Mille Lacs Lake Watershed and Upper Rum River Watershed Coordinator

This grant will fund the creation of a new Coordinator position with a primary focus on the Mille Lacs Lake subwatershed. Although not currently impaired, the Lake faces increasing development and land use pressure. Implementation of protection strategies is essential to the Lake's long-term health but current staffing does not allow sufficient time to be spent on project development and outreach to identify interested landowners. The Coordinator's principle activity will be implementation of the Mille Lacs Lake Watershed Management Group's Lake Stewardship Program which incentivizes increased water quality protection using recognition and financial assistance.