Clark Creek Photo Slideshow

The Clark Creek watershed experienced extreme flooding in June of 2008, causing extensive damage to private and public property on State Highway (STH) 113 south of Baraboo, Wisconsin. The Clark Creek watershed has experienced repeated damaging and hazardous flooding such as the 2008 event over the last 20 years. An initial evaluation of the flooding issues on Clark Creek and potential
mitigation actions was completed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in September 2008. In March 2011, a follow-up study was conducted by Montgomery Associates: Resource Solutions, LLC (MARS) to evaluate potential measures to mitigate damages due to future floods similar to the June 2008 event and to recommend which options are likely to be feasible and cost effective.

Based on the results of the MARS study, Sauk County chose to pursue multiple flood mitigation options, including construction of upland storage areas for flood peak flow reduction (Figure 1). The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) owns the land where flood storage areas are being considered and currently leases it to farmers. The leases will expire at the end of this year for two areas: north of Tower Road near Neuman Road (area 7 on Figure 1), and south of Tower Road just west of the quarry (areas 5, 6 and 12 on Figure 1). The County hired MARS to provide a more detailed analysis of these two upland flood storage areas for flood mitigation.