Washington County Projects

This listing is produced by the Minnesota State Lottery from information provided by project managers and the Legislative Commission on Minnesota Resources. While we attempt to provide the most current information, specific project locations and allocations do change. Information on projects for the current biennium, in particular, should be regarded as preliminary.

Intercommunity Groundwater Protection – 2003-05 biennium. Washington County used this grant from the Trust Fund to develop a computerized groundwater flow model in the southern part of the county. This model was used to predict the effects of wells that are planned for the western portion of Woodbury on groundwater levels and pressures, water levels in existing wells and the flow of water into the designated trout stream Valley Creek.

Maintaining Zooplankton for Water Quality at Square Lake – 2003-05 biennium. This Trust Fund grant to the Marine-on-St. Croix Water Management Organization was used to determine if trout predation the small freshwater crustacean Daphnia significantly affects the water quality of Square Lake north of Stillwater.

Big Rivers Partnership: Helping Communities to Restore Habitat - 2001-03 biennium. Led by Great River Greening, the Big Rivers Partnership brings together nonprofit organizations, government and private landowners to restore river valley habitat in the Twin Cities area. The benefits of this project include actual restoration work, identifying high-priority restoration project areas and creating a landowner stewardship support program. The primary tool for disseminating information from this project is the Great River Greening website: www.greatrivergreening.org.

Cost sharing was required for restoration projects and as a result, $1.3 million of non-state funding was leveraged to support this program. In the final tally, more than 3,600 volunteers participated in restoration work on more than 1,500 acres of land in the Mississippi and Minnesota River Valleys. Project areas include the Pine Bend Bluffs in Dakota County, the Hastings Riverfront, the Mississippi River Gorge-South Park in Minneapolis, the West Side Bluff-Cherokee Park in St. Paul, the Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge, the East Mississippi Bluff-Desnoyer St. Paul unit, the River Park in Brooklyn Park, the South St. Paul Levee and Prospect Crest in St. Paul.

Biological Control of Eurasian Watermilfoil and Purple Loosestrife - Continuation - 2001-03 biennium. In cooperation with staff from the University of Minnesota, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Cornell University and the Minnesota Department of Agriculture, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources coordinated this project to develop and implement biological controls for Eurasian Watermilfoil and Purple Loosestrife - two intrusive species invading Minnesota lakes and rivers.

The research scientists working on this project chose study areas along the Mississippi River corridor between Red Wing and Winona and lakes in the seven-county metro area. They report that milfoil weevils can cause sustained declines of the invasive, non-native Eurasian Watermilfoil if sufficient densities of the insect are maintained throughout the summer each year. They also discovered that the milfoil weevils have their own predators - sunfish - which were, in turn, studied for their effect on the weevil population. Other variables they manipulated for this project include water clarity and physically removing milfoil and other plants.

On the other side of the project, research scientists found that leaf beetles can provide long-term control of Purple Loosestrife and that these biological agents do not have a detrimental effect on two non-invasive species of loosestrife native to Minnesota. Their study results show these agents can move through a wetland in less than three years and disperse and colonize other wetlands as far as 20 kilometers away.

Metro Greenways - 2001-03 biennium. The goal of the Metro Greenways project is to protect, connect and restore a metro-wide area network of significant natural areas and open spaces. This project is administered and coordinated by the Department of Natural Resources and relies on partnerships with a wide range of nonprofit conservation organizations, government agencies and private landowners. During the biennium, 11 planning grants were issued to local governments to inventory and assess more than 240,000 acres of land in the metro area; 221 acres were purchased and will be held in public domain; 178 acres were permanently protected with conservation easements and 40 acres of rare sand prairie were restored.

In Washington County, Trust Fund money helped complete natural resource inventories for nearly 60,000 acres of land in portions of Stillwater, Forest Lake, New Scandia, Hugo and May and Marine Townships. It also helped the South Washington Watershed District purchase a conservation easement for most of 51 acres of land between Lake Elmo and Cottage Grove Ravine Regional Park for a multi-purpose storm water infiltration, habitat and recreation corridor. Conservation easements were also purchased for 30 acres of land along Century Avenue and a 15-acre parcel in Afton thanks to this project. You can find more information on this topic at www.embraceopenspace.org.

Metropolitan Regional Parks Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Development - 2001-03 biennium. This Metropolitan Council project used money from the Trust Fund along with the sale of bonds to acquire, develop and rehabilitate parks in the Twin Cities area.

In Washington County, the Trust Fund helped finance the purchase of 699 acres of land for the St. Croix Bluffs Regional Park northeast of Hastings. In all, 15 projects were financed during the biennium as part of this project.

State Park and Recreation Area Acquisition - 2001-03 biennium. Funding from two sources - the Trust Fund and the Future Resources Fund - was combined for this project to expand our public parks. William O’Brien State Park in Washington County grew by 55 acres during the biennium. In all, more than 1,100 acres were purchased within the boundaries of nine state park and recreation areas from willing private landowners.

Conservation-Based Development Program - 1999-01 biennium. The Minnesota Land Trust - a nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting Minnesota’s land and water resources - used this appropriation to improve conservation practices for new housing developments throughout Minnesota. Samples of this new style of building in Washington County include:

- Jackson Meadow, a 315-acre development near the City of Marine-on-the-St. Croix that features five miles of public trails, its own waste and storm water treatment systems, unique architecture and 275 acres of open space, and

- The Fields of St. Croix, a 241-acre development between Stillwater and Lake Elmo that features its own farm managed by residents of the development, a Civil War-era barn restored as a community center, waste and storm water treatment systems and 144 acres of open space.

Additionally, the Minnesota Land Trust used funds from this appropriation to secure a conservation easement in Hunters Ridge for the long-term protection of open space in this development south of Stillwater.

Development and Assessment of Oak Wilt Control Technologies - 1999-01 biennium. Oak wilt remains the number one cause of oak mortality in Minnesota. Increased development through oak woods is accelerating the problem especially in the prime oak habitats of east central and southeastern Minnesota. For this project, the University of Minnesota’s Department of Plant Pathology studied the sap beetles that transmit the disease and the effectiveness of using a fungus and root graft barriers to control the spread of oak wilt. The results included a model that predicts when the oak wilt fungus is active, the determination of a variable “no prune” period of time during the spring and better tools for natural resource managers. Part of this study took place in Washington County along the Gateway bike trail near Pine Springs and at a private residence in Lake Elmo.

Freshwater Mussel Resources in the St. Croix River - 1999-01 biennium. Mucket, Elktoe and Purple Wartyback are just three of the mussels Macalester College biologists found during their 1999-01 survey of freshwater mussel resources in the St. Croix River. All three, as well as many others, are on Minnesota’s threatened species list. The object of the survey was to measure mussel population density, age, community structure and current environmental conditions and compare them to previous measurements including those taken by the University of Minnesota during the Minnesota rare mussel conservation Trust Fund project during 1997-99. In Washington County, sampling took place near Bayport, Lakeland and Point Douglas.

Greening the Metro Mississippi-Minnesota River Valleys - 1999-01 biennium. Great River Greening organized more than 1,500 citizen volunteers to complete habitat restoration projects on approximately 1,500 acres of land along segments of the Minnesota and Mississippi River Valleys located in Hennepin, Ramsey, Washington, Carver, Scott and Dakota Counties. These sites vary in their quality, but through the restoration process their ecological value for buffering, connecting and hosting natural remnants has greatly increased. Many of the sites are critical for enhancing the last large remnants of native plants in the metro river corridor. For more information, visit http://www.greatrivergreening.org.

Groundwater Flow in the Prairie du Chien Aquifer - 1999-01 biennium. The Prairie du Chien and underlying Jordan Aquifers supply drinking water to more than 15,000 wells in the Twin Cities, Rochester and other parts of southeastern Minnesota. Groundwater in this part of the state has been contaminated at specific locations including a landfill in northern Olmsted County, the former Twin Cities Army Ammunition Plant in Ramsey County and beneath sewage treatment ponds in Wabasha and Winona Counties. This project by the University of Minnesota’s Geological Survey is studying the structure and flow of the aquifers to better predict how contamination will travel through these underground waterways so better prevention plans can be developed.

Implement the Chisago and Washington Counties Green Corridor Project - Continuation - 1999-01 biennium. This appropriation allows the 1000 Friends of Minnesota to build on the significant work done under the FY97 work program by implementing the Green Corridor to permanently protect the land and setting up long-term land protection programs in Chisago and Washington Counties to continue these efforts for years to come. The FY99 project will finalize drafts from the FY97 project, conduct public hearings, implement the ordinances and enroll landowners in the new programs. The project will also develop a public education campaign to seek participation of landowners and stakeholders.

Landscaping for Wildlife and Nonpoint Pollution Prevention - 1999-01 biennium. Landscape design can pay great benefits for wildlife and pollution reduction especially in urban and suburban areas. The St. Paul Neighborhood Energy Consortium used this appropriation to promote these benefits to residents of the east metro area and conduct workshops on landscaping and the use of native plants. Many of the participants took advantage of the professionally-designed landscape models and the reduced cost of native vegetation.

Local Initiatives Grants Program - 1999-01 biennium. Appropriations from the Trust Fund for this project allowed the Department of Natural Resources to fund the Natural and Scenic Area Grants program, the Conservation Partners Grants program and the Environmental Partnerships Grants program during the biennium. More than 140 different projects across the state were approved for matching grants from July of 1999 through June of 2001.

In Washington County, grants were received by the Agassiz Chapter of the Izaak Walton League to plant native habitat and develop interpretive materials for a nature trail in the Schuneman Marsh, by the Mill Stream Association to establish two monitoring stations for the Mill Stream, by the Browns Creek Watershed District to conduct a natural resource inventory for the watershed, by the City of Hugo for the acquisition of 21 acres on Oneka Lake to develop as a city park, by the Hidden Valley Townhome Association of Cottage Grove to restore ¾ of an acre of degraded oak forest, by the Sun Valley Neighborhood to enhance and restore parts of the Trout Brook corridor to the St. Croix River and by the St. Croix Watershed Research Station to collect and identify seed samples for a reference handbook.

Mussel Resource Survey - 1999-01 biennium. During the first two years of this project (this biennium), biologists and other staff from the Department of Natural Resources sampled 886 sites in 32 Minnesota rivers, 64 tributaries and 12 lakes including 31 sites on the Mississippi River and 27 sites on the St. Croix River in Washington County during June and July of 2000 and May, July, August and September of 2001.

According to the website for this project, http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/ecological_services/nhnrp/mussel_survey/index.html, freshwater mussels, commonly called clams, occur throughout the world but reach their greatest diversity in North America where about 300 species are found. Unfortunately, within the last 100 years mussel communities have declined in abundance and diversity due to dam construction, stream channelization, water pollution and sedimentation, over harvesting and the recent introduction of the exotic Zebra mussel. In response, groups such as the American Fisheries Society and The Nature Conservancy have identified mussels as the most imperiled group of animals in North America. The primary goal of this project is to build the information base necessary to sustain freshwater mussels in Minnesota. Building this base of information is expected to take about six years to complete.

Nongame Wildlife Management - 1999-01 biennium. The Department of Natural Resources’ Nongame Wildlife Program used this grant from the Trust Fund to help carry out more than 65 wildlife conservation projects during the biennium. Among the research, habitat management, information and education and planning activities were planting of lakescaping sites, development of bald eagle management plans, surveys of loon, hawk and owl populations, habitat improvements for endangered and threatened species and wildlife management workshops. Projects in Washington County included mapping of Blanding’s turtle habitat in Hugo Township, a survey of the bird populations of the Paul Hugo Wildlife Management Area and a survey of Hugo Township for grassland bird habitat. The website for the Nongame Wildlife Program is http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/ecological_services/nongame/index.html.

Organic Farming Training Project - 1999-01 biennium. The Minnesota Food Association of Arden Hills and Cooperative Development Services of St. Paul developed an ongoing mentoring program for farmers who want to use organic farming methods. Training farms for this project were established in Chaska, Rosemount, Hamel, Stillwater, Faribault, Owatonna, Waconia and at the University of Minnesota’s Landscape Arboretum in Chanhassen. Training sessions were also held in Lamberton, Browerville, Stillwater and St. Paul. The project trained over 1,000 farmers during the biennium, many of them recent immigrants to Minnesota.

Public Boat Access and Fishing Piers - 1999-01 biennium. With help from the Minnesota Future Resources Fund and donations from local contributors, Trust Fund money was put to work building and extending fishing piers, developing boat access sites and purchasing land for future access sites. In Washington County, an existing fishing pier was extended by 20 feet at Square Lake north of Stillwater in 1999.

Electronic Environmental Education Raptor Network - 1997-99 biennium. The University of Minnesota’s Raptor Center is using a satellite tracking system to study 20 raptors for a year through migrations and winter locations. This information then will be available on the internet and through printed materials for students. Teachers will be trained on how to use this information in their classrooms. Stillwater High School has received a grant to incorporate this resource into their curriculum.

Minnesota County Biological Survey - 1997-99 biennium. Minnesota still has pockets of rare plants, animals and natural areas that need to be protected, managed and studied. The Department of Natural Resources is surveying every county in Minnesota to locate these areas. Since the survey began in 1987, 29 counties have been surveyed. The survey will begin work in Washington County during the 1997-99 biennium.

Minnesota Rare Mussel Conservation - 1997-99 biennium. This University of Minnesota project establishes and monitors mussel habitat in the St. Croix River to improve freshwater mussel conservation and protect them from invading Zebra mussels. In Washington County, mussel life history research and mussel relocation will take place in the St. Croix River.

New Models for Land-use Planning - 1997-99 biennium. Washington and Chisago Counties are two of the fastest growing counties in the country. The Department of Natural Resources is leading an effort to protect about 1,500 acres of land in a 10,000-acre “green” corridor through those two counties to link land that has already been protected and preserved for its environmental value. The corridor will feature agricultural land, open space, wildlife habitat and natural areas.

Metropolitan Area Groundwater Model to Predict Contaminant Movement - 1995-97 biennium and 1997-99 biennium. Estimates are that 230 billion gallons of groundwater are contaminated in the Twin Cities including 16 percent of the most commonly-used groundwater source. The Pollution Control Agency is refining and improving its model that tracks the movement of contaminated groundwater. The model will also be able to evaluate the impact of increased use of groundwater as urban pressures increase.

Environmental Action Grants for Minnesota Schools - 1995-97 biennium. St. Olaf College’s School Nature Area Project is conducting a pilot program with the Department of Natural Resources in which 40 K-12 schools will receive matching grants to establish or enhance nature areas within walking distances of the school buildings. At a nature center adjacent to Stillwater Area High School, nine acres of pastureland have been converted to native prairie.

Metropolitan Regional Park Acquisition - 1995-97 biennium. This program allowed the acquisition of parks and trails consistent with the Metropolitan Council Regional Recreation Open Space Capital Improvement Plan. In Washington County, 81 acres were acquired at Grey Cloud Island Regional Park.

Metropolitan Regional Park System - 1995-97 biennium. This appropriation is to the Metropolitan Council for development of the Twin Cities’ metropolitan regional park system. In Washington County, the project financed fencing and tree nursery renovations, play structure renovations and ADA retrofitting to the boat launch at Lake Elmo Park Reserve.

State Park and Recreation Area Acquisition - 1995-97 biennium. Under this program, an appropriation allowed the Department of Natural Resources to acquire additional land for existing state parks. In Washington County, 120 acres were added to William O’Brien State Park while Afton State Park underwent rehabilitation.

Access to Lakes and Rivers - 1993-95 biennium. Fishing piers, boat ramps and shoreline access sites are being built around the state to provide boaters and anglers with more access to popular Minnesota lakes and rivers. In Washington County, the project allowed the Department of Natural Resources to make shoreline improvements to fishing sites along the St. Croix River.

Retrofitting Regional Parks - 1993-95 biennium. The Metropolitan Council is making regional parks in the Twin Cities more accessible for disabled people through this program. In Washington County, the grant allowed construction of a concrete walkway from the parking lot to a picnic shelter and making a drinking fountain accessible at Cottage Grove Ravine Regional Park.

State Park Betterment - 1993-95 biennium. This Department of Natural Resources’ program resulted in campground well rehabilitation, trail rehabilitation and erosion control at Afton State Park.

Conservation Reserve Easements - 1991-93 biennium. This program acquires easements for wetland areas to enhance wildlife habitat, control erosion and improve water quality. Landowner compensation via easement payment has proven to be the most effective method in converting these private acres back to wildlife habitat. In Washington County, the Board of Water and Soil Resources purchased 17.5 acres of easements.

Land and Water Resource Management for the Lower St. Croix National Scenic Riverway - 1991-93 biennium. This project was designed to organize and analyze updated information about the ecological and visual impacts of growing recreational use, assess existing management strategies and determine long-term monitoring research and public policy needs. Lead agency: Minnesota-Wisconsin Boundary Area Commission.

Sealing Abandoned Wells - 1991-93 biennium. Seventy-seven wells were sealed in Washington County through this grant program matching state and county funds. Lead agency: Board of Water and Soil Resources.