Location: Wadena County, Minnesota
Client: East Otter Tail County Soil and Water Conservation District
Background
The Redeye River Watershed contains three major river systems—the Redeye, Leaf, and Wing rivers. The Planning Partnership includes members from Otter Tail and Wadena counties and the Becker, East Otter Tail, and Wadena Soil and Water Conservation Districts (SWCDs). In 2018 this group came together as a Planning Partnership to begin planning efforts for the Redeye River One Watershed, One Plan (1W1P). The Partnership hired HEI to help write this comprehensive watershed management plan.
The Project
The Redeye Watershed is approximately 25% cropland and 25% pasture. It also has >80% remaining historical wetlands, no phosphorus or turbidity impairments and the lakes and streams are in generally good condition. Because of these conditions the focus of this plan is stewardship.
The Partnership wanted to acknowledge current best management practices (BMPs) being implemented on the landscape and increase BMPs in the areas most at risk for soil erosion and forest loss.
Plan Highlights
- Includes a land management prioritization that gives credit for current BMPs on the landscape and prioritizes areas for additional BMPs.
- Incorporates PTMApp to identify practices on the landscape to reduce erosion and quantify benefits of BMPs.
- Incorporates a Landscape Stewardship Plan that identified priority areas for forest protection.
The Planning Partnership developed measurable goals to track if the plan is improving local resources. From these goals, HEI worked with the Partnership to develop a targeted implementation schedule to make progress towards these goals.
HEI and the Partnership is currently drafting the Redeye River 1W1P and worked together to make the plan vibrant, colorful, and easy to use in implementation. A six-page summary of the plan was created to make it easy for landowners and policy makers to understand.
Once it is completed at the end of 2020, the Planning Partnership will have an organized, measurable, and feasible plan for improving and protecting its water resources.
Client Benefits
- Coordination with and input from numerous stakeholders, including the public.
- Public kick-off meeting facilitation to understand what issues are most pressing for the community.
- Detailed plan writing services to describe various complex watershed characteristics.
- An implementation schedule based on existing data as well as public and stakeholder feedback.