Surface water management and flood control and a 10-year plan to accomplish those two goals.

The Cedar River Watershed District (CRWD) board of managers considers that to be a “mission possible.”

Signs are emerging that the CRWD board is making important progress in its brief history.

Witness their latest monthly meeting held Wednesday, March 18.

The district’s 2009 work plan was approved.

The board’s 10-year plan continues to make the rounds of counties, townships, municipalities and other interested agencies without any apparent “snags” appearing during the comment period.

The board’s relationship with the Mower County Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD) remains strong and mutually beneficial, according to insiders.

While spring rains pelt farm fields and increase levels in rivers and streams, the agency most directly involved in protecting natural resources such as water and in preventing that resource from becoming a flooding liability has a full slate of activities coming this year.

Steve Kraushaar, a Freeborn County farmer, is the new president of the CRWD board in 2009.

“We have a lot of work to do,” Kraushaar said. “There are no issues to stop us. The board members are committed, and we are all looking forward the challenges ahead.”

Kraushaar has taken the proposed 10-year plan on the road to Freeborn County officials, including the board of commissioners. “They had remained fairly neutral on the plan,” he said. “They have their own Shell Rock and Turtle Creek watersheds and plans, so this is not entirely new to them.”

If Kraushaar could improve one thing in 2009 about the CRWD, it would be to inspire greater public interest and involvement.

“We need to keep the people informed of what we are doing,” Kraushaar said. “That is one of our goals, and we welcome their interest and involvement at any of our meetings.”

Citizens will learn a lot when they do become involved.

Full slate of activities

Bev Nordby, Mower County SWCD, serves as the CRWD’s administrator.

According to Nordby, in giving its approval to the 2009 work plan, the CRWD board of managers allowed two streambank sites along Dobbins and Rose creeks to be restored this year.

Also, there will be rain gardens at the site in downtown Austin of the new Mower County Jail and Justice Center.

Mower County and the Mower County SWCD are partnering on the project with the CRWD, according to Nordby’s overview of the work plan.

Also this year, the CRWD plans to move closer to a plan of action for flood reduction and addressing water quality issues in the Dobbins Creek watershed.

By year’s end, the highly anticipated 10-year plan should be completed, Nordby indicated.

The Board of Soil and Water Resources (BWSR) must approve the plan first before the district mangers can adopt it for implementation.

Also this year, the district board wants to develop a list of flood reduction and water quality projects, according to Nordby. When this is done, the district board will be ready to take advantage of funding opportunities for the projects.

According to Nordby, when the public can see such projects in action they will know the CRWD is “alive and well” and working to complete its mission.

Total Maximum Daily Loads monitoring will continue in the Cedar River Basin.

Stream monitoring will also continue in the second year of a two-year Surface Water Monitoring grant received by the SWCD.

Everything — chloride, conductivity, dissolved oxygen, E. coli, nitrogen, pH, phosphorous, sulfur and transparency — will be measured.

Suspended solids and turbidity will also be evaluated.

No fewer than 17 sites in the Cedar River Watershed will continue to be designated surface water management sites in 2009.

Last year, the Clean Water Legacy water monitoring revealed Wolf Creek had the lowest average E. coli amounts and Blooming Prairie had the highest.

Nordby said if there is any one mission for the CRWD in 2009 that will be more difficult than others it will be the rules process: The district board must approve rules and regulations regarding surface water management and flood reduction and see they are enforces.

“It’s all about authority,” she said. “They (the CRWD board) has authority over surface waters in the district. That’s what they’re all about: to reduce flooding and improve water quality in the streams.”

“You’re never going to make everybody happy, but the rules have to be in place to try,” she added.

CRWD plus SWCD equals

The CRWD Board of Managers has an outstanding partnership with the Mower County SWCD, according to both agencies.

“It’s more than a partnership,” emphasized CRWD board president Kraushaar. “We’re paying them for their services, and they’re very valuable.”

“I think our partnership is a natural, because we share many of the same interests as they do,” said the SWCD’s Nordby.

The value of the SWCD toward helping the CRWD achieve its goals cannot be overstated.

No agency has had to do more with less than the SWCD through the years.

After all, the SWCD is there to protect Mower County’s natural resources like the state’s 61 SWCDS do everywhere.

SWCDs fill the crucial niche of providing land and water conservation services to owners of private lands.  Managing private lands in a way that promotes a sound economy and sustains and enhances natural resources is key to Minnesota’s environmental health.

The SWCD works in partnership with the Natural Resources Conservation Service, which shares the goals of protecting and enhancing the environment.

Last year, the SWCD totaled $2,309,480 in federal and state cost-sharing funds paid to landowners in Mower County.

The best management practices included conservation tillage, cover crop, waterways, settlement basins, windbreaks, filter strips and more.

A total of 25,131 trees and shrubs were sold, conservation plans written for 9,133 acres, 14,545 acres of land qualified for water quality practices and 3,910 acres of land qualified for wildlife habitat practices implemented by the SWCD.

The CRWD board of managers will celebrate two years of activity in May.

The agency was created by the Mower County Board of Commissioners with BWSR oversight in response to the flooding of 2001 and 2004.

The district board of managers represents four counties: Steele, Dodge, Freeborn and Mower. There are 278,540 acres in the watershed or 435 square miles.

For more information, go online to www.mowercountyswcd.org.