Assessing Watershed Work to Address Nutrients

Minnesota is currently revising its state-level Nutrient Reduction Strategy (NRS), which was originally completed in 2014. Since 2014, all watersheds in the state have completed Watershed Restoration and Protection Strategies (WRAPS). These technical strategies and reports have been used thus far by over two thirds of watersheds when developing comprehensive local water plans known as “One Watershed, One Plan” (1W1P). Local watershed strategies and plans largely focus on priority waters within their area, but additionally are one of the ways that larger-scale nutrient strategies, such as the NRS, are implemented locally for water quality needs downstream of the watersheds. This project will review the watershed documents to find nutrient related content that will inform the NRS revision process, so that the collective learnings and ideas from these local efforts can be used to improve Minnesota’s NRS. Additionally, the project will identify how state-level nutrient reduction efforts could help support nutrient reduction at the local level, by providing specific types of information, web-site tools and dashboards, and other resources.