balmm currents
Basin Alliance for the Lower Mississippi in Minnesota
Feb. 12, 2001

CROPLAND SHIFTING FROM HAY TO SOYBEANS: Over the past quarter century the
use of cropland in nine southeastern Minnesota counties has shifted
dramatically from hay and small grains to soybeans, according to state ag
statistics cited by U of M soil scientist Gyles Randall in Winter Crop Day
presentations last month. Between 1975 and 1999, the percentage of crop
acreage in hay and small grains fell from 36 percent to 20 percent, while
acreage in soybeans increased from 18 percent to 32 percent and acreage in
corn nudged ahead from 46 to 48 percent of the region's cropland. Randall
noted that the shift to more soybean acreage has been accompanied by fewer
and larger farming operations, fewer livestock farms, increased erosivity of
soils and a series of pest problems - soybean cyst nematodes, white mold,
soybean aphid and weed and insect shifts. Finally, prices have stayed low
for much of the period. The sustainability of the corn-soybean rotation
sustainable was discussed in view of these and other considerations.

LANDSCAPE BUFFERING - BETTER THAN BAND-AIDS: Tex Hawkins, US Fish & Wildlife
Service, wrote the following in a recent memo accompanying a proposed
"Multi-Benefit Buffer Project," reprinted here with his permission:
"Here in the Driftless Area, we do not regard wetland restoration as an end
in itself. Our extensive bottomland and floodplain wetlands along streams
and rivers, as well as thousands of marshy swales and constructed small
impoundments at the heads of ravines are essential components of our
comprehensive landscape buffering strategy, where "habitat processing" of
excess runoff, sediment, nutrient and agrichemicals helps minimize and
mitigate over-intensive land use. Random voluntary wetland restoration,
without watershed context, land treatment goals, management guidelines or
water quality monitoring is just another "band-aid" approach. Here, we aim
to interconnect all kinds of band-aids into a healing habitat matrix that
restores ecosystem function.

In Leopold's latest book, published 50 years after his death and the
completion of his Sand County classic, he further defines "Land Health" in
terms of soil fertility (carbon storage) and biological diversity (nitrogen
capture). Restoring the complex and dynamic balance of these
life-supporting elements, he says, is essential for human nourishment and
well-being. I take this as an urgent survival imperative to guide our
actions for the next 50 years.

The habitat matrix at watershed scale -- landscape buffering -- would seem
to be an indispensable part of any effort to resolve the worsening human
predicament. Increasing production of monocropped grain or extraction of
fossil fuel may seem like politically attractive "solutions" during times
of resource scarcity. But such strategies may turn out to be short-sighted
and
destructive if they tend to increase the carbon-nitrogen imbalance. As
programs and opportunities converge, we're drawn back to the approach that
Leopold helped test during the Dustbowl. And it's still working today in
the Coon Valley Watershed near LaCrosse -- the first such partnership in
the nation."

CLIMATE CHANGE STRATEGY FOR AGRICULTURE: American farmers could play a
significant role in reducing emissions of greenhouse gasses, thereby helping
to meet the United States' commitment under the Kyoto Protocol to cut
emissions to 7 percent below 1990 levels. That's according to Paul Faeth
and Suzie Greenhalgh of the World Resources Institute, Washington D.C. In
the November 2000 edition of Climate Notes, the authors propose that
"policies could be devised that would help farm income, enhance the
environment, and also reduce agricultural greenhouse gas emissions, while
cutting soil erosion and nutrient pollution." Greenhouse gasses include
carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide. Agriculture accounts for three
quarters of the nitrous oxide emitted in the U.S. by anthropogenic
activities. Synthetic fertilizer is the major agricultural source of the
compound. Nitrous oxide has a very high "Global Warming Potential" of 310,
meaning that a molecule of nitrous oxide is expected to trap 310 times more
heat over a 100-year period than a molecule of carbon dioxide. Based on its
economic/environmental policy analysis, the World Resources Institute
suggests that point/nonpoint source nutrient trading be explored as a way to
capture a range of benefits -- reduced surface runoff, reduced soil erosion,
soil carbon sequestration, and reduced emissions of nitrous oxides from
cropland retired and entered into a permanent easement (as an example).
Under nutrient trading, point source dischargers of nitrogen to surface
waters would be given a choice - either reduce nitrogen discharges to a
regulated level, or contract with nonpoint sources such as farmers to
achieve the same reduction at lower cost. For more information, visit the
WRI web site at
http://www.wri.org/wri/climate/ or call 202/729-7674.

NUTRIENT CRITERIA RECOMMENDATIONS NOW AVAILABLE: Waterbody-specific
technical guidance manuals which present the derivation methodology used by
EPA to develop nutrient water quality criteria, are available at
http://www.epa.gov/ost/standards/nutrient.html.
The ecoregions of concern for Minnesota are: Ecoregion 7 (approximates North
Central Hardwoods Forests and Driftless Area ecoregions), Ecoregion 6
(includes Western Corn Belt Plains, Northern Glaciated Plains and Red River
Valley) and Ecoregion 8 (approximates the Northern Lakes and Forests).
These documents combined with the previously released Technical Guidance
Manuals for Lakes and Reservoirs and Rivers and Streams provide extensive
background information that can be used in the development of
ecoregion-based nutrient criteria. -- Steve Heiskary, Environmental
Outcomes Division, MPCA

DAIRY QUALITY ASSURANCE PROGRAM: The Minnesota Milk Producers Association
(MMPA) is launching a statewide Dairy Quality Assurance (DQA) pilot program.
The DQA program "is designed to help producers make the investments
necessary to meet or exceed industry standards for food quality, animal
care, and environmental quality and to document success through increased
profitability," according to the organization's web site at
http://www.mnmilk.org/dqa.html. The DQA program is also designed to address
community concerns about animal agriculture and to promote a positive image
for Minnesota milk producers through a nationally recognized Quality
Assurance Certification program. To be accepted into the DQA Program
producers need to make a commitment to working toward Quality Assurance
Certification in three major areas: animal care, environmental stewardship,
and milk quality. The program thus appears to directly support the BALMM
Perennial Vegetation sub-strategy A1: "Maintain and, if possible, increase
the production of beef and dairy in the basin by promoting the economic and
environmental sustainability of cattle production." For more information,
contact Bob Lefebvre at mnmilk@cloudnet.com or call toll-free at
877-577-0741.

THERE IS A FUTURE FOR SMALL DAIRY FARMS: That's the message that
agricultural economist Ken Bailey, Penn State University, brought to the
Twin Cities Agricultural Issues Round Table last autumn. Bailey pointed to
consolidation at the cooperative, processor and supermarket levels as major
changes affecting producers. Consolidation also is occurring amongst
producers, with the number of Grade A and manufacturing grade permits in the
U.S. declining by 30 percent in the past seven years. This trend has been
most pronounced in the Midwest. At the same time, more milk is being
produced on fewer farms, many of them in Western states which achieve
economies of scale by focusing on the development of 3,000-cow dairy units
with an investment of $3,500 to $3,800 per cow (including cow, land,
building, machinery and equipment). That's about half as much as is invested
in the average-sized Pennsylvania dairy herd of 87 cows. The western-style,
dry lot dairy enterprises have been spreading from west to east. The average
U.S. dairy farm size is 116 cows/farm. If this average increased to 3,000
cows/farm, and each average farm produced 25,000 pounds of milk/cow/year,
the country would need only 2,236 farms to produce the current level of milk
supply. That would reduce dairy farm numbers by 97%. So, can a 50-cow farm
in Minnesota compete with a 3,000-cow herd in Idaho? Perhaps, says Bailey,
who went on to suggest five things that small farmers can do to be more
profitable: 1) Produce quality milk that is worth more per hundredweight; 2)
Match farm investments with sales; 3) Develop a monthly budget and measure
performance (production and financial); 4) learn risk management techniques
such as forward contracting and hedging; and 5) form an alliance (join a
coop, form a buying group, contract on inputs.) He said there are many dairy
farms with less than 200 cows that are following these (or similar) steps
and remaining profitable. Size isn't everything. Item #1 could be
consistent with pollution-reduction efforts: curtailing feedlot runoff can
result in drier feedlots, healthier cows and higher-quality milk that sells
for a higher price.

ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE: This play by Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen opened
Feb. 9 at the Commonweal Theater in Lanesboro. Ground water pollution plays
a central role in the play, which takes place in southern Norway. The play
was written in 1882 - long before water pollution was talked about on this
side of the ocean, and the year that Jesse James was supposedly killed by a
member of his own gang in Missouri, and a year after Billy the Kid was
sentenced to hang in New Mexico for shooting a sheriff in the back. The play
takes place in a small Norwegian resort town where tourists come to bathe in
waters reputed to have healing qualities. The town doctor discovers the
baths are polluted, probably by toxic wastes from a tannery. The townspeople
are at first grateful to Dr. Stockmann for his discovery, but turn against
him with a vengeance when he insists that the baths from which the town
draws much of its tourist income will have to be closed for several years.
When Dr. Stockmann expresses these views publicly he is branded an "enemy of
the people." Ibsen, living in Italy while writing the play, wrote in a
letter that "the minority is always right - I mean the minority which forges
ahead in territory which the majority has not yet reached. I believe that he
is right who is most closely attuned to the future...." Call 1-800-657-7025
for more information.

HYPOXIA ACTION PLAN ---On January 18, EPA, on behalf of the Mississippi
River/Gulf of Mexico Watershed Nutrient Task Force, transmitted the final
Action Plan for addressing Gulf hypoxia to Congress. "This landmark
agreement will help protect the Gulf of Mexico," said Chuck Fox, EPA
Assistant Administrator for Water. "We are especially pleased that all nine
states along the Mississippi River have committed to work with the federal
government to resolve a national water quality problem." The Action Plan
establishes a goal of reducing the size of the Gulf "dead zone" by roughly
half by 2015. A series of specific actions is proposed, including the
establishment of sub-basin committees to develop nutrient reduction
strategies and coordinate implementation, as well as expanded monitoring
efforts in the Gulf and throughout the basin. The first recommended action
is that the Task Force develop an integrated budget proposal for additional
funding to support the actions outlined in the Plan. That proposal is still
under development, but is expected to call for roughly $5 billion over five
years. The Action Plan and associated background material are available on
EPA's website. - from UMRBA Update

MINNESOTA'S NONPOINT SOURCE MANAGEMENT PROGRAM PLAN: The Minnesota Pollution
Control Agency is asking for public comment on its "Minnesota 2001-2005
Nonpoint Source Management Program Plan." The plan is a requirement for
Minnesota to remain eligible for EPA grants under Section 319 of the federal
Clean Water Act. The draft plan includes an updated assessment of nonpoint
sources of pollution, a watershed planning and management framework, and
detailed strategies for each water resource (i.e. groundwater, lakes, rivers
and streams, and wetlands) and for activities such as monitoring, feedlots,
agricultural erosion, agricultural pesticides, urban runoff, forestry,
mining, and atmospheric deposition. The comment period on the draft plan
ends February 23, 2001.

FASTER WAY TO ESTIMATE STREAMFLOW: Estimating streamflows in areas where
there are no gages once took days but now only takes minutes, thanks to
scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey, who have developed a user-friendly
streamflow-estimating system called "Streamstats." The system can be
accessed on the internet (http://ma.water.usgs.gov/streamstats), and uses an
equation-based method for estimating statistics that indicate the range of
streamflow that can be expected at user-selected sites. A pilot project has
been completed in
Massachusetts. The USGS plans to implement this kind of service nationwide
as part of its National Streamflow Information Program.

"With this new web-based tool, users can view maps of areas of interest.
They need only to select a site on a stream to get estimates of streamflow
statistics", said USGS hydrologist Kernell Ries, the principal
investigator. "Automatically the physical characteristics of the watershed
that drains to the site will be measured, a set of equations will be
solved, and the estimated streamflow statistics and a location map will be
provided to your desktop within seconds." Ries said that previously, users
of streamflow statistics had to measure the physical characteristics and
insert them into the equations by hand, which can be tedious and
time-consuming.

The estimating method and the web page are described in a report and a fact
sheet that have just been released to the public. These products were
developed in collaboration between USGS and MassGIS, the state geographic
information agency, and the Massachusetts departments of Environmental
Management and Environmental Protection.

USGS hydrologists developed a set of 13 equations that can be used to
estimate streamflow statistics for most streams in Massachusetts based on
long-term records of flow from USGS streamgages. One of the equations can
be used to estimate the 7-day, 10-year low flow, a statistic used by the
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and State agencies for permitting of
pollutant discharges. Another equation estimates the August median flow,
which is used by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in New England as the
minimum flow needed to protect aquatic animals and plants. At present, this
website only provides low-flow statistics, but work is underway to
incorporate flood statistics as well. "Streamflow Information for the Next
Century," USGS Open File Report 99-456 which is available on the web at
http://water.usgs.gov/osw/nsip/index.html. The report describes methods for
estimating streamflow statistics for data-collection sites as well as for
sites where no data are available.

WISCONSIN PONDERS RUNOFF RULES: (from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Jan.
23, 2001). Rules on polluted runoff that would affect everything from how a
farmer plants the back 40 to how a suburbanite fertilizes the front lawn are
being considered by Wisconsin state boards overseeing agriculture and
natural resources. The set of regulations is believed to be the first in
the nation to require naturally planted buffer zones to capture polluted
runoff from barnyards and farm fields as well as urban sources. If approved,
the rules will be discussed at a final series of public hearings throughout
the state in March. Buffers at least 20 feet wide would be
required along all lakes and rivers bordered by cropland or feedlots
whenever state dollars were available to pay 70% of the cost of creating
these natural pollution filters.
Similar buffers or retention areas also will be required to control runoff
into nearby streams from new or expanded roads, whether they are built by
the state, counties or municipalities. Bridges being rebuilt where they
cross "sensitive" waters must be designed to channel runoff into detention
ponds or chambers. Golf course managers or suburban
homeowners tending lawns of 5 acres or more will have to control
applications of fertilizer and pesticide with an eye to runoff control.
George Meyer, secretary of the Department of Natural Resources, called the
proposals "a reasonable, but strong set of rules that would protect water
quality and meet the challenge to bring our rivers and streams up to meet
state and federal standards." The proposed rules addressed concerns raised
by residents at hearings last year and in other public comments, he said.


STORMWATER BMP INFORMATION: Available from the US EPA at the following web
site:
http://www.tetratech-test.com/bmpmanual/htmfolder/main_page.htm

COMING EVENTS:
BALMM Monthly Meeting: Feb. 21, 9:30 - noon, Eagle Bluff Environmental
Learning Center, Lanesboro. Agenda includes: a presentation by the Minnesota
Geological Survey on a newly funded project to describe and map karst
features in southeastern Minnesota; a presentation on Winneshiek County's
"no fall tillage of soybean stubble" program; further development of a
strategy to reduce soil erosion and stream sedimentation. A subcommittee
will meet at 1:30 to further develop a buffer strategy.


Storm Water Management Workshop: Feb. 22, 1- 8, Plainview City Hall. Purpose
of the workshop is to promote comprehensive storm water management for
minimal adverse watershed impact. It begins with an overview of urban storm
water management principles for public works employees, engineers and
others, covering such topics as current laws, storm water management plan
components, ponding requirements, etc. The workshop next proceeds to
community analysis including delineation of watershed or "street sheds,"
identifying natural resource protection goals, outfall areas and storm water
reserve areas. This leads to a session on creating a draft plan for your
community. A storm water education and policy session for elected officials
is planned for after dinner. Sponsored by the Whitewater River Watershed
Project, Minnesota Pollution Control Agency and Southeastern Minnesota
League of Municipalities. To register, contact Larry Johnson at
(507)523-2171 or larry.johnson@mn.usda.gov before Feb. 15.


Living on Karst Workshops: Workshops for environmental educators including
teachers of Grades 5-12 are scheduled for the following locations: Hormel
Nature Center, Austin, Tuesday Feb. 27 (507/437-7519); River Bend Nature
Center, Faribault, Wednesday March 14 (507-332-7151); and Whitewater State
Park. Elba, Friday, April 20, 2001(507-932-3007). Each workshop is 9 am to 3
pm. Those who attend the Living on Karst workshop will learn about the close
connections between land use and ground water quality in southeastern
Minnesota's unique and sensitive karst landscape. The new traveling exhibit,
"Karst - a Special Landscape that Needs Special Care," designed by the
Science Museum of Minnesota, will be used in each workshop.

Watershed Workshop, Feb. 28 - Mar. 1, University Center-Rochester. Called
"Water Quality in the Lower Mississippi River Basin," this workshop will
help attendees develop a broader technical understanding of water quality
including physical, chemical and biological parameters. It will also provide
a regional forum for discussion, debate, and critique of water quality and
watershed improvement efforts occurring in the Lower Mississippi River
Basin. Registration is $20. For more information: Phone (507) 281-7764; or
e-mail bill.thompson@pca.state.mn.us.

Low-Impact Development Workshop, March 14-15, Royal Cliff Conference Center,
Eagan, MN. Features Neil Weinstein of the Low Impact Development
Center <http://www.lowimpactdevelopment.org/>
Sponsored by: Minnesota Erosion Control Association, Minnesota Land Trust,
Dakota County SWCD and Friends of the Mississippi River
Funded by: LCMR and Metropolitan Council

Sessions include: Managing growth in a water-rich region;
The Big Picture: The Mississippi River and local land-use planning;
Conservation site design: Meeting multiple objectives;
Designing and modeling low impact development systems;
Addressing the policy implications of low impact development.

ABOUT BALMM: A locally led alliance of land and water resource agencies has
formed in order to coordinate efforts to protect and improve water quality
in the Lower Mississippi River Basin. The Basin Alliance for the Lower
Mississippi in Minnesota (BALMM) covers both the Lower Mississippi and Cedar
River Basins, and includes a wide range of local, state and federal resource
agencies. Those involved in forming the alliance include Soil and Water
Conservation District managers, county water planners and regional staff of
the Board of Soil and Water Resources, Pollution Control Agency, Natural
Resources Conservation Service, Department of Natural Resources,
Minnesota-Wisconsin Boundary Area Commission, the Southeastern Minnesota
Water Resources Board, the Cannon River Watershed Partnership, and others.
BALMM meetings are open to all interested individuals and organizations. See
"Coming Events" for details.

Send comments and items for future editions to:
balmm currents editor: Norman Senjem, MPCA
Phone: 507/280-3592
Fax: 507/280-5513
norman.senjem@pca.state.mn.us