Watershed - Sugar and Honey Creeks (FX05)
Sugar and Honey Creeks Watershed

Details

The Sugar and Honey Creeks Watershed covers about 170 square miles and is located in portions of Walworth and Racine Counties. The majority of the watershed (approximately 90%) lies within Walworth County, with the balance in Racine County. Sugar and Honey Creeks come together at the Honey Lake impoundment. Honey Creek continues for a short distance and empties into Echo Lake, which is the downstream limit of the watershed. Land cover is primarily rural, with agriculture dominant (58%). Forests cover over 13 percent of the land area, while grasslands (11%) and wetlands (9%) represent the other major rural uses. Urban lands cover just over one percent of the land area. The City of Elkhorn and Village of East Troy lie within the watershed. The Sugar-Honey Creeks Watershed contains over 100 miles of perennial streams. Nearly 19 miles of streams in the watershed are on the 303(d) list. Although these streams are heavily impacted by agriculture, they still maintain a fairly high diversity of warm water forage and game fish species. The main impacts to these streams include agriculture, development, channelization and impoundments. Best management practices in agriculture should be considered to reduce the sedimentation and nutrient impacts. In addition, where possible, habitat restoration and implementation of buffer strips should be considered to help enhance bank stabilization, fish populations and water quality. At 311 acres, Green Lake is the largest of the eleven lakes in the watershed.

Date  2002