The Confluence is a monthly electronic
newsletter for members of Minnesota Waters providing up-to-date
information and resources to help citizens protect
In this
issue:
Additional Stream
Monitors needed in Duluth Area
More Money for
Associations and MN Waters – Gambling Program Seeks More
Sites
From the Board of
Directors: Community Involvement
Increases Citizen Effectiveness
Other Conferences, Confabs and
Conglomerations
Resources for
The Bucks Start Here - Funding
Resources
Lake/River news-Local, National,
International
~
Additional Stream
monitors needed in Duluth Area
Hinckley And Duluth Area Stream
Macroinvertebrate Monitoring Workshop
Stream macroinvertebrates are a
great biological indicator of stream health. Long-term monitoring of
macroinvertebrate populations may help detect environmental stressors such as
low dissolved oxygen, toxic pollutants, excessive sediment, high temperatures
and other factors affecting streams. Examples of aquatic macroinvertebrates
include insects in their larval or nymph form, crayfish, clams, snails, and
worms.
Do you live in the Hinckley or
If you are interested in
participating, please contact Minnesota Water’s citizen monitoring coordinator,
More Money for
Associations and MN Waters – Gambling Program Seeks More
Sites
Minnesota Waters would like to
offer our
If your Association talks to any restaurant, bar, convenience store, etc. that sells pulltabs and they agree to have Minnesota Waters as their designated charity we will share the proceeds. This share portion depends on your participation and could be has high as 50%.
To learn more details call our
Gambling Manager, David Bachman, at 218-245-1356.
From the Board of
Directors: Community Involvement
Increases Citizen Effectiveness
Dick Osgood, Minnesota Waters Board
Secretary and North American
Excelsior lies on the
By being involved with the
community, I think I am a better lake manager, and the Lake Minnetonka
Association is a more effective organization because I am immersed in the
social, political, and business fabric of the community around the lake. Simply,
local elected representatives, watershed board members, business leaders, and
individuals see me making investments in their community that also includes
As a direct result of this
involvement, I am often invited to City Council meetings and have worked with
one Mayor to initiate a Mayor’s forum to discuss
~
May 20
Aquatic Plant Identification
Workshop in Spicer
May 21
Aquatic Plant Identification
Workshop in Brainerd
June 3
Please contact Courtney Kowalczak,
courtneyk@minnesotawaters.org
, to get the latest information on these and other training workshops.
Strengthening Your
Citizen Lake/River Group: Workshops for Water Resource
Protection
Minnesota Waters and the Minnehaha
Creek Watershed District, with support from the Bush Foundation, are offering a
series of trainings throughout the summer designed for members of lake, stream
and watershed associations.
June 9:
Priorities and Goals:
Planning for Citizen Water Protection
June 23:
Membership Engagement and Board Leadership
July 9:
Practical Project Ideas for Improving your
July 23:
Fundraising for Organizational Longevity
August 20:
Citizen Water Monitoring
All workshops will be held 6:00 -
8:30PM at the
Click HERE for workshop
details. Click HERE for
registration information.
~ Other Conferences, Confabs and
Conglomerations ~
Shoreland Essentials
for
June 14, 8:30 am - 3:00 pm at Ideal
Corners Township Hall,
In this workshop you'll receive
practical solutions and technical information about ways to help keep your lake
healthy. This workshop covers what everyone should know about lakes - how they
work, how our activities affect them, and how to get your community involved.
There will be breakout sessions on invasive species, onsite septic
compliance, working with local officials and how to deal with difficult issues
through effective communications. This workshop includes a Lake Leader
Notebook filled with useful information and resource links. For more
information or to register contact: The Pine River Watershed Alliance at
218-692-1020, prwatershed@crosslake.net. Fee: free, registration required.
Sponsored by the
Shoreland Landscaping
Workshop
June 28 from 9am – 3pm, Middle Fork Crow River Watershed District
Come and get your hands dirty at a
new shoreland restoration workshop. At this workshop you will get a chance to
get your hands in the dirt and learn how you execute a restoration project. The
class will be held at the property of Rory Michaelis on
Clean water partnership grant from MPCA.
The Minnesota Department of Natural
Resources (DNR) is going to hold a series of open houses to provide information
about the shoreland rules revision process. Draft rule revisions have not been
developed, but these meetings will provide information on the rule revision
process, potential areas that could be included in the revision, and provide an
opportunity to give input into the rule revision process.
All open houses will take place in
the evening from 6:30 PM to 9:00 PM. The locations and dates of the open houses
are as follows:
Windom
DNR Office
Monday
June 9
Brainerd
Northland Arboretum
Tuesday
June 17
Additional information and details
about these meetings will be available later in May. If you want more
information about the shoreland rules update project go the DNR shoreland rules
update web page at http://mndnr.gov/waters/shoreland.html.
Saturday, July 26-Sunday, July 27,
2008
Join Friends of the
Buffer Zone Expo to
be Held August 9
Saturday,
August 9, 2008
Do you want to help preserve the
quality of your shore land and adjacent waters, protect your property values,
and enhance your joy of lake-or river-side living? If you do, plan to attend the “Shore
Land Buffer Zone Expo ’08” on Saturday, August 9th, 2008. The day-long (8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.)
Expo, which will be held at Deep Portage Conservation Reserve (east of
Hackensack), features a number of hour-long workshops as well as a variety of
educational exhibits - all with an emphasis on practical, hands-on, how-to-do-it
information. Among the topics to be
addressed are the installation of buffer zones (major shore land restorations
and smaller, one step at a time, projects), maintaining and monitoring septic
systems, and controlling potentially polluting water run-off. Information about required shore land
alteration permits and possible sources of financial assistance for both shore
land and septic projects will also be available. Experts from the MN DNR, MPCA, Cass
County Environmental Services and suppliers of native plants, among others, will
take part. A group of local folks
will share their experiences with installing buffer zones on their shore lands.
Pre-registration is required - call Kathy at Deep Portage Reserve –
218-682-2325. A fee of $15/person
or $25/couple (which includes lunch) will be charged for participating in the
workshops. Access to the exhibits
is free. It is not necessary to attend all day. The event is cosponsored by the Cass
County Chapter of the Izaak Walton League of America and Deep Portage
Conservation Reserve. For more
information, contact Jack Fitzgerald at 218-682-2941 or
Acting Locally to Protect Our
Legendary Lands and Waters
October 26-28, 2008 in
The first annual statewide
conference on invasive species will be held for the purpose of exchanging
information on aquatic and terrestrial invasive species topics. The focus
is to strengthen awareness of invasive species issues at the local level, as
well as act locally on prevention and management activities. Expected audiences
include researchers, land managers, natural resource professionals, university
personnel, landscapers, nursery, agricultural or forestry employees,
environmental specialists, lake association members, and agency and
non-governmental organizations.
The Minnesota Invasive Species
Council (www.mda.state.mn.us/misac/) who is hosting the conference, along with
the conference co-chairs, Minnesota Chapter of the Soil and Water Conservation
Society and
Sustainable
Organizations: Building Shared Leadership for
Change
A Signature Program from the
Institute for Conservation Leadership:
This program helps leadership teams proactively manage change, engage
people with diverse perspectives, and create strategic impact. Teams of
three organizational leaders will strengthen their ability to lead, assess
and plan for successful organizational growth and
transition.
ICL's Sustainable Organization
Program will help you build a sustainable organization
with:
Effective organizational systems
and practices
Increased memberships and stronger
partnerships
A sound resource base
Clear board roles and commitment
A dynamic vision and
direction
WHEN AND WHERE:
November 16th-19th,
2008 Sunday
afternoon through Wednesday lunch
Maumee
Bay Resort and Conference Center in
Applications
are due September 8, 2008.
Apply early and receive ICL's
early bird discount-check our website for
details.
http://icl.org/programs/SustainableOrganizations.php
FOR MORE
INFORMATION:
Please
contact:
Barbara Rusmore
(406)582-1838x2
or email barbara@icl.or
or Bonnie Haigh
(406)582-1838x1
or email bonnie@icl.org
~ Resources for
Is Your
This summer, Minnesota families who
want to know if their favorite Minnesota lake is clean enough for swimming and
eating fish caught in the lake have an easy way to find out – www.CheckMyLake.org.
Powered by Conservation Minnesota,
the new website is a user-friendly way that Minnesotans can find out whether
their favorite lakes are clean or polluted – or haven’t been tested yet. The
site relies on the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA)’s database but
makes the information easy to access and comprehend. By going to the website users can either
type in the name of a favorite lake or type in a county name and choose from
among a list to find out whether lakes have been tested and what the results
show.
“Our 10,000 lakes help define
Many of the impaired lakes are
polluted with excess mercury. Check My Lake refers users to the Minnesota
Department of Health’s fish eating guidelines for these lakes, which advise
limited consumption of fish from many
Contacts: Paul Austin, Marty
Broan (612.767.2444)
~ The Bucks Start Here - Funding
Resources ~
Minnesota Waters’ Lake and
Stream Conservation Partnership Grant Program has been funded for a second year
with support from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and Michelob Golden
Draft Light. The grant program provides funding
assistance for innovative lake and river groups across the state carrying out
shoreland habitat improvement and restoration projects, aquatic invasive species
management, and/or lake and river inventorying and assessment projects to guide
water resource improvement, restoration and management. The Conservation
Partnership program aims to further opportunities for
Application
materials and grant guidelines will be available at www.minnesotawaters.org by May
31. The grants are open to all Minnesota
Waters members and affiliates. A minimum 1:1 match with cash or
in-kind services is required. Funded
projects will be
short-term (12 months) in duration to demonstrate quick, tangible results and
proposals must be $5,000 or less.
~
For
more on these stories, please click here: News
From the Confluence
From the
TMDL
Implementation in the Basin
To
southeast
If
you would have asked Fillmore County Water Plan Coordinator Donna Rasmussen ten
years ago if she’d still be working on the
The
project began with a diagnostic study in 1998, and through various grants and
loans, work to improve water quality on the South Branch of the
Fillmore
County SWCD is only one group of more than 20 working on watershed projects in
southeastern
In
1998 when work began on the South Branch Root River Watershed project, the MPCA
was concurrently undergoing a statewide bacteria monitoring effort. Those
monitoring efforts and subsequent studies found 39 streams and river reaches in
the Lower Mississippi and
“The
rivers of southeast
Local
partners stepping in to help
Forty-seven
water quality improvement projects have either taken place or started since
2002. Since 2001, the MPCA has funded 26 projects through federal Clean Water
Act and state Clean Water Partnership and Clean Water Legacy funding to local
area partners, totaling more than $6 million. Cities, counties, state and
federal agencies and other local government funding sources have brought the
total to nearly $14.9 million spent on water quality improvement projects in
Norman
Senjem, Mississippi River Basin Coordinator at the MPCA said the engagement of
local government – counties and SWCDs and small towns
– in identifying and fixing up sources of fecal coliform is the project’s
biggest achievement. “The local partners now keep these efforts going. We’ve
seen changes in attitude and policies, such as more counties adopting ordinances
requiring ISTS inspection at property transfer, hiring of compliance staff,
conducting ISTS inventories, and major ongoing efforts on smaller feedlots,”
Senjem said.
Throughout
the course of the
Monitoring
resumes this spring to test implementation practices on water quality
Since
the implementation plan is still in its infancy, Tiffany Schauls, MPCA water quality monitoring specialist, says it
may be too early to assess the progress, but that a lot of work has been done.
Last summer, Schauls and other MPCA staff monitored 10 sites around the region.
Those same sites identified the impairments in 1997-1998 and will be used again
this spring, starting in May. “Consistent monitoring over time can better help to assess
the trend, especially with a pollutant as variable as bacteria,” Schauls
said.
The
total estimated clean-up cost for restoring the water quality in the lower
More
information about all of the water-quality improvement efforts undergoing in
southeastern
Telephone:
800-515-5253 320-257-6630
For questions regarding the Web site or Hosted Web sites please contact:
Dick Lacher, Telephone: 218-659-4511 or rglacher@paulbunyan.net
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