WASHINGTON — The Natural Resources Conservation Service has
ensured Prairie Creek will be around for another 60 years thanks
to a project on the channel. Throughout the month of October,
NRCS, along with the Prairie Creek Conservancy District and the
Indiana Department of Natural Resources created a series of
bendway weirs along a small portion of the creek near CR 225W.
“We believe this project is a unique application for the project
area,” NRCS District Conservationist Randy Van Matre said. A
bendway weir is a series of berms created by rock and in set at
an angle along the natural curve of the river. The weirs act as
barriers that stop the eroision of the river bank, but allow the
flow of water through the creek. It looks like a series of
ripples made of rock along the top of the water. The creek was
damaged in the floods of 2011, and parts of the creek were
damaged by further erosion. To limit the damage, NRCS engineers
and contractors created a key way and used rock to create a new
shoreline where the da