The Camp Ripley ACUB Phase VI project protected almost 1070 acres of high quality habitat along the Mississippi and Crow Wing Rivers and near the Nokasippi and Gull River WMAs through approximately 14 conservation easements.
Phase 11 of the Camp Ripley Sentinel Landscape ACUB Partnership will utilize permanent conservation easements (BWSR RIM) to acquire 1,150-acres of high quality habitat in order to accomplish: PERMANENT PROTECTION of habitat corridors and buffers around public lands, PRESERVE open space within the CRSL, and conservation enhancement and restoration PRACTICES to protect soil and water quality and habitat corridor connectivity.
Phase VIII of the RIM Camp Ripley Sentinel Landscape ACUB Partnership utilized permanent RIM conservation easements to acquire 1,755-acres of high quality habitat within the ACUB work area. We secured 7 easements including the two one contiguous block but done as two easements for legal reasons) Cushing Land Company easements that totaled 1,464 acres. In total one of the largest RIM easements ever acquired.
Phase IX of the RIM Camp Ripley Sentinel Landscape ACUB Partnership secured 7 permanent RIM conservation easements to protect 539-acres of high quality habitat. We hit the estimated number of acres from the original Accomplishment Plan. BWSR utilized the RIM easement process in partnership with the Morrison SWCD to secure habitat corridor easements on sites within Crow Wing, Cass, and Morrison counties during the appropriation term.
The Camp Ripley ACUB Phase VII project protected 598.2 acres of high quality habitat along the Crow Wing, Gull, Nokasippi, and Mississippi River corridors through nine conservation easements.
The project protect approximately 1090 acres of habitat for fish, game and wildlife with easements along the Mississippi and Crow Wing Rivers and tributaries. Protection will reduce infringement and development and improve watershed function.
While aspen is one of the most dominant forest types, predicted future conditions will negatively impact aspen growth. Increasing tree diversity can provide increase ecological and economic resilience.
Revitalizing the old deer yards into Caribou Yards is a transformative initiative aimed at creating habitats for a herd of caribou. The need for this project arises from the closure of the old deer yards, which were previously inhabited by white-tailed deer until the last one passed away of old age. Subsequently, the fencing surrounding these three habitats has weathered and suffered damage during the years of inoccupancy.
In order to track progress of restoring and protecting water quality in the Nemadji watershed, surface water monitoring is needed.
The watershed has several impaired reaches including the Nemadji River, South Fork Nemadji River and Skunk Creek.
Impairments include total suspended sediment (TSS), total phosphorus (TP), and E.coli. Several best management practices (BMPs) were conducted in the last 10 years to improve these resources.
The goal of this project is to develop and complete the Watershed Restoration and Protection (WRAP) process and report, while also enlarging and sustaining a public participation process that encourages local ownership of water quality problems and solutions (civic engagement).
The data collected in this workplan is the foundation for an accurate TMDL allocation and accurate implementation strategy design. Current and historic phosphorus inputs will be calculated and evaluated as to source. Nutrient and algal history and trends in sedimentation will be reconstructed to identify ecological changes that have occurred in the lakes both recently and historically.
Carlton County Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD), Carlton County Planning and Zoning, and local volunteers will lead an effort to collect Total Phosphorus, Chlorophyll-A, and secchi disc transparency data for the MPCA Surface Water Assessment Grant (SWAG) project on following six lakes: Eagle Lake, Upper (North) Island Lake, Lower (South) Island Lake, Tamarack Lake, Cole Lake, and Cross Lake.
Carlton County Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD) and local volunteers will lead an effort to collect total phosphorus, chlorophyll-A, hardness, chloride and secchi disc transparency data for the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) Surface Water Assessment Grant project on the following 10 lakes: Twentynine, Bob, Bear, Little Hanging Horn, Hanging Horn, Moose, Echo, Coffee, Kettle and Merwin.
The Conservation Dashboard will provide the Carlton Soil and Water Conservation District, its water plan, and local landowners a system to target, prioritize, and measure resource needs and effective conservation implementation within the subwatersheds of Carlton County. The Dashboard will identify where data gaps exist, translate the data in a way that partners and landowners easily understand, and insert Best Management Practice recommendations onto the county webmapping tool, used by citizens.
This project builds on past successful civic engagement efforts and will focus in on critical problem areas, to both identify the contributing areas of pollutant and also outreach to identify the most likely landowner contacts and engagements for continued success in the watershed. Field monitoring will refine what is currently known about pollutant inputs. Several outreach events will target specific landowner groups to provide forums on best management practices in forestry management and lakeshore/riparian stream buffer management.
