In 2016, the Washington County Soil and Water Conservation District partnered with the Washington County Commissioners to apply for an Indiana Department of Natural Resources Lake and River Enhancement grant to have a Class IV log jam removed from the South Fork-Blue River.
The log jam was located near the Town of Fredericksburg and had eroded approximately 2 acres of farmland and continued to grow with each measureable rain event. The SWCD assisted the commissioners in writing the grant, overseeing the log jam removal and grant reporting.
The grant was awarded for the maximum of $35,000 and the logjam was removed in November of 2016.
The district could not take on the liability of the project and without the county commissioners’ willingness to step up to the plate, this project would not have been completed. With the removal of the logjam, there was a considerable decrease in the amount of sediment and nutrients released in to South Fork-Blue River and those waterbodies downstream, thus improving water quality.