There are seven major watersheds Koochiching County, this project will work in five of them: Big Fork, Little Fork, Rapid River, Lower Rainy River, and Rainy River Headwaters watersheds. The local Koochiching County Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD) is positioned to assist in several elements of the Watershed Restoration and Protection Strategy (WRAPS) process. This includes gap monitoring for water chemistry, sediment work, TMDL (Total Maximum Daily Load) development, modeling scenarios, and WRAPS development.
The purpose of this project is to establish an International Watershed Coordinator for the Lake of the Woods and Rainy River (LOW/RR) watershed, to assist the MPCA in facilitating and enhancing civic engagement through collaboration and integration of the efforts of groups working on watershed activities at local, state/provincial and bi-national levels of organization.
The University of Minnesota will develop effective interview questions for community watershed assessments in the Rainy River basin and provide assistance in understanding the data collected through community interviews.
The Rainy River Basin WPLMN Sampling Program will focus on watershed load monitoring in the Big Fork River, Little Fork River, Rainy River-Rainy Lake, and Vermilion River watersheds. Four total staff will work on various portions of this agreement. The main objective is for one lead sampler and one backup sampler to collect water chemistry and field parameters for eight (8) sites, annually at various flows, especially peak flows, and utilize that data to determine the amount of pollutant load into each stream system.
This project will provide an important framework for civic and citizen engagement and communication in the International Rainy River-Lake of the Woods Watershed, which will contribute to long-term public participation in surface water protection and restoration activities.
The purpose of the grant is to increase and enhance the understanding of the American Indian Ojibwe language and culture to ensure positive reinformcement of the self image and sense of identity four our American Indian Ojibwe people: To engage American Indian Ojibwe language and culture in our communities.
The purpose of this contract is to establish an international watershed coordinator for the Rainy River- Lake of the Woods (RR-LOW) watershed. The coordinator will assist the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) in facilitating and enhancing civic engagement and public participation activities through collaboration and integration of the efforts of groups working on watershed activities at local, state/provincial, tribal, and bi-national levels.
The Rapid River Watershed Restoration and Protection Strategy (WRAPS) project will result in the development of the restoration and protection strategies for the watershed and engage the local stakeholders in the practices of watershed management. This project will also develop Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs) for impaired waters.
This work order will fund the development and delivery of an approved final Total Maximum Daily Load Program (TMDL) study and Watershed Restoration and Protection Strategy (WRAPS) report for the Rapid River Watershed.
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.
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 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.
The goal of this project is to construct, calibrate, and validate a watershed model using the Hydrological Simulation Program FORTRAN (HSPF) model for the Upper/Lower Red Lake Watershed. The contractor will produce an HSPF model that can readily be used to provide information to support conventional parameter Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) Studies. The model will generate predicted output for hydrology, sediment, nutrients, and dissolved oxygen that is consistent with observed data.
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.
The goal of this project is to continue best management implementation according to the Redwood River Phase II Implementation Plan (1999) and install phosphorus and total suspended solids (TSS) reducing conservation practices that will help achieve the Lower Minnesota River dissolved oxygen Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL), and the Minnesota River Turbidity TMDL. The proposed implementation of conservation practices include: water and sediment control basins, grassed waterways, grade stabilizations and streambank stabilizations.
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.
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.
With this grant, we were able to perform 195 acres of treatment within polygons resulting in the restoration or enhancement of 21 parcels. Overall treatment effort was even greater within wetlands (271 acres), with many areas receiving multiple overlapping treatments. Focusing our treatments on the most ecologically damaged areas allowed us to improve wetlands substantially, even if active treatment did not occur throughout every part of the parcel where invasives may not have occurred. 268+ acres had 50% of their areas treated, which we consider a standard for substantial restoration.
Under the CREP partnership with USDA, 71 easements were recorded on a total of 4,365 acres to restore previously drained wetlands and adjacent uplands. The easements were accomplished with local implementation done by SWCD, NRCS and FSA staff within the 54 county CREP area and leveraged federal funds for both landowner payments and cost share for conservation practice installation.
Under the CREP partnership with USDA, 28 easements were recorded on a total of 2,390 acres to restore previously drained wetlands and adjacent uplands. Two easements are RIM wetland easements that were required to complete wetland restoration work on an adjacent easement secured with 2018 Wetlands funding. The landowners received the RIM-Only payment rate. The easements were accomplished with local implementation done by SWCD, NRCS and FSA staff within the 54 county CREP area and leveraged federal funds for landowner payments and conservation practices.
The Clean Water Fund (CWF) and Outdoor Heritage Fund (OHF) were used together to secure easements on buffer areas. 84 easements have been recorded for a total of 1,441 acres and are reported in the output tables for the final report (acre total does not include Clean Water Fund acres). The total acreage from both CWF and OHF sources for recorded easements is 2,793.2 acres. Only the OHF acres are being reported in this final report to be consistent with the approved accomplishment plan.
Using the Reinvest in Minnesota (RIM) program, this project addresses the potential loss of grassland habitats from conversion to cropland and accelerates grassland protection efforts not covered by other programs. Working in coordination with 11 established Prairie Conservation Plan Local Technical Teams (LTTs), and local SWCDs this proposal will enroll 936 RIM acres (approximately 12 easements), focusing on Minnesota Prairie Plan identified landscapes.
The Reinvest in Minnesota (RIM) Wetlands Partnership Phase V protected and restored 2,041 acres of previously drained wetlands and adjacent native grasslands on 23 conservation easements. All easements have been recorded. $35,000 of funds from other sources were also used.
We propose identifying hot spots of groundwater chloride pollution of surface waters due to excessive road salt use, which is a long term source increasing chloride impairment of surface waters.
