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Branch of Buffalo River improves, thanks to local partners

Lawndale Creek, a trout stream near Barnesville, Minnesota

Many streams in the Red River Basin flow across a broad flat region that was once the bottom of ancient glacial Lake Agassiz. The rich soils and level topography of this landscape are a boon to agriculture but often a bane to water quality. The region has many streams that don't meet water quality standards due to excess sediment, soil, and other particles in the water that erode from streambanks and nearby fields. This condition can harm habitat for fish and aquatic insects.

But now one of those streams — the south branch of the Buffalo River near Barnesville — is clearing up, thanks to work of several organizations in the area. The Buffalo-Red River Watershed District worked with the Wilkin and West Otter Tail County soil and water conservations districts, and the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources to implement a number of projects that reduced sediment in the stream and led to a recommendation that it be removed from the list of impaired waters (a list of Minnesota waters that don't meet water quality standards). These efforts included:

  • Expanding buffer strips along the river
  • Working with landowners to enroll more than 1,900 acres in prairie/wetland conservation easement programs to help protect areas prone to erosion
  • Repairing/modifying ditches to reduce breakout flows from flooding and overland erosion
  • Restoring Lawndale Creek, a trout stream, while removing a ditch to improve conditions in a wildlife management area
  • Restoring storage capacity in Manston Slough to reduce sediment from flooding and erosion

The MPCA supports these improvement projects with its water-quality monitoring and assessments efforts and restoration and protection recommendations. The agency:

  • Identified problems in the watershed and strategies to restore impaired waters and protect those at risk of becoming impaired, in its total maximum daily load report
  • Provided grants fund to support monitoring of sediment concentrations in the water over time

Several additional project are in the works to reduce sediment even further. For example, Clean Water Fund dollars were granted in 2020 for sediment reduction best management practices near the river, which will be implemented in the coming months and years.

“The Buffalo-Red River Watershed District has been a strong partner in water quality efforts for many years, and we are proud to work with them,” says MPCA Watershed Division Director Glenn Skuta. “Their leadership and collaboration with the Wilkin and West Otter Tail SWCDs, and with the DNR, MPCA, and Board of Water and Soil Resources are great examples of local governments and state agencies working together to restore Minnesota’s waters.”

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