Springshed Mapping for Trout Stream Management (U of MN)
Native trout require clean, cold water that usually originates from springs, but the springs feeding the 173 designated trout streams in southeastern Minnesota are under increasing pressure from current and expected changes in land use. This joint effort by the University of Minnesota and the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources is working to identify and map the springs and the areas that feed water to these springs and to learn how these waters might be affected by development and water use.
Overall Project Outcome and Results
Native trout require clean, cold water that usually originates from springs, but the springs feeding the 173 designated trout streams in southeastern Minnesota are under increasing pressure from current and expected changes in land use. This joint effort by the University of Minnesota and the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources continued an ongoing effort begun in 2007 that is working to identify and map the springs and the areas that feed water to these springs and to learn how these waters might be affected by development and water use.
Springshed delineation provides critical information for the protection and management of the springs that form the coldwater streams of southeast Minnesota. Our primary tool is fluorescent dye tracing. During the two-year period of Phase II, the U of M in collaboration with the DNR conducted 26 traces in Fillmore, Houston, Winona and Wabasha counties that mapped over 12,000 acres. Each individual trace typically has involved two or more different tracers with up to five different tracers employed in one trace. These traces are expanding the tools available for the springshed mapping, while defining new springsheds and refining the boundaries of known springsheds. These traces have been conducted in the Galena, Prairie du Chien and St. Lawrence springshed areas. Additionally, data monitoring equipment was also added as an additional component in this phase. The availability of new, high resolution LiDAR data also provided an important new tool that is being utilized to locate sinkholes, sinking streams, and spring as part of the springshed mapping effort.
We coordinated our efforts with other LCCMR funded programs in SE Minnesota and with ongoing resource management efforts by the DNR, MPCA and Agriculture Department State agencies. Six of the dye traces were done in coordination with local governmental staff in order to support the Root River pilot project of the Mississippi River Basin Initiative (MRBI) in Minnesota. We are working with the MPCA's TMDL efforts in SE Minnesota.
Project Results Use and Dissemination
The dissemination of the results of this project proceeded at several levels. We provided interim results to local landowners and to local, county, regional, and state agency staff and resource managers. MPCA staff, for example, routinely contact us with questions about karst features in SE Minn. We worked synergistically with other LCCMR funded research projects and with a range of resource management efforts. The generation and dissemination of the maps and written reports was part student educational projects - including local high school students, university students, interns, graduate student theses, post Doctoral researchers, and various colleagues. We lead and participated in fieldtrips sponsored by LCCMR, the MGWA, and other groups focused on protecting SE MN trout streams and water resources. We worked collaboratively with MPCA, DNR, Department of Agriculture and other agencies to expand and complement the LCCMR funded work. A dozen reports on the interim results of this project were presented at state and national scientific meetings.
$500,000 is from the trust fund to continue to identify and delineate supply areas and springsheds for springs serving as coldwater sources for trout streams and to assess the impacts from development and water appropriations. Of this appropriation, $250,000 is to the Board of Regents of the University of Minnesota and $250,000 is to the commissioner of natural resources.
Click on "Final Report" under "Project Details".
Click on "Final Report" under "Project Details".