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Sugar Creek Watershed Background

THE WATERSHED

The Sugar Creek Watershed, hydrologic unit 11130302-170, located primarily in Caddo County, Oklahoma, lies in the Western Sandstone Hills, and drains approximately 233 square miles (148,748 acres) into the Washita River. The highlands are in the younger Rush Springs Sandstone, of Late Permian age (270 to 250 million years ago), the lowlands are in the older Marlow Formation, filled with Quaternary Alluvium. Sugar Creek's headwaters originate three miles west of Hinton, Oklahoma and flow in a south-southeasterly direction for approximately 31 miles. The terrain drops from a maximum elevation of 1680 feet above mean sea level (MSL) to a minimum 1150 feet MSL.

CLIMATE

Caddo County is in the southwestern part of Oklahoma and has a warm, temperate continental climate. This area receives the warmer, moisture-laden air from the Gulf of Mexico, which is regularly penetrated by the cooler drier air moving down from the Arctic Zone or approaching from the Pacific. When these two air systems meet, significant changes in temperature, precipitation, and wind velocity often occur. There were 65 tornadoes recorded in Caddo County from 1950 to 1995.

Caddo County has an average annual temperature of 61.2 degrees Fahrenheit (F), with a range in temperature from 37.1 degrees F. in January to 83.1 degrees F. in July. The average daily variation is around 26 degrees. The average freeze-free season ranges from 204 days in the northwestern part to 210 days in the southeastern part of the County. The average annual precipitation in Caddo County is 29.8 inches. The highest monthly averages fall in May, June, and September. About 32 percent of the annual precipitation is in the spring, 28 percent in the summer and fall, and 12 percent in the winter.

SETTLEMENT - CHANGES TO THE WATERSHED

In the early 1900's, before white settlement, Sugar Creek's stability was governed by the valley, a wide shallow floodplain, prairie grasses: sand bluestem, Indian grass, and switch grass, and stands of trees: big tooth maple, sugar maple, red maple, western hackberry, slippery elm, American elm, chinquapin oak, bur oak, redbud, chittamwood, black walnut, western walnut, cottonwood, willow and red cedar. With settlement, land use changed, crop land replaced grasslands and woodlands were cleared. In addition Sugar Creek's tributaries were pushed over to the edges of plowed fields. The watershed response was an increase of runoff and detachment of upland sediments. Consequently, Sugar Creeks lower reaches and floodplains aggraded and flooding became more frequent, with 100 floods recorded in the interval from 1923 to 1949.

PRESENT LAND USE

Eighty-seven percent (87%) of the county is in farm land usage (crop and range land). County estimates for 1997, show 70 percent of the cultivated land in wheat, 15 percent of the land in all types of hay, 8 percent in peanuts, 3 percent in sorghum, and approximately 1 percent each for oats, corn, cotton, and soybeans. Approximately 8 percent of the crop land is irrigated.

NRCS INVOLVEMENT

In the late 1950's, at the request of the South Caddo County Soil and Water District and North Caddo County Soil Conservation District, the Soil Conservation Service initiated a watershed protection project to reduce flooding and address the sedimentation concerns. Under the authority of PL 78-534, the Flood Control Act of 1944, the Sugar Creek Watershed was one of eleven watershed projects authorized. Planned measures included 43 flood retarding structures (one was later deleted), 21.3 miles of channel improvement, several grade stabilization structures and other land treatment measures.

Since Sugar Creek channel was first constructed in the mid 1960's, flooding has been significantly reduced or eliminated. However, there have been continual problems with channel grade degradation, bank instability, and sedimentation. There have been continual attempts to stabilize various reaches of the channel, some have met with limited success.

PROBLEMS/OPPORTUNITIES

There are four primary problems that exist in the Sugar Creek Watershed today.

  1. Sedimentation in the Washita River downstream from the confluence with Sugar Creek.
  2. Bank instability along Sugar Creek's main channel and tributaries.
  3. Degrading side lateral channels.
  4. Possible excessive sedimentation in some of the floodwater retarding structures.

Sugar Creek's drainage network is not functioning as designed due to excessive erosion and stabilization problems. A geomorphic study of the watershed was recommended and initiated to assess erosion in the system and determine alternative methods to stabilize the main channel and primary tributaries.

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