Phase 1 of the Roseau River Watershed Restaration and Protection Strategy (WRAPS) project will focus on planning and coordination among project partners, creating a civic engagement strategic plan, holding a watershed kick-off meeting, gathering and summarizing available watershed information and data, and developing a data gap monitoring plan.
The Roseau River Watershed Assessment will include the waters of the Roseau River, Sprague Creek, Hay Creek and Hayes Lake. All of the monitoring sites, except one, are located in Roseau County, with the exception being located in Kittson County. This assessment focuses on collection of water chemistry and field parameters at one site on Hayes Lake and seven key sites on the Roseau River, which have been identified by MPCA. These sites are located in the lower reaches of each surface water system.
This is the second phase of the Roseau River Watershed Restoration and Protection Strategy (WRAPS) project, which includes: developing the Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) study, pollutant load allocations, watershed restoration and protection strategies, and conducting civic engagement.
The goal of this project is to construct, calibrate and validate a watershed model using Hydologic Simulation Program FORTRAN (HSPF) for the Roseau River Watershed.
The goal of this project is to develop a Roseau Lake Water Quality Improvement Report that will include a prioritized, targeted, and measurable implementation plan that will improve water quality in the Roseau Lake watershed. The project will result in development of site specific implementation actions through use of the Prioritize, Targeting, and Measuring Application (PTMApp) and the Drained Wetland Basin Inventory terrain analysis methods.
This multi-purpose project will partially restore a large drained lake, restore and reclaim stream reaches, provide water level management capacity to substantially improve wildlife habitat conditions and provide flood damage reduction benefits, and will contribute to water quality improvements in the Roseau River.
255 acres were acquired in 2021 using OHF funding. These are acres allowed the dike to be aligned with the beach ridge of the lake.
Construction of Phase 1 (see map) was initiated in September 2023. The northwest embankment was built and a weir steering the main flow of the Roseau River into a natural oxbow was installed. A water control structure (on Pine Creek) and finishing work on the dike will be completed this year.
The CREST team wants to create a mobile lab with innovative, engaging educational activities that would be used to travel to underserved, underrepresented schools and community events in Northwest Minnesota