RIM Buffers for Wildlife and Water - Phase VIII
The Clean Water Fund (CWF) and Outdoor Heritage Fund (OHF) were used together to secure easements on buffer areas. 25 easements have been recorded for a total of 672.1 acres and are reported in the output tables for the final report (acre total does not include Clean Water Fund acres). The total acreage from both CWF and OHF sources for recorded easements is 1,152.4 acres. Only the OHF acres are being reported in this final report to be consistent with the approved accomplishment plan.
The sites enrolled were generally farmed sites adjacent to a sensitive water feature or drained and farmed floodplain wetlands and associated upland habitat. Expiring Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) contracts were also enrolled. These sites originally offered limited ecological benefits. Through a combination of a scoring and ranking process and eligibility screening, each application was evaluated, with the applications that provided the greatest habitat and environmental benefits after restoration and protection being selected for funding. Factors considered during site selection included: linear corridor connectivity, length and width of the filter strip, adjacency to a public water, size of the site offered for enrollment, additional wildlife benefits, highly erodible land or partially highly erodible land, threatened and endangered species, and addressing water quality concerns.
MN Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP) is a voluntary, federal-state funded natural resource conservation program that uses a science based approach to target environmentally sensitive land in 54 Counties in southern and western Minnesota. This is accomplished through permanent protection by establishing conservation practices via payments to farmers and agricultural landowners. Landowners enrolled in the federally-funded CRP for 14-15 years; CRP is administered by the United States Department of Agriculture-Farm Service Agency (USDA-FSA). It uses agricultural land for conservation benefits, rather than farming or ranching; The same land was also enrolled into a state-funded perpetual conservation easement through the Reinvest in Minnesota (RIM) Reserve program, administered by the Board of Water and Soil Resources (BWSR). Private ownership continues and the land is permanently restored and enhanced for conservation benefits.
The RIM payment rates were consistent throughout this appropriation but CRP annual rental rates fluctuated, so the state's contribution to the overall easement cost varied in reaction to the CRP rate.
One of the largest easements funded in this project was a floodplain easement in Renville county (65-13-20-01). The total easement was 139.1 acres (69.5 acres funded with this project) and protects portions of the Minnesota River and Unnamed Stream (M-055-129.2-001) and the floodplain areas. This easement is adjacent to a 57.3 acre MN CREP easement funded with ML2016 RIM Buffers Phase VI and adjacent to Cold Springs Wildlife Management Area (WMA). Cedar Rock WMA: South East Unit, which is adjacent to Cedar Rock Scientific and Natural Area (SNA) and Cedar Rock WMA: North West Unit, is across the Minnesota River in Redwood County. These easements, WMAs, and SNA total 1,268+ acres of habitat. A few other RIM easements are within 2 miles of this area, building on to the habitat complex and corridor connectivity along the Minnesota River, Rice Creek, and Unnamed Stream (M-055-129.3).
$5,000,000 the second year is to the Board of Water and Soil Resources to acquire permanent conservation easements and restore habitat under Minnesota Statutes, section 103F.515, to protect, restore, and enhance habitat by expanding the riparian buffer program under the clean water fund for at least equal wildlife benefits from buffers on private land. Of this amount, up to $745,000 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 permanent conservation easements must be provided as part of the final report.
Project selection criteria for the buffer program is designed to compliment historic investments to protect wildlife habitat in the degraded prairie region of the state. Providing connections between and adjacent to these previous habitat investments is a key factor in realizing the best return on investment found in wildlife population models. Riparian areas are logical corridors found between these historical habitat areas. Buffers targeting expiring CRP and near existing complexes of greater than 200 acres were given preference.
Clean Water Fund, Clean Water Fund and USDA-FSA-CRP