Protection of High Quality Cisco Lakes in Aitkin County
The Aitkin County SWCD is striving to protect three priority lakes that provide deep, cold water habitat for cisco. This project will complete 19 projects that restore native vegetation to critical shorelines while managing stormwater runoff. Practices will include a variety of projects including stabilization with willow wattles / fascines, coir logs, and native vegetation as well as rain gardens to capture runoff. These practices will protect the water quality of these lakes, which preserves the cool, well-oxygenated water needed to sustain the cisco fishery.
Annie Felix-Gerth
(b) $16,000,000 the first year and $16,000,000 the second year are for grants to local government units to protect and restore surface water and drinking water; to keep water on the land; to protect, enhance, and restore water quality in lakes, rivers, and streams; and to protect groundwater and drinking water, including feedlot water quality and subsurface sewage treatment system projects and stream bank, stream channel, shoreline restoration, and ravine stabilization projects. The projects must use practices demonstrated to be effective, be of long-lasting public benefit, include a match, and be consistent with total maximum daily load (TMDL) implementation plans, watershed restoration and protection strategies (WRAPS), or local water management plans or their equivalents. A portion of this money may be used to seek administrative efficiencies through shared resources by multiple local governmental units. Up to 20 percent of this appropriation is available for land-treatment projects and practices that benefit drinking water.
Installation of 19 Shoreland Stabilization/Revegetation projects will be supported. 1,900 lineal feet of shoreline will be protected and stabilized. The following pollution reductions are predicted:
TP = 65.53 lbs/yr
Sediment = 27.42 tons/yr
Installed 25 shoreland Stabilization projects; TSS = 80.11 Tons/yr; TP = 115 lbs/yr
LOCAL LEVERAGED FUNDS