Through its Wetland Habitat Protection and Restoration Program - Phase 3 grant, the Minnesota Land Trust protected 666 acres and restored/ enhanced 954 acres of high priority wetland habitat complexes in Minnesota's Prairie and Forest-Prairie Transition areas by securing permanent conservation easements within scientifically prioritized habitat complexes and working with partners in restoration/enhancement.
The Wilkin Soil and Water Conservation District will partner with the Buffalo Red River Watershed District, the Natural Resources Conservation Service, and landowners to install 59 side inlets to stabilize high priority gullies that are contributing sediment to Whiskey Creek. When these 59 gullies are stabilized, sediment loading to Whiskey Creek will be reduced by an estimated 1,006 tons per year and total phosphorus reduced by 794 pounds per year.
Our mission is to provide high quality early childhood experiences in conjunction with Ojibwe and Dakota language immersion to urban families in the Twin Cities area.
This Phase 5 continuation of the Wild Rice Shoreland Protection Program will utilize permanent conservation easements to protect 500 acres, translating to approximately 3 miles of wild rice shoreland habitat. Sites are selected through an integrative ranking process that considers development risk, surrounding land use, habitat value, and numerous other criteria. BWSR will utilize the RIM Easement process in partnership with 12 local SWCDs within the Northern Forest and Forest/Prairie Transition Sections during the appropriation term.
Phase 2 of the Wild Rice River Watershed Restoration and Protection Strategy (WRAPS) project includes: continued civic engagement; production of the Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) study, which allocates pollutant load reductions for impaired waters; and production of the WRAPS report, which identifies implementation strategies that will maintain or improve water quality in many lakes and streams throughout the watershed.
A total of 62 grade stabilization structures and 13.5 miles of continuous berms will be constructed and become a permanent part of County Ditches 9 and 10. An additional 100 acres of buffers will be seeded beyond those required by law. Together these practices will reduce peak flows into the county ditches, provide better erosion control, reduce sediment, improve water quality and reduce future drainage system maintenance costs. The project will reduce 595 tons of sediment per year from the CD 9 & 10 watersheds to the Rabbit River. This is 18 percent of the Rabbit River TMDL goal.
To hire a qualified consultant to develop a Historic Structure Report that will help preserve the Winona Public Library, listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
Over the next six years, the Buffalo-Red River Watershed District (BRRWD), in partnership with landowners, federal, state, and local agencies, intends to implement a long-term comprehensive plan to restore the Wolverton Creek and its riparian corridor. This comprehensive project will turn 20 channelized stream miles to 26.2 miles of restored natural prairie stream channel. It will also protect, enhance, and restore over 740 acres (357 acres in Phase 1) of floodplain wetland and grassland habitat along the Wolverton Creek.
In partnership with the City of Coon Rapids, the Coon Creek Watershed District will address Coon Creek's aquatic life and recreation impairments by reducing nutrient and bacteria loading attributable to stormwater runoff from an 822-acre urban catchment. The project will retrofit an existing in-line rate control pond with a large iron-enhanced sand filter bench to target dissolved phosphorus, reducing TP loading to Coon Creek by 69 pounds per year. It will also incorporate bio-char into the filter media mixture to reduce E.
Youth Energy Summit (YES!) expands its successful model to improve local waterways by mobilizing over 20 youth-led teams in Minnesota communities to complete water quality related projects, moni-toring and reporting.
