Sauk River Watershed Habitat Protection & Restoration, Phase 5
This program permanently protects, restores, and enhances critical habitat within the Sauk River Watershed, which has experienced considerable habitat loss and is at high risk for more land use conversion. Using conservation easements and fee land acquisition, we will protect approximately 387 acres of high priority habitat in Minnesota's Prairie and Forest-Prairie Transition Area. We will restore/enhance approximately 107 acres of wetlands, stream corridors, and accompanying uplands, creating vital habitat for waterfowl, fishes, and populations of threatened and endangered species. Properties will be strategically targeted using innovative site prioritization model that maximizes conservation benefit and financial leverage.
Sauk River Watershed District (SRWD), Minnesota Land Trust (MLT), Pheasants Forever (PF), and Great River Greening (GRG) - with technical assistance from local Soil and Water Conservation Districts (SWCD), Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (MNDNR), U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), and Stearns County Parks (SCP) - will partner to implement habitat protection and restoration within the Sauk River Watershed (SRW). Site prioritization will focus on protecting and restoring habitat in high-impact locations, including high quality or easily restorable wetland complexes, upland and floodplain forests, prairies, and stream corridors, which provide critical habitat for waterfowl, upland birds, SGCN and other important wildlife species.
The SRW is in a rapidly growing region that has experienced intense conversion from perennial cover to cropland in the past decade. Furthermore, public access for recreation, including hunting and fishing, is lacking. Landowner interest in conservation land protection and restoration is strong in the SRW. Since July 2019, the Partnership has protected 665 acres through fee title acquisition, 888 acres through conservation easements, and has restored/enhanced 198 acres, while leveraging $2,032,405 through landowner donation of easement value and non-state funding sources. As of May 2023, landowners owning approximately 1,200 acres are interested in permanently protecting their properties. Protecting and restoring these strategic parcels will far exceed funding available through the Partnership's previous OHF grants. We anticipate significantly more interested landowners as outreach efforts continue.
Conservation Easements:
MLT will conduct landowner outreach within priority areas and will accept proposals from landowners using a competitive, market-based Request for Proposal (RFP) process. Properties will be ranked based on ecological value and cost, prioritizing projects that provide the best ecological value and lowest cost to the state. Our goal is to protect 233 acres of permanent conservation easements through this proposal, with habitat management plans developed for eased acres.
Fee Acquisition:
Coordinating with agency partners, PF will protect through fee acquisition 154 acres of strategically identified parcels and donate parcels to MNDNR as a WMA or AMA, to USFWS as a WPA, or to counties. Protected tracts will be managed as wildlife habitat and provide public access within an area of our state where pubic land for recreation use is lacking.
Restoration and Enhancement:
SRWD will restore approximately 57 acres of wetland, riparian and associated upland habitat in cooperation with county SWCDs, MNDNR, and USFWS. The restorations will focus on building large complexes of improved habitat in the GUS Plus (Getchell, Unnamed, & Stony Creeks) and Osakis Management Units, which are priorities in the SRCWMP. The improved habitat will benefit many species including native bivalves, spawning fishes, and amphibians.
GRG will complete Natural Resource Management Plans and restore/enhance approximately 50 acres of public and/or protected private land, with a focus on three Stearns County Parks, all of which are degraded by invasive species and with inadequate woodland management. Natural Resource Management Plans developed for each park, totaling 399 acres, will advise the County and guide prioritization of needed habitat improvements.
$3,965,000 the second year is to the commissioner of natural resources for agreements to acquire lands in fee and permanent conservation easements and restore and enhance wildlife habitat in the Sauk River watershed as follows: $375,000 to Great River Greening; $1,199,000 to Sauk River Watershed District; $1,192,000 to Pheasants Forever; and $1,199,000 to Minnesota Land Trust. Up to $168,000 to Minnesota Land Trust is to establish a monitoring and enforcement fund as approved in the accomplishment plan and subject to Minnesota Statutes, section 97A.056, subdivision 17.
Rivers and streams provide corridors of habitat including intact areas of forest cover in the east and large wetland/upland complexes in the west - Expanded buffers of stream corridors and wetland/prairie complexes of biologically diverse wildlife habitat, providing nesting and migratory habitat for waterfowl, upland birds, spawning areas for fishes, and cover for game species will be restored and protected. Partners will work together to identify priority lands using existing data and public plans, and then coordinate protection, restoration, and enhancement activities in those priority areas. Success within each priority area will be determined based on the percentage of area protected, restored, and/or enhanced.
Remnant native prairies are part of large complexes of restored prairies, grasslands, and large and small wetlands - Expanded buffers of stream corridors and wetland/prairie complexes of biologically diverse wildlife habitat, providing nesting and migratory habitat for waterfowl, upland birds, and cover and forage for game species will be restored and protected. Partners will work together to identify priority lands using existing data and public plans, and then coordinate protection, restoration, and enhancement activities in those priority areas. Success within each priority area will be determined based on the percentage of area protected, restored, and/or enhanced
Landowners, Private Donors and Unrealized dss