Mississippi Headwaters Habitat Corridor Project - Phase III
The Mississippi River is known as "America's greatest river", one of the largest in the world. It provides critical habitat for fish, wildlife and migratory waterfowl along its first 400 miles - its Headwaters that course through 8 Minnesota Counties from Itasca State Park to southern Morrison County. It also provides drinking water for St Cloud and the Twin Cities plus varied recreation opportunities for millions of people. Protecting the Headwaters' water quality and adjacent shoreland habitats through strategically placed permanent land protection is critical to maintaining fish, game, and non-game wildlife habitat as well as food and shelter for millions of migratory waterfowl annually on the Mississippi Flyway.
This Project's funding has been expanded beyond the ML17 appropriation to funding through through Phase Six (ML 22) resulting in the cumulative protection to date of 6,356 acres and over 50 miles of shoreland on the Mississippi River, major tributaries, and contributing headwaters lakes ( continuing to exceed appropriation goals by over 200%).
Public lands adjacent to the Mississippi River are increasingly in danger of losing habitat connectivity as private lands are under more development pressure potentially causing fragmentation of forests and critical upland and shoreland habitats. This Project's goal is creating or enlarging permanently protected upland habitat complexes to insure game and non-game wildlife have a secure place to raise their young, seek shelter and food, and move around without disturbance; the protection of water quality as a necessary fish habitat; and food and shelter for migratory waterfowl. At the same time, the Project opens up new opportunities for public recreation along the Mississippi Headwaters and within its major watershed.
Fee-title acquisition with final public ownership (either the DNR or a Headwaters' county) and RIM conservation easements, held in perpetuity by BWSR, were the land protection tools used in strategic locations to create or expand permanently protected habitat corridors. (see answers to questions below for the scientific methodology used to select priority parcels for land conservation). The targeted geography for the project was the minor watershed corridor of the first 400 miles of the Mississippi River, its major tributaries, and headwaters lakes.
Project partners (MHB, TPL, and BWSR) defined initial priorities for the project that guided the implementation of Phase III (ML17) and subsequent phases for the Mississippi Headwaters Habitat Corridor Project. A Technical Committee comprised of partner representatives, the DNR, and The Nature Conservancy reviewed proposed fee-title acquisitions and easements and approved those utilizing ranking criteria related to habitat quality, public access, location, size and supporting conservation. This process insures that critical habitat value was achieved with the funding appropriated.
Completion of Phase III (ML17) resulted in the permanent protection of 1,674 acres and 14 miles of shoreland achieved through 7 RIM conservation easements with private landowners and four fee-title acquisitions that included one addition to a state forest, two additions to county forests, and the creation of a 232 acre DNR WMA (also utilizing ML16 funding).
$1,617,000 the first year is to the commissioner of natural resources to acquire lands in fee and restore wildlife habitat in the Mississippi headwaters and for agreements as follows: $60,000 to the Mississippi Headwaters Board and $1,557,000 to The Trust for Public Land. $779,000 the first year is to the Board of Water and Soil Resources to acquire lands in permanent conservation easements and to restore wildlife habitat. Up to $59,000 to the Board of Water and Soil Resources is for establishing a monitoring and enforcement fund as approved in the accomplishment plan and subject to Minnesota Statutes, section 97A.056, subdivision 17. A list of proposed acquisitions must be included as part of the required accomplishment plan.
The science-based targeting described in the next paragraph utilized the Minnesota Wildlife Action Network?s data along with other state data sets, including The MN County Biological Survey, to identify priority areas for permanent fish and wildlife protection within the minor watershed of the first 400 miles of the Mississippi River--its Headwaters-- or along major tributaries. The Wildlife Action Network was developed to help implement the 2015-2025 MN Wildlife Action Plan, which identified species of greatest conservation need and rare, threatened and endangered species. The project's geographic targeting also considered specific areas of species richness and/or biodiversity importance and areas where aquatic and terrestrial habitats have been compromised. Many of these identified priority areas were the focus geography in selecting parcels for permanent land protection using fee-title acquisition or RIM conservation easements.
Private