Needs Assessment

DRAFT 5-Year Needs Assessment

Cole County Soil and Water
Conservation District
5-Year Needs Assessment
December 2013

This needs assessment has been prepared by the Cole County SWCD Board of Supervisors for our soil and water conservation district as a way to express the districts need for cost-share funding for the upcoming fiscal years. Information contained in this report was obtained from the census from the years 1987, 1992, 1997, 2002 and 2007, along with previous strategic plans for Cole County SWCD, previous cost-share amounts, and information from the CARES database.

Cole County is physically the second smallest county in the state of Missouri with an area of 250,524 square miles and a population of 71,397. Just over 78 percent of the acres in the county are grassland and forest, cropland covers 8.5 percent of the county and the urban acres are 6.5 percent. The cropland consists mainly of corn, soybeans and wheat. 43 percent or 110,046 acres of the county are on a greater than 10 percent land slope with almost 55 percent of the acres comprised of a hydrologic soil group that have a slow infiltration rate. Soils with steep slopes are subject to extreme erosion if management is neglected. Tracts of forest are small and require special management to maintain suitable conditions for production of timber, water quality, recreation and wildlife habitat. In the early 1980s coal mining accelerated with greater demands for energy. Now many of the old mined areas have not been reclaimed.  Over the past seven to 10 years we have seen a significant change in the cropland and grassland acre percentages. Approximately 60 percent of the cropland acres have changed to grassland acres. We feel this is mainly due to the enrollment of these acres in the CRP program. With the first round of the 10-year enrollments coming to an end, and with the increased demand for ethanol, a large portion of these acres will likely change back to cropland.

There are 1,144 miles of streams in Cole County with 75 percent of them being intermittent streams. (See attached list of streams.)  53 miles of streams in Cole County are gaining streams meaning groundwater discharges contribute significantly to the stream flow volume. Cole County lakes and streams on the 303(d) list include 129 miles of the Missouri River, 82 miles of the Osage River, and two smaller recreational lakes -- Hough Park Lake and McKay Lake. Hough Park Lake, McKay Lake and the Osage River are on the 303(d) list due to excess levels of mercury. The Missouri River is on the 303(d) list due to point and nonpoint sources of chlordane. There are numerous private drinking water wells, 52 public drinking water wells and 43 community drinking water wells. Irrigation in the county lies mostly in the Osage and Missouri River bottoms where both stream water and shallow irrigation wells are being used.  Mineral resources are tiff mining and limestone. Large quarries are located near the Jefferson City area.  Agriculture is still the dominant land use in Cole County.

Over 50 percent of the population of Cole County has had some college education or has earned a college degree. This level of education provides a greater understanding of the need and benefit of implementing conservation practices. Currently the majority of the farms in the county are privately owned with the average size of a farm running 170 acres, and the board does not see this changing over the next few years.

The board feels that the numbers above are fairly accurate for the current state of the agricultural farm demographics for the present time. 

Proposed Cost Share Usage Chart for 5-Year Needs Assessment

Streams

County: Cole (29051)