Roseau Lake Rehabilitation
255 acres were acquired in 2021 using OHF funding. These are acres allowed the dike to be aligned with the beach ridge of the lake.
Construction of Phase 1 (see map) was initiated in September 2023. The northwest embankment was built and a weir steering the main flow of the Roseau River into a natural oxbow was installed. A water control structure (on Pine Creek) and finishing work on the dike will be completed this year.
The project will provide spring-to-fall inundation of the basin for wetland wildlife. Once construction is complete, an operating plan will govern water level management such that operating levels for water in the basin will favor foraging, breeding, nesting, brood-rearing, and migration stopover habitat for a wide variety of waterfowl and other waterbirds. Only when water levels are high (as defined in the operating plan) will flood damage reduction operating measures take priority over habitat.
The project has, in Phase 1, restored primary flow of the Roseau River to a natural oxbow. Similar work will occur on the Pine Creek to restore a channelized portion of that stream. Construction of Phase 1 (of 6) was initiated in September 2023. Phase 1 involves building a dike and exterior ditch along the NW side of Roseau Lake, installation of a water control structure on Pine Creek, and installation of a weir to steer the main flow of the Roseau River into an oxbow formed by channelization, which occurred better than a century ago. A total contract for $4.1million (of which $1.9 million was OHF funding) has been used to date to build the dike and exterior ditch to grade and install the weir on the river. Roseau River Watershed District funds will be used to complete Phase I. We hope to have this phase completed by the end of 2024.
Phase 2 of the project is the wetland mitigation for the project, which occurs in the nearby Sprague Creek SNA/Lost River State Forest. Work began on this phase in winter 2023-24. No OHF funds are being used for this phase of the project. The wetland mitigation for this project doubles as an ecological restoration of spring fen channels in a boreal forest ecosystem that was severed by a legal ditch system better than a century ago. Through abandonment of portions of the ditch system and selective filling of these ditches, the natural hydrology will be reconnected and thus improve the quality of the habitat affected by the drainage. There are a number of rare plant and animals that will benefit from a functional lift in the habitats.
Phase 3 construction (using OHF funding granted during the last legislative session) will begin in 2025.
This appropriation was divided between acquisition and construction. It purchased a critical acquisition for the project of 255 acres on the southwest corner of the WMA. The remaining funds were applied with leveraged to fund the partial construction of the Northwest Embankment of the Roseau Lake Rehabilitation Project. This consisted of the piling and shaping of 3.8 miles of dike and exterior ditch.
$2,763,000 the second year is to the commissioner of natural resources to acquire land in fee and permanent conservation easements for wildlife management purposes in Roseau County under Minnesota Statutes, section 86A.05, subdivision 8, to restore and enhance wildlife habitat. A list of proposed land acquisitions and restorations and enhancements must be provided as part of the required accomplishment plan.
1.Shallow lake habitat of ~3000 acres to be restored that will benefit, in addition to waterfowl, local populations of black terns, American bitterns and other wading birds, marbled godwits and other shorebirds, and a whole array of other marsh birds.
2.Riverine habitat will be restored to 2 streams to improve diversity of such habitats in the Rseau River and Pine Creek.
3.Fen channels in a boreal forest will be reconnected, thus improving the quality of the boreal forest habitats that harbor great grey owls, black-backed woodpeckers, Connecticut warblers, among others.
RRWD, RRWMB and State FHM grant