Barry Drazkowski
Department of Resource Analysis
Box
7
St. Mary's University of Minnesota
Winona, MN
55987
507.457.6925
fax
507.457.6604
bdrazkow@smumn.edu
-----Original
Message-----
From: Senjem, Norman [http://mail.smumn.edu:81/MBX/JGABBERT/ID=3CDEDC7D/CREATE?norman.senjem@pca.state.mn.us]
Sent:
Friday, May 03, 2002 2:07 PM
To:
'Scheidecker-Kevin-Fillmore'
Subject: balmm currents
balmm
currents
Basin Alliance for the Lower Mississippi in
Minnesota,
May 3, 2002
CREP APPLICATION SUBMITTED TO
USDA-FARM SERVICE AGENCY: An application for
the Conservation
Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP) for southeastern
Minnesota,
under development since December, was submitted to the USDA
Farm
Service Agency in St. Paul on Tuesday, April 16. It proposes
allocating
95,000 acres of conservation easements among four
types of targeted areas:
highly erodible land; wetlands; riparian
buffers; and sensitive groundwater
protection areas. The
application will be reviewed by FSA, NRCS, BWSR and
others over
the next several weeks. It is likely that BALMM will be asked
to
provide additional information, clarification, etc, before a
final
application is presented to Governor Ventura for his
signature. The final
step would be submittal of the final
application to the Farm Service Agency
in Washington D.C. In the
meantime, local units of government are urged to
contact the
state FSA office with letters of support for the
current
application. Copies of these have been widely
distributed....On the state
legislative front, no final decision
has been made on the state budget, so
the amount allocated to
Reinvest in Minnesota (RIM) Reserve is not yet
known.
A
State/USDA/Area team is working on final details of the
application,
including exact dollar amounts. The team includes:
Paul Flynn, Greg
Anderson, Kevin Lines, NRCS Area and FO staff
(2), FSA Area and FO staff (3)
Board Conservationist and Bev
Nordby and Kevin Schiedecker. Kevin Lines and
Greg Anderson will
be working with John Nicholson and Linda Hennen.
Ideas
currently being considered for the CREP proposal include:
1. If
an individual CREP project would be over a certain acreage size
there
would be a local review board consisting of SWCD
supervisors and County
Committee members for secondary
approval.
2. Limited-duration easements for Marginal Ag Land
(HEL). For example, a 15-
year CRP contract along with a 20-year
easement would be offered for contour
strips and critical area
setasides on most highly erodible land, for a total
of 35 years.
The State/USDA/Area team will be working on this.
Two
staffing plans needs to be drafted by September 1: one for a 6-year
CREP
program and one for a 10-year program. SWCD and BWSR staff
will work on
this, looking at existing staffing capacity and
additional staff and
training needs. Current thinking is to train
existing staff on wetland
restoration design, and have an
engineer sign off. The group also is
considering what other
partners can bring to the table for
technical
assistance.
If all goes as planned, the CREP
proposal could be signed by Governor
Ventura and sent to
Washington DC in mid-July, and receive final approval by
all
parties by November 1, 2002. . For more information, contact Bev
Nordby
at 507-434-2603 or Kevin Scheidecker at
507/765-3878.
DRIFTLESS AREA INITIATIVE TAKING SHAPE: Not
only did the glaciers ignore the
far corners of Southeast
Minnesota, Northeast Iowa, Northwest Illinois and
Southwest
Wisconsin. Far too often, so do state and federal
officials
charged with managing natural resources. Over the past
several months, a
group of people from these regions have been
discussing whether we could
gain by joining forces on common
issues in this special area that too few
people seem to know
about. The result is the decision to establish a
Driftless Area
Initiative, an informal collaboration of organizations
and
individuals interested in advancing common goals in the area.
Following a
second group meeting in La Crosse last week, a draft
Mission Statement and
Vision have been drafted, as
follows:
Mission: To unite organizations and individuals
within the Driftless Area
for action to enhance and restore the
region's ecology, economy, and
cultural resources in a balanced,
integrated fashion.
Vision: We envision a healthy landscape
supported by an active network of
well-informed citizens, working
to optimize environmental and economic
benefits for present and
future generations. We envision vibrant natural and
cultural
resources sustained by healthy and happy families, prosperous
and
productive farms, and a diversity of innovative enterprises
supporting
life-enhancing communities.
The Resource
Conservation and Development organizations in each state
have
agreed to provide administrative support to the initiative,
with the
Northeast Iowa RC&D providing central coordination
during the project
launch. Participants range from private
individuals to research scientists,
watershed coordinators and
state and federal resource managers. The group
will next be
developing a work plan that will ensure the project is
grounded
in local priorities while addressing regional ecological
and economic needs.
For more information, contact Judy Martinson,
Northeast Iowa RC&D, Inc.,
Postville, Ia, at
563-864-7112.
CONSERVATION SECURITY PROGRAM APPROVED: The
Minnesota Project is pleased to
announce a major victory for
conservation and the environment in the
approval of the
Conservation Security Program by the joint House and Senate
farm
bill conference committee. The farm bill conference
committee
agreement that was announced yesterday in Washington,
D.C. will fund the
Conservation Security Program at $2 billion
over the next six years,
providing financial incentives for
farmers who practice sustainable,
resource-protecting agriculture
on their farms. The Conservation Security
Program will be the
biggest, single new program in the 2002 farm bill, and
marks the
first time that the government will provide stewardship
incentives
beyond cost sharing for farmers to practice
conservation on their working
lands.
Senator Harkin's
innovative Conservation Security Program, crafted with the
input
of hundreds of farm, environmental, conservation, and
faith-based
groups throughout the United States, will provide
benefits to farmers who
protect soil, water, and wildlife
resources on their private working
farmlands.
"This is a
wonderful accomplishment. I think we are off to a new era
of
visionary farm programs," said former Minnesota Congressman
and past sponsor
of the Conservation Security Program, David
Minge. Said Loni Kemp, Senior
Policy Analyst at the Minnesota
Project, "In light of the fact that most of
the farm bill
continues commodity subsidies that cost taxpayers billions
of
dollars, the Conservation Security Program serves as a shining
star for the
future, rewarding those farmers and ranchers who
have been doing a good job
on their land, and providing
incentives for others to also farm in a way
that sustains rural
economies, family farms, and a cleaner environment for
all
Americans." For more information, contact Loni Kemp, The
Minnesota
Project, 507-743-8300
THREE BALMM PROJECTS
SELECTED FOR FUNDING: Three major projects for the
BALMM area
will be funded, which will accelerate implementation of the
Lower
Mississippi River Basin Plan Scoping Document over the next
several years.
Two projects are funded by the EPA's 319 program
through the MPCA, and the
third is a USDA grant. Here's a summary
of each one:
RESIDENTIAL WASTEWATER TREATMENT PROJECT IN 12
COUNTIES: The Southeast
Minnesota Water Resources Board, Cannon
River Watershed Partnership,
University of Minnesota Extension,
MPCA and Mower County developed a
comprehensive strategy for
dealing with inadequately treated residential
wastewater in the
basin. They came up with a plan that would double the
rate at
which counties repair failing ISTS and seek solutions for
unsewered
communities, while promoting Operation and Maintenance
practices that would
drastically reduce the rate of ISTS failure
in the future. The proposal has
been approved for $530,000 of
federal funding through EPA's 319 program,
administered by the
MPCA. The project uses surveys and self-audits to
directly engage
township officers and county commissioners in local
wastewater
treatment efforts, makes full use of University of
Minnesota
Extension educational resources that have been
developed in recent years,
and would provide for two community
wastewater specialists to work with
unsewered communities to find
solutions. An education coordinator also
would be hired. The plan
would also attempt to initiate revolving loan funds
in counties
to help finance ISTS repairs. This feature is modeled after
Mower
County's system, which provides for the payback of loan funds
through
property tax payments over time. County auditors would be
engaged in
workshops to explore this possibility.
BOOSTING
ROTATIONAL GRAZING IN TROUT COUNTIES: Most of the 736 miles
of
designated trout streams in southeastern Minnesota can be
found within
Houston, Fillmore, Winona and Goodhue Counties.
Rotational grazing is a
widely recognized land use system that
can keep small beef and dairy farms
competitive while minimizing
runoff, leaching and damage to riparian areas.
Put these two
facts together, and you have a BWSR proposal for this
year's
round of 319 funding. The $139,000 project will put 0.5
FTE of staff
expertise to work in these counties writing 40 new
grazing plans a year for
three years, while training local staff
to do the same. The result would be
120 new managed grazing plans
written over the three-year period including
an estimated 12,000
acres of pasture. This would bring the total acreage
under
rotational grazing in these counties to an estimated 19,500 acres -
10
percent of the total pasture acreage - a down payment on a
long-term goal of
having the majority of pasture acres utilized
with intensive rotational
grazing. Howard Moechnig, who developed
most of the proposal, has outlined a
series of detailed workshops
that would be presented throughout the
three-year project, on
topics ranging from pasture forage plant
identification to
fencing and watering systems to the identification and
management
of sensitive areas. The project would implement a BALMM
strategy
and would help to achieve a primary land use goal of
maintaining or
increasing acreage of land growing perennial
vegetation.
KARST CAMPAIGN TO FOCUS ON AG BMP PROMOTION: The
University of Minnesota's
"Karst Campaign" project has been
funded by the USDA's Cooperative State
Research, Education and
Extension Service for $180,000. The project will
create tailored
education products and events for use in southeast
Minnesota
county extension programs. The Karst Campaign
curriculum will focus on the
following four topics: 1) water
quality status and hydrology of the karst
region, and how it
relates to farming practices and other pollution
pressures; 2)
forage-based livestock farming that is productive, profitable
and
environmentally sound; 3) soil conservation practices that can
help
achieve the BALMM goal of T by 2010; 4) Nutrient and manure
management
messages for farmers, crop consultants and ag chem
dealerships concerning
University of Minnesota application rates
for N and P, and elimination of
fall application of commercial
nitrogen fertilizer in the karst region. In
addition, the Karst
Campaign will publicize animal feedlot siting and design
criteria
for the region, develop ag BMPs to attain TMDL requirements in
the
basin, and developing educational products on ag BMPs for
wellhead
protection planning in the karst region. For more
information, contact
Norman Senjem at 507-280-3592 or Tim Wagar
at 507-280-2866.
REGIONAL APPROACH TO TOTAL MAXIMUM DAILY
LOADS: At the same time as BALMM
partners were shaping and
starting to implement land use strategies, we
proposed to follow
a basin or "regional" approach to implementing the Total
Maximum
Daily Load program for 20 stream reaches in the basin that
are
impaired by fecal coliform bacteria. MPCA management signed
off on the
proposal, with the result that a TMDL report is due to
the US EPA by August,
2002. Work is already well underway on
assessment and implementation
planning. The "global mean"
concentration in the basin, based on more than
600 water quality
samples, is approximately 500 organisms per 100 ml. That's
more
than twice the state water quality standard. BALMM members have
agreed
to work toward meeting this standard, and to this end have
established a 60%
reduction goal for fecal coliform
concentrations (basin mean) from major
sources of bacteria by
2012, with a goal of 20% reduction by 2005.
Implementation
projects for feedlots, ISTS, unsewered communities and
manure
management are being geared to achieve this magnitude of
source reduction. A
draft regional TMDL document is expected
shortly, and is expected to be
available for public review in
early June.
WATERSHED HEROES CONFERENCE COMING TO ST PETER: A
national conference that
focuses on watershed management as it
relates to agriculture will take place
June 19-21, 2002 in St.
Peter, Minnesota. Sponsored by the American (and
Minnesota) Farm
Bureau Federation, Minnesota Department of Agriculture and
other
agricultural organizations, the conference has been held near
the
Amana Colonies in Iowa for its first several years. The
vision for the
conference is that within 10 years, water in
local, agriculturally impacted
watersheds will be fishable and
swimmable, drinking water supplies will be
safe, and farmers who
work voluntarily to solve water quality problems will
be more
profitable. Farmers, watershed coordinators, and those involved
in
water quality decision making are invited to attend.
Registration cost is
$200. For more information, contact the
Director of Natural Resources at
your state Farm Bureau office,
or go to AFBF's web site at:
http://mail.smumn.edu:81/redirect?http://www.fb.org/programs/waterheroes
KARST
WORKSHOPS: (ROCKS AND WATER: UNDERSTANDING MINNESOTA'S
LIMESTONE
COUNTRY) The of the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency
and the Minnesota
Department of Natural Resources are
co-sponsoring this Ground Water
Education Project, funded through
the US EPA Environmental Education
Program. Dates and locations
are as follows:
* May 14 - Eagle Bluff Environmental Learning
Center, Lanesboro.
* May 15-16 - VFW-Zumbrota (includes half day
field tour)
* May 21 - Minnesota Valley Regional Library,
Mankato
* May 22-23 - Dakota County Conservation and Extension
Center,
Farmington (includes half day field tour.)
These
workshops are directed towards the population residing in the
karst
(underlain by soluble rocks, chiefly limestone) region of
Minnesota with the
purpose of enhancing their understanding of
the vulnerability of ground
water resources in this sensitive
geologic setting. This project also
intends to promote and
facilitate, through education and discussions, the
adoption of
decisions and practices at the local government and
community
levels aimed at protection of the environment and human
health in these
vulnerable areas.
For additional
information on the workshops, please contact either of
the
following MPCA staff:
Melanie Miland, 507/285-7151,
melanie.miland@pca.state.mn.us or
Sandeep Burman, 651/296-7717,
sandeep.burman@pca.state.mn.us.
Brochures and registration
information will be available towards the end of
March 2002.
Please contact Amy DeBruyckere at
507/285-7343
(amy.debruyckere@pca.state.mn.us) to be placed on a
mailing list for the
brochures.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK:
"Clients are people who are dependent upon and
controlled by
their helpers and leaders. Clients are people who
understand
themselves in terms of their deficiencies and people
who wait for others to
act on their behalf. Citizens, on the
other hand, are people who understand
their own problems in their
own terms. Citizens perceive their relationship
to one another
and they believe in their capacity to act. Good clients make
bad
citizens. Good citizens make strong communities." Tom Dewar,
The
Humphrey Institute
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
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