What's the problem with Camp Creek?
Camp Creek provides 14.8 miles of stream through Polk County and is primarily used as a water source for livestock. The creek is also a recreational resource, particularly in Thomas Mitchell Park, where fishing and wading is common. The stream is beneficial to many visitors and a variety of wildlife, but Camp Creek is threatened by excess sediment and nutrients.

When rain falls in the 26,300 acres of the Camp Creek watershed, it erodes valuable topsoil and washes it into the stream. Excess sediment can reduce water clarity, damage habitat of aquatic life, fill in streambeds, clog drainageways and deliver phosphorous to the stream.

Phosphorous and nitrogen are the two most common nutrients in Iowa, which are needed for healthy soils and waters. However, too many nutrients in Iowa's lakes, streams, creeks and rivers is not a good thing.

High nutrient levels can lead to poor water quality in Camp Creek. These levels can cloud water, create low oxygen and high ammonia levels, which are harmful to fish and other aquatic life. It can also lead to nuisance levels of algae and aquatic plants that interfere with recreation, and can lead to potentially toxic algae blooms.
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What's being done to help Camp Creek?
Conservation practices along Camp Creek include filter strips and grade stabilization structures, both of which combat excessive sediment and nutrients.

Filter strips are strips of grass or other vegetation used to trap sediment (and pollutants attached to it) from runoff.

Grade stabilization structures are built across grass waterways or gullies and reduce water flow and slow erosion.
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What can I do to help?
The Camp Creek Watershed Project has a number of conservation practices for farms and country living. Landowners can consider installing conservation practices to control the amount of sediment, nutrients and other pollutants reaching Camp Creek from their homes or farms.

Residents of Camp Creek can volunteer as part of IOWATER monitoring. Volunteer monitors collect information on the levels of nitrates, nitrites, dissolved oxygen, pH, chloride and phosphate in creeks and streams.

Some monitors also report on the water's temperature and color, on biological life in the monitoring area, which is often an indicator of water quality. The public then can view water monitoring results from across the state at IOWATER.

Brandon Dittman, watershed project coordinator, can work with you to evaluate your property and identify practices that can help both the creek and your property. Dittman can also help find financial assistance to install those practices. Landowners participating in the watershed project can generally get improved financial assistance opportunities.
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What is the future of Camp Creek?
"The future at Camp Creek will only get better compared to its past," said Brandon Dittman, watershed coordinator. "With many of the conservation practices underway, and a high interest from citizens, Camp Creek is looking to be restored to a high quality stream."
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Meet the project coordinator Brandon Dittman grew up on one of the Iowa Great Lakes in Dickinson County, and had a great deal of appreciation for the environment. Dittman graduated with an Environmental Science degree from the University of Iowa in 2000, and proceeded to obtain a Master's Degree in water resource from Iowa State University in 2005, studying under Dr. William Crumpton and Dr. Arnold van der Valk. In July 2005, Dittman was hired as a DNR GIS technician. Dittman routinely consulted and/or provided maps for TMDL, storm water, waste water and source water protection projects. Dittman was hired as watershed coordinator for the Camp Creek Watershed in March 2007.