Bonne Femme land-use plan revealed today

The Bonne Femme watershed is home to a diverse ecosystem of streams and caves, including the Devil’s Icebox and Hunter’s Cave, along with endangered species such as the Indiana bat and cherrystone snail.

The watershed, which is bisected by U.S. 63, is also home to an increasing number of people and seen by some as a place for economic opportunity.

The Bonne Femme Watershed project has been working four years to develop land-use policies that minimize the impact to water quality. Ben Londeree, co-chairman of the stakeholder committee that developed a plan for the watershed, said it’s designed to “protect the streams from future development, but not to bankrupt everyone.”

Balancing ecological issues with property rights is the centerpiece of the plan that will be presented to the public from 5 to 8 p.m. today at the Little Bonne Femme Baptist Church. The public will also be able to view the plan by later this week. Comments can be made at the project’s Web site — www.cavewatershed.org — until April 24.

Whether to adopt any of the suggestions in the plan will be left to city and county governments.

The karst topography that characterizes much of the 93 square-mile watershed creates unique difficulties for maintaining water quality and land-use rights. The ground is porous, and the fractured limestone allows water to move from the surface to below ground without filtration.

Terry Frueh, a watershed conservationist overseeing the Boone Femme project, said the cave ecosystems are subject to fewer extremes, such as temperature, making them especially sensitive to environmental changes such as water quality.

The $727,000 grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that financed the watershed initiative includes $320,000 in cost-share funds available to landowners for water-quality projects. Less than $20,000 of the money has been used, Frueh said. Most cost-share projects have been maintenance of septic systems; one Pierpont resident used $13,000 to upgrade his septic system.

The cost-share grant expires in June.

“We are exploring the possibility of extending the grant beyond that. It is likely that is will be extended,” Frueh said, citing conversations with the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, the agency that handles the EPA grant.

One purpose of the plan put together by the stakeholder committee is to encourage greater use of the cost-share grant money, which covers up to 60 percent of project costs.

If city or county governments decide to enact some of the suggestions, they would be eligible for the cost-share funds, Frueh said.

One theme in the land-use document is promoting the use of best management practices to minimize stream degradation such as filtration systems, methods for capturing storm-water runoff or limiting the square footage of a roof.

Londeree said that not everyone likes all parts of the proposal. “When you work with so many stakeholders, you have to make compromises,” he said.