Minnesota Board of Water and Soil Resources

Isanti Swcd Blue Lake 5

Blue Lake alum treatment caps Isanti SWCD’s protection work

Site Staff

SOLitude Lake Management operator Justin Broch, on shore, and project manager Joel Barrow monitored progress as the tanks holding aluminum sulfate and sodium aluminate refilled on Sept. 14, 2022, at the Blue Lake public water access in Stanford Township. The alum treatment, an Isanti SWCD Clean Water Fund-backed project, followed earlier phosphorus-reduction efforts — including the bank stabilization and erosion…

From tree-killing infestation arises hope for diverse forest

Staff and News Reports

Penny and Jamie Juenemann were among 21 landowners who signed up for a pilot project funded by a Clean Water Fund grant from the Minnesota Board of Water and Soil Resources. (Photo by Ann Wessel, BWSR) TWO HARBORS — As the ongoing spruce budworm outbreak turns dense, single-species stands of trees into fire hazards in Lake County and beyond, it…

Building conservation careers

Site Staff

Clean Water Fund allocations provide SWCDs with a trained labor force and equip CCMI crews with skills ranging from firefighting to disaster response. In Stearns County, a Brainerd-based crew helped stabilize a stretch of Mississippi River bank in a popular park north of St. Cloud.

Minnesota officials seek cropland for conservation project

Associated Press

ST. PAUL, Minn. — Minnesota officials are working to sign up more landowners under a new program that pays farmers to permanently set aside farmland for conservation to improve water quality. The federal Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program, which launched last year in Minnesota, enrolls farm owners for 15 years, Minnesota Public Radio News reported. Farmers in the program are also…

Agricultural land conservation potential on display in state’s first MN CREP easement

Staff and News Reports

REDWOOD FALLS, Minn. —  Seeded with a pollinator-friendly mix and signed with white placards, the state’s first recorded Minnesota Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (MN CREP) easement borders a public ditch that runs through Robert and Cathy VanderLinden’s Redwood County corn field. It’s a conservation milestone for Minnesota, marked on June 18 with a short ceremony and site visit hosted by…
News

With partnership, field and stream data to determine effects of conservation practices on water quality

Staff and News Reports

The Root River flows near Preston, where it parallels the Root River Trail for a stretch. Conservation practices being put in place in Houston, Fillmore and Mower counties through the Root River Field to Stream Partnership focus on three small watersheds. But they will benefit the Root River, and what’s learned here through intensive monitoring can be applied throughout southeastern…