Publications

KRWP's Landowner's Guide To Streamside Living—2017

The Kings River Watershed Partnership is proud to offer this updated guide to assist landowners with the many questions and issues that arise when living and working next to a stream. We have made every effort to provide an accurate summary of each issue, but this information should be used only as a guide and not as a substitute for legal council. This guide is specifically written for folks living in the Kings River Watershed located in Northwest Arkansas, but many of the principles could be used for streamside living nationwide. The vast majority of lands in the Kings River Watershed are privately owned, so the decisions that individual landowners make today are extremely important to the long-term health of the watershed.

This resource handbook for property owners and watershed residents was originally published in March 2009. It is a collection of the hundreds of hours of research on rules and regulations, scientific publications, and interviews with public officials, completed by the partnership's former project coordinator, Shawna Miller. It is an ongoing part of KRWP's mission as a voluntary, educational, non-profit organization.

The original creation of this guide was funded by the Kings River Watershed Partnership and the Arkansas Natural Resources Commission. This updated edition is made possible by members of KRWP and our generous sponsors, as seen in the back of the printed guide. Please visit their businesses and let them know how much you appreciate them!

Table of Contents

Cover-Acknowledgements—Table of Contents

Section 1. Introduction to Our Watershed

1.1. Map of the Kings River Watershed

1.2. Land Use

1.3. Access Points to the Kings River

1.4. Recreational Opportunities

Section 2. Rules and Regulations

2.1. Ownership and Public Use

2.2. Property and Stream Modifications

2.3. Onsite Waste Treatment Systems

2.4. Wildlife Regulations

2.5. Water Quality Regulations

2.6. Floodplain Development

2.7. Waste Disposal

KRWP's Newsletter—Stream Line

Links below are to available back issues of the Kings River Watershed Partnership's membership newsletter. Stream Line. Newletters and other publications are in Adobe Reader PDF format.

Free Download of Adobe Reader - 27 MB

Vol 6 Issue 1 - Spring 2013 (279 KB)

Vol 5 Issue 2 - October 2012 (257 KB)

Vol 5 Issue 1 - March 2012 (283 KB)

Vol 4 Issue 1 - March 2011 (715 KB)

Vol 3 Issue 1 - February 2008 (1.28 MB)

Vol 2 Issue 4 - August 2007 (319 KB)

Vol 2 Issue 3 - May 2007 (1.85 MB)

Vol 2 Issue 2 - November 2006 (498 KB)

Vol 1 Issue 7 - April 2006 (520 KB)

Vol 1 Issue 6 - December 2005 (339 KB)

Vol 1 Issue 5 - September 2005 (413 KB)

Vol 1 Issue 4 - June 2005 (1.08 MB)

Vol 1 Issue 3 - April 2005 (394 KB)

Vol 1 Issue 2 - February 2005 (388 KB)

Voluntary Watershed Plan

This voluntary watershed plan for the Kings River Watershed is a living, breathing document. It is not a static document intended to sit gathering dust on a shelf. It outlines actions that property owners and stakeholders in the watershed can take to address perceived problems. The plan will evolve and change as the vision and interests of concerned citizens change over time.

Executive Summary of Plan (19 KB)

Plan Part 1 (567 KB)

Plan Part 2 (392 KB)

About the Plan—A series of open public meetings were held in 2003, 2004, and 2005 in Carroll and Madison Counties, on issues impacting the Kings River included presentations on topics such as land development, municipal wastewater treatment, land application of nutrients, stream bank erosion, property rights, water quality testing, septic tanks, and urban impacts. Discussions on these issues generated a wide-ranging list of property owners’ concerns.

Water quality concerns evolved into the beginnings of the process to create a voluntary watershed plan that would give voice to residents determined to maintain local control over streams and develop specific actions to address perceived problems. A grant in July of 2004 from the Upper White River Basin Foundation, a non-profit group from across the state line in Missouri, funded a two-year watershed planner position, filled by watershed resident, Shawna Miller. Her task, at the direction of the KRWP board, was to create a voluntary watershed plan.

The Kings Roundtable, a series of 15 planning meetings involving over 60 watershed stakeholders during 2005, determined the water quality concerns, recommended restoration action strategies, and identified educational curriculum, monitoring programs, and voluntary land use management measures for the plan.

This voluntary watershed plan, completed in Fall 2006, will be used by KRWP to direct and prioritize its activities to improve water quality in the most economically efficient and environmentally effective way possible.

Publications