Conservation Bus Tour Highlights District Accomplishments

In the Fall of 2016, the Clinton County Soil and Water Conservation District hosted a Conservation Bus Tour of publically funded conservation projects in the Wildcat Creek Watershed.  Attendees, which included public officials, agency personnel and interested citizens, heard from various guest speakers on completed projects in both urban and rural settings and participated in networking discussions to explore future opportunities.

Featured stops on the Tour included projects in which the CCSWCD provided leadership, technical services and financial assistance. 

  • Mulberry Rain Garden Retrofit— Project partners involved were the Frankfort Public Library and the CCSWCD.  The tour stop highlighted how rain gardens can be attractive community green spaces while also providing functional drainage.
  • Conservation Cropping System(s)—Hal Brown, a local producer, discussed conservation cropping systems and the four primary concepts: minimize soil disturbance (continuous no-till/strip till), maximize diversity in growing crops (cover crops), adaptive pest and nutrient management and precision ag.
  • 2-Stage Ditch— achieves mutual goals of increasing conveyance capacity and improved channel stability as well as encouraging improvements in aquatic habitat and filtering capacity.  Project partners included the Clinton County Surveyor, County Commissioners and the CCSWCD.
  • Forested Buffers—NICHES Land Trust, Executive Director, Gus Nyberg took attendees on a walking tour of the their newest land acquisition the Ferguson Nature Preserve.
  • Ivy Tech—Davidson Campus—rain gardens, bio-swales, pervious concrete and permeable were installed on campus during the construction phase to minimize stormwater runoff from parking areas before being discharged to Prairie Creek.  Educational interpretive signage was installed across campus to serve as a valuable demonstration area to showcase innovative stormwater management redevelopment for future Frankfort Initiatives.   Collaborative effort of the CCSWCD, the City of Frankfort and Ivy Tech.