2021 Cedar River Watershed District annual report

2021 Annual Report

Cedar River State Water Trail

Cedar River Watershed District staff

Justin Hanson

Jeanne Crump

Cody Fox

James Fett

Steve Lawler

District Manager

Office Manager

Project Manager

Watershed Technician

Resource Specialist

Paul Hunter

Larry Callahan

Mattie Hackensmith

Jensen Bigelow

Watershed Conservationist

District Technician

Intern

MN GreenCorps member

Tim Ruzek

State salutes

return for farmers.

Nitrogen is the nutrient most often deficient for crop growth in Minnesota. Its use can result in a big economic

Jeff Irvi

DNR improves state water trail safety on Cedar

Herzog View CRWD leads overlook’s naming after East Side Lake visionary

A view of East Side Lake’s dam from the newly named Herzog View at an overlook renovated a few years ago by the City of Austin.

Mussel movement DNR finds clam restoration going well in Cedar River

Can you canoe?

Wilderness Inquiry always has a highly skilled crew that engages well with students and makes canoeing fun, safe and accessible for all.”

d’s approval of using AIS funds.

CRWD staff assists with the Canoemobile’s land -based part focused on AIS, water quality and local river history.

Adopt-A-River volunteers … and mentees!

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AIS sign installed in spring at Austin’s East Side Lake boat ramp.

Rusty crayfish (AIS) confirmed in Cedar River in August by MN DNR at Austin’s Lafayette Park.

Fishing Faceoff CRWD’s James Fett and Paul Hunter had an ice-fishing battle in Feb. 2021 on the Cedar River.

They raised $2,400 for breast cancer research at The Hormel Institute as part of Austin’s Paint the Town Pink fundraising.

‘Fish Clean’

Trout II

CRWD used an Austin Area Foundation grant to launch a “Fish Clean” campaign that includes stickers on bait containers sold at partnering Austin retail stores.

For a second-straight year, rainbow trout (pictured in Wolf Creek) were stocked by the MN DNR in Wolf Creek at Austin’s Todd Park.

This aims to reduce the amount of fishingrelated litter found along local shorelines.

Proposed by CRWD after instream research, this program has stocked about 1,500 rainbows overall the past two springs in Wolf, a tributary of the Cedar River.

MN DNR plans to continue the trout fishery in 2022.

Photo by MN BWSR

CRWD hosted six tours in 2021 at upland-storage sites built under its Capital Improvement Plan (CIP), mostly at its biggest earthen berm (shown) in Dexter Township.

This included the annual board tour of the Minnesota Board of Water & Soil Resources (BWSR) and a statewide media event by BWSR there to announce new funding for upland-storage berms.

CIP berms temporarily capture large amounts of rain water or snow melt and slowly release it to improve water quality and reduce flooding.

Banfield School

Charity Lifka

Cedar Scenes 2021 Lindsey Haney (with paddle) was drawn in October 2021 as the winner of a kayak sponsored by Austin Runnings for the 2021 Cedar Scenes.

All 21 of Cedar Scenes’ weekly winning photos are shown on this page.

Jill DeMoss

Danny Salinas

Berry O’Neal Stephens Jr.

Ryan Robertson

Lori Faircloth

Coulter Wood

Lindsey Haney Ariel Phan Stephanie Laskewitz Rena Langowski

Jens Raffelson

Jens Raffelson

Coulter Wood

Lisa Peters

Lori Faircloth

Karen Anderson Kernohan

Carter King

Dave Forland

Berdale Nelson

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Cedar River Watershed District 1408 21st Ave. NW Austin, MN 55912 507-434-2603, ext. 5