RRWC, Michigan

To the right you will find links to presentations and products developed by the University of Michigan research team for the River Raisin Watershed Management Plan.

The University of Michigan's Final Project can be found by clicking on this link:  FINAL PROJECT

Below is a summary of the teams findings:

The University of Michigan water quality analysis suggested that agricultural pollution is a major cause of water quality degradation across the basin. We found the basin to be more impaired by high Total Nitrogen and Total Phosphorous levels than by Total Suspended Matter or Conductivity. We recommend that agricultural Best Management Practices (BMPs) be put in place to reduce nutrient loading to waterways, and that they be targeted in those subwatersheds where water quality performance was consistently low: the South Branch, Black, Saline, and Macon subwatersheds. Additionally, we undertook a literature review to identify ten agricultural BMPs which are most likely to prove effective for the Raisin.  Those BMPs are conservation tillage, contour cropping, nutrient management plans, covert cropping, residue management, critical area planting, riparian buffers, irrigation management, rotational grazing, and conservation coverage.