Bone Lake South Wetland Acquisition

This project will perpetually protect 148 acres of land including 90 acres of upland habitat and 58 acres of wetland habitat in the high priority Bone Lake South Wetland area, as identified in the District's Watershed Management Plan. The District identified this area for protection/enhancement due to the site's presence of the threatened Blanding's turtle and Rusty-patched bumblebee; native plant communities, including wet meadow/shrub carr and forested wetland; wetland habitat; water storage potential; potential for upland habitat restoration; water quality impact on Bone Lake, which is impaired for eutrophication; and high pollution sensitivity of near-surface materials.
The District will purchase the property from the current owner, a private resident who has indicated their willingness to sell to the District and signed a letter of support for this application. Due to the growing development demand in the 7-county Twin Cities Metro Area, and past developer offers on this property, there is a high degree of urgency to acquire and protect this site before it is parceled off and developed for housing.
The 317-acre site is split into seven parcels, one of which contains a residential house and accessory structures; all of which are in good condition. Prior to closing on the property, the District will work with the landowner, county, city to re-delineate parcel boundaries in order to separate the homestead from the rest of the property. OHF will be used to acquire the 148 acres of the property containing the cropland to be converted to native upland habitat and the wetland. The landowner has informed the District that he would like to retain ownership of the homestead portion of the site. The undeveloped portion of the site, to be acquired using OHF, will remain under Watershed District ownership in perpetuity. This OHF grant proposal is for fee title acquisition only and does not include restoration/enhancement work. The District will seek alternate funding sources in order to implement wetland enhancement and native upland habitat restoration (prairie or oak savanna) in the future; this may take the form of a Phase 2 proposal to the FY25 Outdoor Heritage Fund. The land management plan for this site will include a grazing management plan.
Protection of this land will be part of the District's greenway corridor initiative which seeks to increase habitat quality and connectivity and protect key water resources surrounding the District's nine priority lakes (including Bone Lake). Earlier in 2022 the District received a Conservation Partners Legacy grant in the amount of $400,000 for the purchase/protection of a property adjacent to Forest Lake, just 3 miles east of the proposed Bone Lake South Wetland property. The District closed on the property, completed grant reporting, and received full grant reimbursement within 3 weeks of grant agreement execution. In 2022 the District will complete a District-wide Natural Resource Inventory and Assessment in order to further target and gather information on sites like this; this effort will entail a desktop review of available data layers as well as targeted field surveys to ground-truth information and collect additional data on key parcels.
The District is in coordination with the City of Scandia, Washington County, MN Land Trust, and Pheasants Forever. It has and will continue to engage local stakeholders primarily through the Bone Lake Association.