1995-10-26_AgendaPacket - Laserfiche WebLink

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page 2 ATER TALK Spring -Summer 1995 Continued from page 1... SL Crolx P/ann/n~ /or the Fueuro bill. In October 1968, President Johnson signed the National Wild and Scenic Rivers Act that created a system for studying and designating significant rivers, and gave instant designation to eight rivers-including the Upper St. Croix above Taylors Falls (and the Namekagon, its major tributary). The Lower St. Croix was one of the "study" rivers in that original act, and was the first river added to the system by Congress. That 1972 act created a unique partnership management approach for the Lower St.Croix, directing that a management plan be jointly prepared by the National Park Service, the Minnesota. DNR and Wisconsin DNR The management plan for the Upper St. Croix was prepared in a time when. such a linear park that included private lands was unheard of in the National Park Service. which was used to managing large blocks of land with complete ownership. Here the Park Service is only a thin strip of land along the river. Behind that strip lay private holdings, as well as large tracts of state and. county forests. That management plan. is now more than 20 years old, and those early attempts at plaruzing for such a diverse and linear resource now look dated, indeed. The National Park Service today is in the early stages of rewriting that plan to create a new `General Management Plan` (GMP) as today's plaruzing jargon calls it. Sitting with the Park Service planners every step of the way are staff from both Minnesota and Wisconsin DNRs, recognizing that managing the river corridor and managing the valley's state parks and forests are inextricably linked. But while the Upper St. Croix created a new experience for National Park Service planners, it was nothing compared to the partnership approach mandated on the Lower St. Croix. There the plan itself was a jointly written document that recognized that no government could afford to buy the. rapidly urbanizing lower river valley, and the corridofs unique resources were protected through a series of easements and zoning controls on land, and an assortment of water craft speed controls on the water. That plan was completed in 1976, and 19 years later its age is really beginning to show. The 'Itvin Cities metropolitan area has grown out to swallow up much of the Lower St. Croix, and residential land values along the river-despite development restrictionsr-are among the highest in the region. Today the Lower St. Croix is perhaps the cleanest urban river in the .world, is home to what appears to be the most diverse mussel population in North America, is part of the Mississippi's nine-foot commercial navigation channel, and is aniong the most heavily used recreational boating river corridors in the country. Conflicts abound! Continued on page 5...