MN Buffer Law

Minnesota's Buffer Law requires perennial vegetative buffers of up to 50 feet along lakes, rivers, and streams and buffers of 16.5 feet along ditches. These buffers help filter out phosphorus, nitrogen and sediment. The deadline for implementation for buffers on public waters was November 1, 2017. The deadline for public ditches was November 1, 2018. The law provides flexibility for landowners to install alternative practices with equivalent water quality benefits that are based on the Natural Resources Conservation Service Field Office Technical Guide.

Roseau Lake Rehabilitation Project

The Roseau Lake Rehabilitation project is a Natural Resource Enhancement (NRE) / Flood Damage Reduction (FDR) water management project located about 6 miles northwest of the City of Roseau. This is a joint project of the Roseau River Watershed District (RRWD) and Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (MN DNR) with the purpose of improving habitat conditions in the Roseau Lake and the Roseau River and to manage the available storage capacity of the lake basin to reduce flood damages near and downstream of the lake basin.

Whitney Lake

The Whitney Lake subwatershed is located in northwest Minnesota near the Canadian border. Agricultural producers in the area suffer frequent inundation from even minor events in both the spring and summer causing crop loss and/or damage.

The purpose of the project is Flood Damage Reduction: Reduce damages to agricultural lands for a 10 year 24 hour storm (total 3.3 inches of precipitation) and reduce damages to roadways for a 25 year 24 hour storm event (total 3.9 inches of rainfall) in the Whitney Lake subwatershed.

One Watershed One Plan

One Watershed, One Plan (1W1P) is a program through the Board of Water and Soil Resources (BWSR) that supports partnerships of local governments in developing prioritized, targeted, and measurable implementation plans. Key principles are planning at the major watershed scale and aligning local plans with state strategies. Plans created through the 1W1P program are called comprehensive watershed management plans and are described in §103B.801.