Friends of the Platte River
The Friends of the Platte
River, Inc. began in 2006 as an informal group of landowners under the
sponsorship of Southwest Badger RC&D. The Friends of the Platte River
have worked diligently to establish the fundamentals for an active and
successful watershed group in the Platte River
watershed. .
The mission of the Friends of the Platte
River, Inc. is to be a “group that exists to serve as a forum to
address
issues affecting the Platte/Little Platte River
watershed and to
seek impartial solutions that restore, enhance, and protect this
valuable
resource.”
The
target area for this project is the Platte/Little
Platte River watershed in the southwest corner of the state of Wisconsin, in Grant County.
The watershed
covers approximately 350 square miles in a predominantly agricultural
area of
the state and is located in the Driftless Area, a region of geological
and
ecological importance, which has received recent attention on the part
of
regional law-makers and organizations such as Trout Unlimited.
Agricultural
nonpoint source pollution and sediment loading have a significant
impact on
most streams in the watershed. In addition, miles of the lower portion
of the
watershed are adversely influenced by water level fluctuations from
Lock and
Dam Number 11 on the Mississippi River
directly
downstream from the mouth of the river. The sediment load affects
instream
habitat throughout the lower portion of the watershed by filling in
pools and
promoting the growth of aquatic plants. The Platte
River also carries a large
sediment
load to the Mississippi River. This
sediment
load has national implications as it contributes to the hypoxia zone in
the Gulf of Mexico.
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