What is the Belle Fourche River Watershed Plan and why should I care?
The Belle Fourche River Watershed Plan was written and developed by local citizens of Crook County with the guidance from the Crook County Natural Resource District (CCNRD). The process began in 1998 when the two sections of the Belle Fourche River (BFR) and one section of Donkey Creek are listed as impaired on the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality’s (WYDEQ) 303 (d) list due to exceedences of fecal coliform bacteria. In order to AVOID regulatory action and address this issue on a local level, a local advisory group made up of landowners in Crook County was developed to write a watershed plan. The state of Wyoming is unique in United States because of the fact that Conservation Districts have worked with local citizens to write and implement watershed plans, instead of TMDL’s or Total Maximum Daily Loads. Most other states were not given this option and in fact the regulatory agencies prefer what we are doing because it’s “on-the ground implementation.” The watershed plan has
