The Minnesota Dept. of Natural Resources (DNR) is accepting applications for its Conservation Partners Legacy expedited grants program. The expedited grant cycle funds eligible activities that restore or enhance forests, wetlands, prairies, or habitat for fish, game, and wildlife on public lands/waters in Minnesota. Lands must be open to all seasons of hunting and fishing. Grant requests may range from $5,000 to $50,000, with a maximum total project cost of $575,000. Nonprofit organizations and government entities are eligible to apply, and a 10% match of non-state funds is required. Apply online by 4 p.m. Jan. 19. Funding for this program comes from the Outdoor Heritage Fund. 

While scientists can’t ask fish and bugs how clean the water is, they can count their numbers and species to help find that out.

From mid-June through September 2017, biological monitoring crews from the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) sampled a total of 921 sites in rivers, streams, and ditches across the state for fish (420 sites) and macroinvertebrates (501 sites).

Measuring and evaluating the health of fish, macroinvertebrates and plants helps to distinguish between naturally-occurring variation, and changes caused by human activities.

The north biological monitoring unit sampled sites in the North Fork Crow River, Rainy River Headwaters, Rainy Lake and Rapid River watersheds. The south unit sampled in the Blue Earth, Cottonwood, Redwood, Pomme de Terre and Snake River watersheds, and surveyed a series of sites on the St. Croix River.

Challenging weather

Throughout the summer abnormally low and high rainfall posed challenges. In the south, more than 13 inches of rain fell in the Redwood River watershed during an August storm. In northern Minnesota severe drought left streams with very little water or completely dry.

Despite the difficult conditions, crews still were able to collect good samples from a majority of locations. The south unit collected 36 species of fish in the lower reaches of the Cottonwood River, including shovelnose sturgeon, walleye and flathead catfish. One visit on the St. Croix River found 38 unique species, and many stations had greater than 30 specific groups. The north unit collected 35 fish species in the North Fork Crow River, and three other locations had more than 30 species.

Finding rare species

The south unit identified several rare species during the St. Croix River surveys, including river darter (endangered), pugnose shiner (threatened), blue sucker (special concern), gilt darter (special concern), and lake sturgeon (special concern).

The north unit found several rare species including pugnose shiner in the Ottertail, Pine and North Fork Crow River watersheds, northern brook lamprey (special concern) in the Ottertail and Lake of the Woods watersheds, lake sturgeon in the Little Fork watershed, and least darter (special concern) in the Pine River watershed.  

Water quality monitoring

The MPCA’s water quality monitoring unit collected data from about 370 stream and 630 lake sampling events in the same major watersheds as well as the Rainy and St. Croix Rivers, several streams in central Minnesota, and dozens of lakes for routine condition monitoring. Local partners and citizen volunteers also helped by collecting water samples and from lakes and streams in many watersheds.

The water quality monitoring unit also participated in the National Lakes Assessment. The 150-lake random survey across Minnesota focused on determining the suitability of lakes for recreation, aquatic life and habitat.

The Upper/Lower Red Lake watershed in northern Minnesota is one of the few in the state where large areas are still in their natural state and the waters in pristine condition. As such, many of the water quality strategies here focus on protection instead of restoration.

The Upper/Lower Red Lake watershed covers 1.2 million acres, mostly in Beltrami County with portions in Koochiching, Itasca, and Clearwater counties. Less than 1% of the land within the watershed is used for crop production. About 6% is used for pasture or hay. Upper and Lower Red Lake together encompass an area of 288,800 acres. They are two of the largest lakes in the state and comprise 24% of the watershed’s surface area. And, despite years of effort to increase drainage, wetlands still cover 48% of the watershed. Only 1.5% of the watershed is developed. A substantial portion of the watershed is comprised of reservation land that is part of the Red Lake Indian Reservation.

Vast expanses of wetlands and forests, combined with very little development, results in generally good water quality across the watershed. However, there are issues that negatively impact water quality, and fish and aquatic insect communities.

While the watershed’s many wetlands play a major role in maintaining water quality, they can have some negative effects as well. For example, rain storms can flush organic matter and water to streams, where the influx can lower dissolved oxygen concentrations, which in turn can stress fish and aquatic insects. Wetland streams are characterized by fine sediments and slow currents. These conditions can reduce stream channel development and habitat complexity, which is not necessarily good for supporting diverse communities of fish and aquatic insects.

Upper and Lower Red Lakes are relatively shallow with vast surface areas. Nutrients in the lake bottom sediments are subject to becoming re-suspended during windy and choppy conditions and result in nuisance algae blooms.

Bacteria concentrations are a concern in 10 stream sections that exceeded thresholds set for safe swimming. With so little development, a likely cause of elevated bacteria levels could be from wildlife such as waterfowl and beavers.

While some impairments are likely due to natural factors, residents can take actions to assist in the recovery and protection of streams and lakes. These include:

• Restore riparian zones and shorelines using native vegetation, trees, and shrubs
• Protect vegetated buffer zones, shorelines, and exceptional aquatic habitats
• Adopt best management practices to improve stream sections with sedimentation and erosion issues and to prevent additional sedimentation
• Restrict livestock access to streams
• Continue chemistry and biological monitoring to evaluate and document declining or improving conditions
• Continue to monitor dissolved oxygen in several stream sections to determine if low dissolved oxygen concentrations are affecting biological communities

For details, see the MPCA monitoring and assessment report for the Upper/Lower Red Lake watershed online.

When picturing the majestic and massive Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness or the Superior National Forest, it’s easy to see them as distinct natural resources and valued recreational destinations. It’s harder to picture them as part of something even bigger.

At 2,954 square miles, the Rainy River-Headwaters watershed contains large portions of the Boundary Waters and Superior National Forest as well as much of northeastern Minnesota. Filled with massivet tracts of upland and lowland forest, the watershed is dotted with more than 1,200 lakes and 400 streams.

The watershed’s undeveloped nature – 85% under state and federal ownership – is undoubtedly a key reason for the prevalence of high water quality. Because forests and wetlands dominate the landscape, monitored stream resources show exceptional biological, chemical, and physical characteristics. Most support a diversity of fish and wildlife species, habitat for aquatic and wild life, recreational opportunities, and timber production.

Overall, the watershed’s water quality conditions are good to excellent. The highest quality stream resources, based on aquatic life, habitat, and water chemistry are: Bezhik Creek, Denley Creek, Little Isablla River, Mitawan Creek, Snake River, Jack Pine Creek, Cross River, Moose River, and Stony River.

A few stream sections and lakes are impaired, meaning they fail to meet water quality standards all the time. They are typically limited to the lower reaches of stream and lake systems where likely human stressors from land use practices may accumulate. Stressor examples include historical and recent forest cover changes, urban and industrial development, and wetland drainage.

Key impairments found in lakes and/or streams include high levels of sediment affecting water clarity, E. coli bacteria that may make the water unsafe for recreation like swimming, and mercury in fish tissue that requires limits on consumption.

Other highlights include:

• Biological monitoring results identified numerous sensitive fish and macroinvertebrate species in many of this watershed’s drainages and this is an indicator of good water quality.
• Several streams, including Bezhik, Cross, Denley, Jack Pine, Little Isabella, Mitawan and Snake Creek and River, had exceptional biological communities that should be protected.
• All 245 monitored lakes, except for Blueberry Lake near Ely, had good-to-excellent water quality. The Blueberry Lake impairment was deemed to be a result of natural conditions.

In 2014, the MPCA began intensive watershed monitoring of this watershed’s surface waters, including Ash, Bear Island, Cross, Dunka, Dumbbell, Isabella, Island, Kawishiwi, Little Indian Sioux, Little Isabella, Moose, Shagawa, and Stony rivers. The MPCA partnered with Cook and Lake County Soil and Water Conservation Districts (SWCDs) and Vermilion Community College to conduct water chemistry sampling at 13 streams. The MPCA, Lake County SWCD, University of Minnesota-Duluth, National Park Service, and local volunteers monitored 60 lakes. The results of the monitoring were used to assess all surface waterbodies for aquatic life, recreation and fish consumption (where sufficient data were available).

Results of this recent research are included in the Rainy River-Headwater Watershed Monitoring and Assessment Report.

After 40 years of combined service to the state, MPCA Assistant Commissioner Rebecca Flood has announced she is retiring, effective Feb.16, 2018. Flood, in the photo at right, served at the Metropolitan Council from 1978 to 2008, responsible for ensuring that metropolitan area wastewater treatment plants were meeting environmental requirements. She joined the MPCA in 2008 as the assistant commissioner for water policy.

“For the past nine years, Rebecca has provided stellar leadership and wise counsel to four Commissioners and the agency on a wide range of water policy issues, ranging from wild rice water quality standards to septic tank installer licensing,” said MPCA Commissioner John Stine.  “She leaves behind a particularly valuable legacy in establishing and strengthening coordination among state agencies on the myriad of interconnected issues involving water protection and clean water funding. She has championed the development of Minnesota’s nation-leading Watershed Approach that has led to the 10-year cycle of water assessment.” 

Shannon Lotthammer will serve as the new assistant commissioner for water policy effective upon Flood’s retirement. Lotthammer has been with the MPCA for more than 20 years, and has served as the Environmental Analysis and Outcomes (EAO) division director since 2012. In that role, she has demonstrated great skill in leading the agency in establishing science-based water quality standards, expanding air quality monitoring, revising the wild rice rule, helping adapt MPCA work to address environmental justice, and championing a variety of improvement projects. 

Todd Biewen, assistant EAO director, will move up to take Lotthammer’s place. He has worked at the MPCA for nearly 30 years, serving most recently as Assistant Division Director (ADD) for both the EAO and Remediation Divisions. His MPCA career began in the Air Quality Division for 10 years and then in EAO when it was created in 1998. He served as both a supervisor and manager in the EAO Division before becoming assistant director in 2008.