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2011 Watershed Assessment Summit
Managing Water on the Land from a Watershed Perspective
On Saturday, March 12, 2011 at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum, the Minnesota Division Izaak Walton League of America and the Freshwater Society sponsored a workshop on watersheds, watershed governance and opportunities for citizens to protect and restore lakes, streams, wetlands and groundwater.
Do you know what a watershed is?
No, it is not a boathouse or an outdoor shower stall. A watershed, a sometimes misunderstood concept, is a land area on which precipitation falling as rain or snow drains to a particular river or stream. Everything that happens on that land -- everything that is grown on it, built on it or spilled on it -- affects the quality of the water running off of the land.
The Summit was dedicated to helping citizens understand how watersheds function and how they are governed and managed in Minnesota. The goal of the Summit was to inform and motivate people to work through these watershed governing bodies to preserve and restore lakes, streams, wetlands and groundwater in the watersheds in which they live.
The Summit featured talks, workshops and panel discussions about how watershed districts and other watershed planning and management bodies do their work in both rural and urban areas of Minnesota.
Tom Davenport, an expert on nonpoint source pollution and the Region 5 Agriculture Coordinator of the US Environmental Protection Agency gave the luncheon keynote speech: Managing Nutrients from the Headwaters to the Gulf
Below are links to some of the reports and presentations from the Summit:
- Louis Smith, Land Use and Water Resource Attorney:
Introduction to Watershed Law/Watershed Organizations - James Wisker, Minnehaha Creek Watershed District Planner:
Watershed Method - Shawn Tracy, Metro Conservation District Landscape Restoration Planner:
How to Perform - Urban Subwatershed Assessments -
Bruce Albright, Buffalo Red River Watershed District Administrator:
How to Perform Rural Watershed Assessments - Andy Erickson, University of Minnesota St. Anthony Falls Laboratory:
Identify and Prioritizing Solutions - Henry VanOffelen,
Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy Natural Resource Scientist and Jerome Deal, Bois De Sioux Watershed District President:
Watershed-based Management in the Red River Basin: Achieving Flood Damage Reduction and Natural Resource Enhancement - Patrick Moore, Clean Up the River Environment (CURE) and Warren Formo, MN Agriculture Water Resources Coalition Executive Director and Bruce Tiffany, farmer host & participant:
Friendship Tour - Troy Kuphal, Scott County SWCD Manager:
Prioritizing and Targeting Rural Projects - Rich Biske, Southeast MN Conservation Coordinator,
The Nature Conservancy:
NGOs Support of Watershed Conservation Efforts - Melissa Baker, Capitol Region Water Resource Technician:
Urban Stormwater BMP Performance Assessment and Cost-Benefit Analysis - Shawn Tracy, Metro Conservation Districts' Landscape Ecologist:
Subwatershed Stormwater Retrofit Analysis - Gaylen Reetz, Minnesota Pollution Control Agency:
A Watershed Approach to Protecting and Restoring Clean Water - David Leuthe,
Assistant Director, Division of Ecological and Water Resources,
Minnesota DNR:
Clean Water: A Systems Approach -
Marilyn Bernhardson, Redwood County SWCD:
Clean Water Council Budget Recommendation Process -
Jean Coleman, MN Water Sustainability Framework
Project Coordinator:
Planning into the Future: The Minnesota Water Sustainability Framework Report