Mississippi River – Brainerd Watershed Planning Effort
This watershed has been working together for several years. Take a tour of this watershed and learn what has already been done to protect water quality. We’ll visit with many concerned landowners and learn about shoreline restorations, stormwater management, forestry, and agriculture practices.
A plan for the Mississippi River Brainerd watershed is beginning in 2022. A grant was received from the Board of Water and Soil Resources that supports this effort. The watershed includes portions of Aitkin, Crow Wing, Morrison and Todd Counties. Efforts that support protection and restoration of water quality in this diverse watershed will be identified and prioritized. Future grants will provide implementation dollars that will put the plan into action. Watch for more information to be added soon!
Rum River Comprehensive Watershed
The plan is being developed with a planning grant under the One Watershed, One Plan program (1W1P). Partners across the watershed are coming together to develop a comprehensive watershed management plan for the Rum River Watershed. A watershed is an area of land that drains all the streams and rainfall to a common outlet. The vision for the 1W1P program is to create a local water plan on a major watershed boundary instead of traditional county boundaries. Together we are going to create a comprehensive plan to include: restoration, protection and preservation of our watershed.
For more information, please visit: Rum River Watershed
Snake River Watershed Restoration and Protection Strategy: TMDL Project
The Snake River Watershed Restoration and Protection Strategy is a project that is addressing all the impairments (2008) within the Snake River Watershed to create a complete Restoration and Protection Plan for the entire Snake River Watershed. The Snake River Watershed is an eight digit Hydrologic Unit (HUC) located in the St. Croix River Basin. The watershed is approximately 1,006 square miles or 643,534 acres in extent and overlies four counties including Aitkin, Kanabec, Mille Lacs and Pine. The headwaters of the Snake River are located in southeastern Aitkin County.
Land use and land cover data for the Snake River Watershed has a large variation of cover ranging from largely agriculture and urban in the south to largely forest and wetland in the north.
This project is going to address all the remaining impaired waters in the Snake River Watershed and will result in a Four Lakes TMDL and a Streams TMDL which will address all of the Biota and Bacteria impairments. While restoration of impaired waters is important, it is also important to protect the unimpaired water bodies as well. When complete the watershed will have a plan that will address not just the impaired waters but the unimpaired waters as well.
The local sponsor of this project is the Snake River Watershed Management Board (SRWMB), which is a four county non-regulatory joint powers organization. The SRWMB also has representation from the Aitkin, Kanabec, Mille Lacs and Pine County Soil and Water Conservation Districts, Local Lake Associations, and other local groups.
For more information, please visit: Snake River Watershed
Aitkin County Soil and Water Conservation District 