balmm currents
Basin Alliance for the Lower Mississippi in Minnesota
March 12, 2003
BALMM Meetings:
In lieu of the regularly scheduled March meeting, BALMM will convene as an educational forum in March, at the Cannon River Summit 8:00 to 3:30 on March 18 in Faribault at the American Legion Hall. The theme of the 2003 summit is "Fecal Coliform Bacteria: Protecting Public Health and the Environment." (see details of agenda in next item). By attending this summit, BALMM members will be treated to a detailed look at the health problems posed by pathogens in surface waters, current degrees of fecal coliform bacteria contamination, the main sources of the problem, and working toward concrete solutions.
This discussion will set the stage for the April 16 BALMM meeting, where possible revisions to the Regional Fecal Coliform TMDL Implementation Plan will be discussed. The final implementation plan will set the stage for the development of additional projects for funding through federal programs such as 319 implementation grants and the farm program. Emphasis is likely to focus on continued implementation of the Open Lot Agreement. Given the current situation regarding state and local funding, continued progress through local partners is likely to depend increasingly on securing federal grants.
DNR: Public Input Will Be Key to
Future Trout Stream Management
Public input will be at the heart of a Department of Natural Resources (DNR) process aimed at developing a coldwater management strategy for southeastern Minnesota trout streams.
Mark Heywood, DNR fisheries manager at Rochester, said the DNR is in the early stages of "an ambitious plan" to develop a long-term strategy for managing trout streams in the southeast. "For the plan to succeed," Heywood stated, "we need to obtain input from as many people as possible who have an interest in these resources and we need to consider all points of view."
A series of five public meetings will be held between March 25 and April 1 to solicit public input. Meetings are slated to be held at Frontenac, Winona, Rochester, Lanesboro and St. Paul. Dates and times will be released later.
In the past, Heywood said, DNR Fisheries "tended to address specific and often-narrow trout stream issues individually. This new approach is intended to pull all the issues together and consider them comprehensively."
According to Heywood, southeast Minnesota's trout streams are approaching a crossroads. "Right now, these streams are in pretty good shape and offer some excellent trout fishing," Heywood said. "However, numerous pressures on these streams continue to build as significant changes occur throughout the watersheds."
Development of blufflands and other areas is increasing rapidly and more land is being taken out of the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) and planted back to row crops, Heywood said. "Major watershed alterations such as that can have big impacts on the streams themselves," Heywood noted. "It's imperative that we come together and figure out how we can deal with these challenges."
Another challenge that needs to be addressed is the on-going issue of providing an acceptable range of fishing opportunities for the angling public, Heywood said. "Some anglers are staunch supporters of catch and release, others like to take some fish home to eat," Heywood noted. "Some want barbless hooks only, others don't. There is another segment that wants us to manage more streams for big fish."
The reality, Heywood stated, is that "there is a broad range of expectations out there. There has to be give and take, we have to cooperate if we want to protect these streams and provide the recreational opportunities we all want."
One option that has been suggested is a plan that would manage streams according to a tiered system. Heywood said that proposal "is a good concept that merits further discussion. It may present us with the mechanism to provide a diverse range of opportunities."
Heywood stressed that developing a successful coldwater management strategy will be largely dependent on the turn-out and input at the public meetings. "We're hoping for representatives from a broad audience - trout anglers, trout organizations, conservation groups, natural resource agencies, and landowners," Heywood said. "Anyone with an interest in the future of these streams is encouraged to be there."
Following the public meetings, input will be categorized into major areas of concern and potential opportunities with a strategic plan for moving forward by June 1.
"This plan will be broad in nature and will clearly identify any major program shifts," Heywood said.
The DNR will focus on how to implement various strategies of the plan during the summer of 2003. Interested individuals will be invited to join DNR to attempt to resolve potentially controversial issues prior to completion of a draft operational plan by October 1.
That will be followed by two months of collecting and reviewing comments about the recommendations with a final plan deadline of Dec.31, 2003, Heywood stated. The plan will be implemented in 2004.
For additional information, contact: Mark Heywood, State Program Administrative Manager, DNR Southern Region, Fisheries Division; 507-280-5063.
TROUT STREAM PLANNING OPEN HOUSES SCHEDULED:
Minnesota DNR Fisheries is seeking input on a coldwater stream plan for southeastern Minnesota. This plan will determine how we will manage these fragile resources to provide quality fishing and clean water for many years to come. All open houses begin at 5:30 pm with a formal presentation and comment period beginning at 6:30 p.m.
March 25: DNR Central Office Cafeteria, 500 Lafayette Road, St. Paul March 26: Frontenac Sportsmen's Community Center, 30301 Territorial Road, Frontenac. March 27: Elks Club, 4540 Service Drive, Winona March 31: Heintz Center (Technical College) 1926 Collegeview Drive SE, Rochester April 1: Lanesboro High School Band Room, 100 Kirkwood Street, Lanesboro
For more information, contact: Lake City (651-345-3365) or Lanesboro (507-467-2442) Fisheries.
BALMM AND TROUT: BALMM goals and implementation projects line up well with Minnesota DNR's emphasis on trout stream enhancement. A key aquatic ecosystem goal on page 65 of the Basin Plan Scoping Document references the introduction and maintenance of brook trout in cold-water streams. More recently, the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP) application documented the importance of trout streams to recreation and tourism in the region. Here's what it says:
Trout Stream Habitat: Southeastern Minnesota is home to 736 miles of trout water in 102 streams, which attract anglers from miles around. In 1998, a DNR creel survey estimated total mean angling pressure to be 617 hours/acre. By contrast, angling pressure on Minnesota lakes rarely exceeds 100 hours/acre. Total estimated annual angling pressure in southeastern Minnesota streams is 500,000 hours. Prior to European settlement, brook trout were distributed throughout the region, but have largely been replaced by introduced brown trout. Brook trout are now restricted to small feeder streams and headwater sections. Trout require cold, clear, oxygen-rich water, and are very sensitive to disturbances from sedimentation, high flows and loss of riparian vegetation. Cold-water streams therefore are protected with more stringent water quality standards than apply to warm-water streams, in accordance with state and national priorities. Management of this fishery is the major DNR Fisheries management program in southeast Minnesota.
ACREAGE SHIFT TO SOYBEANS CONTINUES: A land-use trend of great concern to cold-water fisheries is the ongolng shift from perennial vegetation to row-crop farming. The Basin Plan Scoping Document, citing National Resource Inventory data, documented a decline in acreage of noncultivated cropland and pastureland from 627,700 acres in 1982 to 447,900 acres in 1997, a decline of 28 percent in 15 years, or 12,000 acres per year. Although new NRI data are not available for 2002, Minnesota Department of Agriculture statistics analyzed by Dr. Gyles Randall, soil scientist at the Southern Research and Outreach Center in Waseca, show that this trend appears to be continuing. "For the nine-county area of southeast Minnesota, corn and soybeans occupied 82 percent of the crop acreage in 2001 compared to 64 percent in 1975. In the six-county area closer to the Mississippi River (Fillmore, Goodhue, Houston, Olmsted, Wabasha, and Winona Counties) marked by many steep, highly erosive soils, corn and soybean acreage has risen from 55 percent in 1975 to 75 percent in 2001. Soybean acreage in Houston and Wabasha counties has increased from 4,000 and 12,000 acres, respectively, in 1975, to 29,000 and 40,000 acres in 2001. Most of the shift to soybeans has been at the expense of large reductions in alfalfa, pastures, and small grains."
Finding ways of arresting and if possible reversing this trend has been a prime priority for BALMM, because of the adverse consequences for erosion, stream sedimentation, trout habitat degradation, and nitrate nitrogen leaching, in particular. Hence the high priority attached to achieving state and federal funding for the 95,000-acre CREP proposal, encouraging improved pasture management and economical dairy and beef production through rotational grazing, a proposal to include hay as a program crop in the 2002 Farm Bill, and developing other initiatives to keep beef and dairy cattle on the land so that land continues to be used for hay, haylage and pasture. No small task, but the sense of urgency increases when one keeps meeting farmers who are either strongly considering selling off their dairy herds and renting the land to a crop farmer, or who have already done so. And when one reads from the Food Policy Research Institute at the University of Missouri that dairy cattle are projected to decline by 32 percent from 200 to 2010 in Minnesota.
ARE DEEP RIPPERS A RIPOFF? It looks that way, according to University of Minnesota research for southeast Minnesota. It shows that corn and soybean production and profitability were not improved by deep tillage in studies conducted between 1981 and 2002 in southeastern and south-central Minnesota. Purported benefits of deep ripping, including better drainage, improved rooting and higher yields turned out to be more perception than reality, according to a report by Gyles Randall, soil scientist at the Southern Research and Outreach Center, Waseca. Deep ripping does have some negatives, including increased fuel consumption and burying of surface crop residue needed to prevent soil erosion. Operating at depths of greater than 10 inches is not recommended.
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