Two local lakes and the Sunrise River will benefit from an upcoming wetland restoration project. ACD has secured a $221,375 Clean Water Fund grant, from the Clean Water, Land and Legacy Amendment. The new wetland will receive water from Ditch 20 to remove phosphorus. That nutrient is responsible for "impaired" conditions, including excessive algae blooms, in downstream waters. The project is immediately upstream of Typo Lake, which in turn drains to Martin Lake and the West Branch of the Sunrise River. Construction is anticipated in 2026. For more information contact Jamie Schurbon, Watershed Projects Manager, at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 

ACD has its first agricultural cover crop project underway! A landowner in Linwood Township will plant 40 acres of cover crops each of the next three years. The project benefits soil health, water quality, and habitat. Cover crops are planted with a cash crop or after harvest of a cash crop. It's an alternative to leaving the soil bare for nearly half of the year. Cover crops prevent erosion, scavenge nutrients that might otherwise wash away, build soil structure, and increase infiltration. Common cover crops are oats, rye, turnips, and kale. The cover crops are terminated just prior to planting the next cash crop. 

To encourage farmers to give cover crops a try, ACD offers incentive payments. These flat rate payments are on a per-acre basis - $50/ac/yr if planting 1-2 species and $60/ac/yr if planting 3+ species. The practice must be implemented annually for three years to qualify for funding. ACD also has incentive payments for other practices including conservation cover, contour buffer strips, filter strips, and no-till/strip-till. For more information contact Jamie Schurbon, Watershed Projects Manager, at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

ACD recently completed a lakeshore project on Crooked Lake to replace a failing retaining wall. It's one of several such project where tumbling walls left an eroding shoreline. Now, these shorelines are gradually sloped and feature in-lake aquatic emergent plants and an upland native plant buffer. Shoreline walls are prone to failure and are generally not allowed by the MNDNR. Walls on shorelines tend to get undermined by waves and walls also eliminate shoreline features that provide valuable habitat for wildlife. 

At the Crooked Lake project site, the steep shoreline was addressed with geogrid textile instead of a wall. The honeycomb-like matrix (pictured above) is set just below the soil and helps hold soils in place on steeper slopes. The geogrid is invisible after construction and adds another layer of stability. This Crooked Lake project utilized a new funding source: legislatively approved soil and water conservation district aid. This new funding requires less administration so that we can put more of it into projects. Additional project funding came from the landowners. For more information contact Jamie Schurbon, Watershed Projects Manager, at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 

Do you have some corners of your property that are hard to mow or just need a little spruce up? ACD staff recently replaced turf with native plants alongside our parking lot. This area of the yard is steeply sloped and difficult to mow. The 300 sq ft area is now home to nearly a dozen species that will benefit pollinators. In recent years we converted the area around some clumped oak trees into a shrub garden. Those shrubs have matured nicely and required no care. In another area, we simply stopped mowing. The resulting grass is still short (<6") and falls over on itself. The area is easy to walk across, and cuts down on our maintenance. 

New stormwater treatment is in place to benefit the Rum River, thanks to a collaborative effort by the City of St. Francis, ACD, and Upper Rum River Watershed Management Organization (URRWMO). While St. Francis has a strong network of stormwater ponds and other practices, certain areas of the city were built before stormwater treatment became the norm. We are "retrofitting" stormwater treatment into these older neighborhoods. 

The most recent project is a rain garden installed on a city owned out-lot. Stormwater in this residential neighborhood drains directly to the Rum River. The new rain garden has a curbside inlet, allowing water into a basin that filters and infiltrates stormwater. The garden will hold water for no more than 48 hours. It will remove 44% of solids (111lbs/yr) and 46% (0.6 lbs/yr) of phosphorus from a two acre drainage area. The rain garden is planted with native shrubs, grasses, and wildflowers. We are hopeful this project results in other landowners wishing to have a rain garden on their property.