The Texas County and Dent County Soil and Water Conservation Districts hosted an informational tour of the Upper Current River Headwaters Proposed AgNPS Special Area Land Treatment Project on February 6. Twenty people participated, representing the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, the Missouri Department of Conservation, University of Missouri Outreach and Extension, and private interest groups. The focus of the tour was on problem areas of agricultural non-point source pollution that threaten water quality in the watershed.
The project, if approved by the Missouri Soil and Water Conservation Commission, will work with landowners on a voluntary basis to develop sustainable forage and timber management programs that will better protect the soil and water resources of the area. This project will recognize timber as an agricultural crop and will be funded with monies from the parks and soils sales tax set aside to address agricultural-related non-point source pollution problems. Potentially, special conservation cost-share practices could be made available to cooperating landowners within the watershed, with up to 75 percent of the installation cost of the practice being reimbursed.
The group toured several stops in the Big Creek and Ashley Creek Watershed, looking at several sinkholes, pasture conditions, different types of timber harvest management, and site preparations after harvesting. A comparison was made of the soil types and timber in the area. Verlin Beasley, a longtime Raymondville timber producer, showed the group some recently harvested managed timber, a pine-thinning, and gave a history of the timber resource that spanned 80 years.
Verlin Beasley of Raymondville, Mo. addresses the group at the Tower Tree On Big Creek which was used as a fire lookout tower until 1958.