CRWD annual report - 2023

CRWD board (left-right): Mike Jones (Steele County); Jim Gebhardt (Mower); Mike Merten (Mower); Susan Olson (Mower); Jason Weis (Mower); Kevin Kiser (Dodge ); and Steve Kraushaar (Freeborn).

CRWD’s Board of Managers has members appointed by their county boards to serve a three-year term.

Based on land within the watershed district’s boundaries, Mower County has four managers; Dodge, Freeborn and Steele each have one. The board meets at 6 p.m. on the third Wednesday of each month at Mower SWCD’s office in Austin.

MN CREP active in upper Cedar

With an uptick in conservation projects in Mower County farm fields, CRWD-Mower SWCD staff launched new outreach efforts in 2023 to highlight their work.

• Flood-reduction berm • CRP prairie • Cover crops/soil health

2023 CEDAR PROJECTS IN MOWER 1,527 acres treated overall 2,750 feet of two upland-storage berms 2 miles of grassed waterways 0.6 miles of sediment-control basins

The 2023 construction season was the busiest in recent years, said Cody Fox, CRWD to control water and administrator and footwaterway in Lansing sediment from runoff project manager.

Township that leads to coming off 61 acres. the Cedar River, just That water will release upstream from Ramsey into a new grassed Mill Pond on the eastern waterway that is 1,062 side. This project treats feet long. snowmelt and rainstorm This workload also is runoff from 501 acres of expected to only increase mostly cropland. with state and federal Another major project funding ramping up and (shown in photos at the the collaborative, Funding came from the federal watershed-based efforts Environmental Quality Incentives bottom) addressed an The signs have sliders with the Program and the state’s “One eroded gully that was up to 15 feet of local agencies to get project or practice type, including: Watershed, One Plan” initiative. deep on its way to the nearby Rose conservation projects built, Creek in Marshall Township. The especially in high-priority areas of • Grassed waterway One of the larger Cedar projects involved building a 2,595- project built a 782-foot-long basin the watershed.

• Sediment-control basin

All other photos were weekly winners.

has placed nearly 2,

Minnesota Department of Natural Resources has worked with CRWD’s James Fett to create a trout fishery at Todd Park. After agreeing to Fett’s proposal to stock trout, the DNR

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

Establishing native prairie can be a complicated and lengthy process but the results are worth it, Fett said. This vegetation will act as a filter to capture sediment and nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus before they reach Wolf Creek, he said.