of Lake Monroe, said the program will directly fund a finite amount of watershed residents.
“In terms of how many people will actually participate in the program, if we can get 30 or 40, that would be great,” she said. “In terms of how many people we reach with education, we're hoping that number is a lot bigger, in the hundreds and the thousands.”
Friends of Lake Monroe, a non-profit formed to protect the lake, received $179,404 in grant funding from the Indiana Department of Environmental Management. Additional financial support from the Monroe County Stormwater Board and 10 partner organizations will be used for a $300,000 three-year project to implement portions of the 2022 Lake Monroe Watershed Management Plan.
That plan aims to reduce the amount of sediment, nutrients, and fecal contamination reaching the lake by pursuing multiple projects across the watershed.
Sullivan said the cost-share program will work primarily with farmers to address fecal contamination and other runoff material entering streams that feed Lake Monroe.
“It's primarily farmers, since we know that farmers are actively tilling the soil, they're actively putting down fertilizer, or they have animals that are putting down manure, and those are things that we really want to make sure don't get into the water,” she said. “But anyone who has a stream may not think about it, but their actions can impact that stream. If they're mowing their lawn all the way to the edge of the stream, then that's not providing much protection for the stream bank.”
Friends of Lake Monroe will also partner with the Soil & Water Conservation Districts in Monroe, Brown, and Jackson Counties to host field days showcasing best conservation practices in the region.
Sullivan said that Friends of Lake Monroe is also working to educate watershed residents about properly maintaining septic older septic systems.
“There's about 9,000 septic systems in the watershed,” she said. “We know a lot of them are 30, 40, 50 years old. So we're doing a lot of education to help people at least focus on maintaining their septic systems so they'll catch any problems before they arise. And we hope in the future to find ways to financially support people who really need to make updates as well.”
Interested landowners can learn more at the Friends of Lake Monroe website. The initial application deadline is June 1, 2023, with funds being awarded as a reimbursement after work is completed.
