The goal of the project is the development of an overall strategy for reduction of turbidity/TSS, with sets of sediment reduction initiatives and actions for various sources, to address the Minnesota River Turbidity TMDL and the South Metro Mississippi River TSS TMDL.
MSU-Mankato Water Resources Center in the Mankato area will provide conventional pollutant monitoring at the following sites: Beauford Ditch, Big Cobb River, Blue Earth River, Le Sueur River (3), Little Cobb River, Minnesota River (2), Watonwan River.
The overall goal of this project is to perform water quality monitoring duties to accomplish MPCA’s SWAG monitoring efforts at the four sites listed in Section IV of this application for the Middle Minnesota River stream sites selected in Renville, Redwood and Brown counties and allow for the assessment of aquatic life and aquatic recreation use for those reaches of the minor streams.
This project will monitor six sites within the Minnesota River Basin: Hawk Creek near Maynard, Hawk Creek near Granite Falls, Beaver Creek near Beaver Falls, Yellow Medicine River near Granite Falls, Yellow Medicine River near Hanley Falls, and Spring Creek near Hanley Falls. The sites will be monitored according to MPCA’s Major Watershed Load Monitoring (WPLMN) Standard Operating Procedure, which is the procedure being followed for sites currently monitored by the Hawk Creek Watershed Project (HCWP).
This project targets nutrient reductions within the Mayhew and Big Elk Lake watersheds. The Benton Soil and Water Conservation District will work with farmers in implementing a variety of conservation practices including, but not limited to cropland erosion control projects, riparian pasture management, and nutrient management and feedlot pollution control systems. These strategies were identified through Total Daily Maximum Load Studies.
Little Rock Lake experiences severe algae blooms due to excess phosphorus and these blooms are the worst known regionally. The goal of this project is to reduce algae blooms, improve water clarity, and avoid risk of drinking water contamination. The project will result in installing one farmer nutrient management project , four cover crops, two lakeshore buffer strips, six septic systems that also demonstrated an imminent threat to public health, six erosion control projects , one wetland restored, and one feedlot runoff control system.
A completed Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) study has identified mid to late summer phosphorus loading as a significant stressor to lakes and streams within the Big Elk Lake watershed. While this comprehensive study serves its role as the unifying document that identifies pollutants and sources, further work is required in order to develop site-specific Best Management Practices, design these practices, and oversee their implementation in order to reach clean water goals.
The Benton County Water Plan advisory committee has the goal of protecting groundwater resources in Benton County. One of the methods identified is to seal unused wells. In 2013, Benton Soil and Water Conservation District completed an aggressive campaign to identify unused wells. We used several sources to locate potential wells, completed site visits for many wells and collected site information to assisting in prioritizing limited cost share resources.
This program will complete the initial WMA site development on 1,500 acres of land acquired in the Accelerated Prairie Grassland WMA and Accelerated Wetland WMA Acquisition programs to meet standards for inclusion in the Outdoor Recreation System. This program will also accelerate the restoration, enhancement and management of at least 5,180 acres of native prairie vegetation on existing public lands.
Pheasants Forever, Ducks Unlimited, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will cooperate to permanently restore and conserve approximately 800 acres of grassland and 400 acres of wetland as Waterfowl Production Areas in western and southern Minnesota. All lands acquired through this grant proposal will be owned and managed by the Service as part of the National Wildlife Refuge System.
The program accelerated the protection of 550 acres of prairie grassland, wetland, and other wildlife habitat as State Wildlife Management Areas open to public hunting.
The table below provides a short summary of the acres and sites accomplished. We enhanced or restored 59,495 acres in 458 separate habitat projects.Project Type # Sites # AcresFencing for conserv grazing 6 721grassland conversion 33 1,124Invasive Species Control 43 1,599mowing 3 104Prescribed burn 214 48,368Restoration 13 123Woody Removal 146 7,457
This proposal impacts shallow lakes and wetlands in Minnesota through the design and construction of projects, enhancement work done by DNR roving habitat crews, and shallow lakes work identified and initiated through the DNR Shallow Lakes program. Ten thousand acres of wetlands were enhanced by these activities.
This proposal accelerates the permanent protection of 760 acres of wetlands (175 acres) and grasslands (585 acres) as Waterfowl Production Areas open to public hunting in Minnesota.
CMSM will build upon the work that began with its 2015-16 appropriation by (1) Remediation and further development of exhibit areas that promote Arts & Cultural Heritage (ACH) learning (2) Expanding ACH learning opportunities for new audiences at off-site locations; (3) Engaging an outside Evaluation Consultant to help plan/implement strategies that meaningfully assess ACH learning outcomes and impacts; (4) Boosting the Museum’s capacity to serve more school/early learning groups.
The New Ulm Public Library expanded its microfilm collection to add 258 rolls of microfilmed local newspapers covering most of the 19th and 20th centuries, all of which were absent in their previous collection. This greatly increases free and full access to both researchers and the general public to these primary records.
This project continues water plan activities from a 2007 Clean Water Legacy grant and initiates a multi-county project to restore hydrology and water quality in an impaired trout stream.The first goal of this project is to reduce the impacts of animal manure and fertilizer on surface and groundwater by installing low cost feedlot improvements and targeted manure management planning.
With funding from the Outdoor Heritage Fund and other leveraged sources, the Anoka Sand Plain Partnership restored/enhanced 1,866 acres of priority wildlife habitat within the Anoka Sand Plain and in the Rum River watershed in east-central Minnesota.
To hire a professional historian to complete research and documentation of the 1899 Berg Hotel, in preparation for nomination to the National Register of Historic Places.
This project will provide condition monitoring and problem investigation monitoring at the following sites.
Mississippi River: Tributaries include Bassett Creek, Cannon River, Crow River, and Minnehaha Creek.
Minnesota River: Tributaries include Eagle Creek,Riley Creek, and Valley Creek tributary to the St. Croix River
