Sugar Creek Watershed Protection

Stream Stewardship Trust Fund dollars were applied to restore and protect a natural riparian corridor on about 42 acres of priate farmland along the mainstem and spring-fed tributaries of Sugar Creek in Harrison County. The Sugar Creek watershed supports one of only two remnant populations of the federally endangered Topeka shiner in Missouri. Objectives of MDC's recovery plan for Topeka shiners include restoring and protecting additional riparian buffers in the Sugar Creek watershed to maintain channel stability and enhance water quality, habitat diversity and floodplain functions. The restoration was to be accomplished through a combination of enrollment of 7 acres of cropland and 10 acres of pastureland into 15-year contracts of riparian buffers under the USDA's Continuous Conservation Reserve Program and easement payments to maintain these buffers for a total of 30 years. Easement payments are also being made to protect 25 acres of existing wooded corridor for 30 years.