Lake County Soil & Water Hosts Landscape Stewardship Planning Meeting

Representatives from a number of regional environ­mental agencies, including Minnesota Pollution Con­trol, Finland DNR Fisher­ies, the North Shore Forest Collaborative, Advocates for the Knife River Water­shed, and others gathered last week for an introduc­tory meeting to talk about a Landscape Stewardship Plan that is being developed to support private landown­ers in North Eastern Min­nesota. Some aspects of the work going into this plan are anchored in the 2008 Farm Bill. When completed, the plan will help landowners understand and implement a landscape stewardship management approach to their properties.

There are a number of ar­eas of concern that the man­agement plan will address. Water quality always needs to be monitored because runoff from municipalities, farms and forests impacts streams, rivers and lakes. Phosphorus in watersheds, while natural to a degree, can have a negative impact on water quality and on fish species. Too much phos­phorus can cause oxygen depletion and can also lead to harmful algae blooms. The way to mitigate this is to make sure that forest lands are being managed in such a way so that proper infiltration of water from rainfall, snowmelt and run­off is maintained.

Private lands in Minneso­ta generate public benefits and so working to balance landscape stewardship on both private and public lands is important. Fishery resources bring tremendous benefit to the State and in order to keep fish popula­tions healthy, it is necessary to focus on stewardship of the entire watershed system.

The plan will include sup­porting private landown­ers with tools that can help them in their stewardship efforts. Landowners will be able to choose the level they want to participate at. Some of the support that landown­ers can access through the plan will include site visits, informational factsheets, landscape improvement planning and more.

The target date for the Landscape Stewardship Plan going live is this com­ing June. Funding for this work is available and is be­ing secured. There will be further opportunities for the public to learn more about the Landscape Stewardship Plan in the near future. For more information, contact Lake County Soil and Water at 218-834-8370.