Provides grants to Soil and Water Conservation Districts that focuses on increasing capacity to address four resource concern areas?Soil Erosion, Riparian Zone Management, Water Storage and Treatment, and Excess Nutrients.
The purpose of the Watershed Based Funding is to address priority concern 1, mitigate altered hydrology and minimize flooding and priority concern 2, minimize the transport of sediment, excess nutrients, and bacteria. The goal for the 2018/2019 is to reduce 300 tons of sediment per year, increase storage by 100 acre-feet per year, reduce nitrogen by 16,000 pounds per year and to reduce phosphorus by 800 pounds per year. Grant funds will also be used for technical staffing in order to have the capabilities of implementing the priority BMPs in the seven priority sub-watersheds.
The goal of this phase of the WPA acquisition program was to protect a total of 760 acres of grassland, wetland and other wildlife habitats as Waterfowl Production Areas open to public hunting. Pheasants Forever purchased 11 parcels totaling 1,310 acres of wetlands and grasslands in Minnesota?s prairie region. In addition to exceeding our acre goals, $28,152.10 of grant funds will be returned.
The Native Prairie Bank Program perpetually protected via conservation easement 402 acres of native prairie and supporting habitat from willing landowners. Easement acquisition focused on Minnesota Prairie Plan identified landscapes and targeted high-quality prairies that provide valuable wildlife habitat.
The Chippewa River Watershed Project (CRWP) will work with the Minnesot Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) to conduct watershed pollutant load monitoring at four sites in the Chippewa River watershed and one site in the neighboring Pomme de Terre River watershed to aid the MPCA in measuring and comparing regional differences and long-term trends in water quality. Our goal is to collect quality data and complete load calculations for five sites using the MPCA's Watershed Pollutant Load Monitoring Network (WPLMN) established protocols.
The Conservation Partners Legacy Grant Program will be managed by the Department of Natural Resources to provide competitive matching grants of up to $400,000 to local, regional, state, and national non-profit organizations and government entities. In it's first 7 years of funding, the CPL program has provided 410 grants totaling $37 million to 133 different grantee organizations, positively affecting over 220,000 acres of habitat. Demand for CPL grants has continued to grow each year as new grantees hear about the program and successful grantees return.
The Cottonwood 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.
Work resulting from this appropriation resulted in the acquisition, development, and inclusion of 964 acres into the state Wildlife Management Area (WMA) system by way of five acquisitions. The acres acquired met the accomplishment plan goals of 960 acres, and spent 96% of the budget. The acquired acres compliment the WMA program by adding habitat function and natural resource ecosystem services.
We restored and enhanced a total of 40,539 grassland acres with 446 activities on Wildlife Management Areas, Scientific and Natural Areas, Native Prairie Bank easements, Waterfowl Production Areas, and National Wildlife Refuges.
