A large portion of Otter Tail County has been identified as being susceptible to groundwater contamination from nitrates and other water soluble contaminants. Agriculture is the predominant land use activity in this area. Irrigation in the county has increased in the last few years. With the vast majority of the residents getting their drinking water from groundwater sources, protecting ground is a priority for the county.
Protect and restore 590 acres of significant wildlife habitat through conservation easements and restoration projects on private lands within Important Bird Areas with an emphasis on those located in within priority areas identified in the Minnesota Prairie Conservation Plan.
Realizing the need for increased technical capacity in the field offices, the Becker, East Otter Tail and West Otter Tail Soil and Water Conservation Districts have developed an agreement that will increase technical capacity while minimizing costs to each district. The first step was taken in this agreement through the recent hire of a shared engineer. Currently, minimal survey grade equipment is owned by the districts. This grant will be used to purchase an integrated survey system.
The overall goal of this project is to perform water quality monitoring and load calculation duties to accomplish Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) Watershed Pollutant Load Monitoring Network (WPLMN) monitoring efforts at the seven sites within the Redwood and Cottonwood River watersheds as well as the Minnesota River site near Morton. To accomplish this goal the requested funds will provide for technician’s time, mileage, lab costs, supplies, as well as equipment calibration and upkeep.
This project will collect real-time parameter data for specific conductance, water temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen, turbidity and stream flow at the United States geological Survey (USGS) gaging stations located at Fargo, ND and Grand Forks, ND on the Red River of the North; and publish the data both on the USGS NWIS website and in the USGS Annual Report.
We will characterize environmental drivers contributing to the decline of wild rice using lake sediment cores to reconstruct historical wild rice abundance in relation to lake and watershed stressors.
This project will provide land and water managers in the Red River Basin with data and online tools to prioritize actions on the landscape that achieve water quality objectives identified in local and state plans. This will help identify strategically important locations for implementing erosion control and water management practices. Standardized watershed-based data products will be integrated into a web-based planning tool which will be added to the Red River Basin Decision Information Network (RRBDIN) being developed as part of the Red River Watershed Feasibility Study.
This project is for Minnesota Legislative Clean Water Fund funding to engage citizens in local watershed monitoring, to work with regional partners to promote understanding and protection of watersheds, and to organize and facilitate gathering of scientific data all for the benefit of water quality in the Red River Basin.
This project is for Minnesota Legislative Clean Water Fund funding to engage citizens in local watershed monitoring, to work with regional partners to promote understanding and protection of watersheds, and to organize and facilitate gathering of scientific data all for the benefit of water quality in the Red River Basin.
The International Water Institute (IWI) will monitor 42 sites (3 basin, 12 major watershed, and 27 subwatershed) in the Red River and Upper Mississippi River Basins intensively during the contract period. There will also be 5 sites in the Red River Basin where mercury samples will be collected and sent to Minnesota Department of Health for analysis. The IWI will collect water samples across the range of flow conditions targeting sample collection at times of moderate to high flow.
This project will develop an effective transferable model to engage and educate watershed residents, stakeholders and others to better understand and protect watershed ecostystems through environmental monitoring, training, and formal and informal education programs in their local watershed. The project will build on the foundation of the existing Red River Basin River Watch program by strengthening three main activity areas: 1) curriculum integration and teacher training, 2) youth leadership and civic engagement, and 3) applied research collaboration and watershed science skills building.
International Water Institute (IWI) staff will monitor 24 sites in the Bois de Sioux, Mustinka (2 sites), Buffalo (8 sites), Red Lake (4 sites), Sandhill (3 sites), Thief (2 sites), and Tamarac River (3 sites) Watersheds intensively over a 2 year period in an attempt to collect 25 samples per year at each site. If conditions allow for the collection of all planned samples, 1200 stream samples will be collected over the time period. Monitoring will include field measurements, observations, and at least three photographs during each site visit.
MN Legislative Clean Water Fund funding to engage citizens in local watershed monitoring, work with regional partners to promote understanding and protection of watersheds, and organize and facilitate gathering of scientific data all for the benefit of water quality in the Red River Basin.
The purpose of this project is to improve understanding of primary productivity in the Red River and the diversity and population structure of the algal communities occurring along the river system. This will be accomplished through taxonomic identification of periphyton and phytoplankton assemblages necessary for characterizing responses to nutrient gradients along the Red River of the North.
The goal of this project is to engage citizens in local watershed monitoring, work with regional partners to promote understanding and protection of watersheds, and organize and facilitate gathering of scientific data for the benefit of water quality in the Red River Basin.
The goal of this project is to engage citizens in local watershed monitoring, work with regional partners to promote understanding and protection of watersheds, and organize and facilitate gathering of scientific data for the benefit of water quality in the Red River Basin.
This project will monitor streams in target watersheds located in Ottertail and Wadena counties. Six sites have been identified by MPCA for biological monitoring; this project will complete the chemical and field analysis at these six sites.
The Redeye River watershed is conducting the second intensive watershed assessment. The water quality in the watershed is still pretty healthy, but the streams with poor water quality identified previously are still not meeting water quality standards. The goal during this cycle is to better identify problem areas so that parcel specific implementation can occur to achieve improved water quality. The best method available to better target implementation is through culvert inventories, visual and desktop surveys, as well as outreach.
Watershed based implementation funds will be used to target conservation practices utilizing the principles associated with Prioritize, Target and Measure as referenced in our Local Comprehensive Watershed Management Plan. The following are projects/practices, and their associated pollution reduction estimates, that are included in this budget request: (500 acres of Nonstructural BMPs) to protect/improve land management and reduce bacteria will reduce phosphorus by 65 lbs/yr, nitrogen by 520 lbs/yr, and sediment by 285 tons/yr.
Many lakes in Minnesota are classified as “impaired” for aquatic recreation and aquatic life as the result of nonpoint source pollution. These impairments can be addressed by the citizens that live by and have a vested interest in these water bodies, but there is often a lack of knowledge and resources to take effective action. The Freshwater Society is using this appropriation to train citizen groups in lake ecology and management in order to guide them in implementing water quality improvement projects for their local water bodies.
The Redwood River watershed is one of the last remaining watersheds to complete Cycle I of the Watershed Restoration & Protections Strategies (WRAPS) process. The scope of this project upon completion is have two reports developed; a Watershed Restoration and Protection Strategies report and a Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) for the entire watershed.
In 2017 and 2018, Redwood-Cottonwood Rivers Control Area (RCRCA) will collect water chemistry samples from the 10 lakes and 24 stream sites identified in the Redwood and Cottonwood River watersheds. Six samples will be collected at 10 lakes from May through September in 2017; five samples will be collected at 5 lakes in 2018 from May through September. Eleven samples will be collected at each of the 24 stream sites following the Basic Regime in 2017. Sixteen samples at each stream site will be collected in 2017 and 2018 following the E.coli monitoring regime.
The Redwood and Cottonwood River Watersheds have been assessed and many reaches have been impaired for turbidity, bacteria, and low dissolved oxygen. This project will accelerate conservation efforts to reduce overland runoff sediment, bacteria, and nutrient loadings contributing to water quality impairments in targeted subwatersheds.
The Redwood River and Cottonwood River watersheds encompass approximately 2,020 square miles of southwestern Minnesota in the Minnesota River Basin. Land use in these watersheds is mostly agricultural and area geology makes them prone to erosion. Surface water issues within the two watersheds are a concern of local leaders. The counties and Soil and Water Conservation District leaders formed the Redwood Cottonwood Rivers Control Area (RCRCA) Joint Powers Board in 1983 to address sedimentation, water quality and quantity, and erosion issues.
In 2024 and 2025, Redwood-Cottonwood Rivers Control Area (RCRCA) will collect water chemistry samples from 3 stream sites (Crow Creek, Spring Creek and Wabasha Creek) within the Minnesota - Mankato watershed. From May through September of 2024, 11 samples will be collected from Crow Creek and 12 samples will be collected from both Spring Creek and Wabasha Creek. For 2025, 8 samples will be collected from Crow Creek and 9 samples from both Spring Creek and Wabasha Creek from May through September.
The Reinvest in Minnesota (RIM) Reserve Wetlands Reserve Program (WRP) Partnership will accelerate the restoration and protection of approximately 4,620 acres of previously drained wetlands and associated upland native grassland wildlife habitat complexes via perpetual conservation easements. The goal of the RIM-WRP Partnership is to achieve the greatest wetland functions and values, while optimizing wildlife habitat on every acre enrolled in the partnership.
The Reinvest in Minnesota (RIM) Wetlands Partnership Phase VI protected and restored 1,391 acres of previously drained wetlands and adjacent grasslands on 15 conservation easements.
