1995-10-26_AgendaPacket - Laserfiche WebLink

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Page 4 TALK pr)n -Summer 1995 Continued from page 3... fie St Croix River and It': Wat®rshed What we do in these upper watershed landscapes, and the health of the Mississippi River's water as it leaves the Minnesota - Wisconsin region, will be either an inducement for, or a deterrent against, sound management and wise stewazdship of the watershed and the river downstream. The "end product" of the efforts of the St. Croix Watershed Network will provide the raw materials others have to work with in their river stewardship efforts farther south. The Changing St. Croix Watershed end the Effects The landscape of the St. Croix River watershed is changing and the effects of these changes, multiplied by the effects of continuing change, are beginning to affect the traditionally clean waters of-the St. Croix River. which adds an average flow of 4,000 to 6,000 cubic feet of water per second to the Mississippi River's 10,000 cubic feet per second (mean flow at St. Paul). A 1992 draft "citizen environmental agenda" developed by the boazd of the St. Croix River Association included an inventory of 78 "threats and opportunities" from which. the Association could build. a proactive agenda for the future. The inventory included such threats as proposed river way boundary changes, urban sprawl., highway developments, loss of agricultural lands, zoning violations, lack of scenic easements along the St. Croix, gravel mining operations, recreational impacts, basin- . pvide water quality problems, cranberry operations. dam relicensing, and utility crossings. . Among the opportunities listed in the document were such items as new trail developments. a proposed basin wide water quality management plan, a growing interest in green way and watershed-scale management -and protection programs, and a pending study -report from the Minnesota-Wisconsin Boundary _ Area Commission about changes in the watershed and ideas for dealing with them. Can February 10, 1994 the Minnesota- Wisconsin Boundary Area Commission adopted its final report. Stewardship of the Lower St. Croix River and its Watershed. After a two year study of land use, water surface use and water quality changes in the lower St. Croix Watershed (1.470 square miles of drainage azea flowing into the lower 52 miles of the St. Croix River), the Commission cited as key threats and recommendations: 1. Continued urbanization of the watershed (31,000 acres of new urban lands between 1973 and 1991), and increasing threats to water quality and aquatic habitat 2. Increasing land-based and recreational boating use (boating use doubled from 1973 - 1591) ~. The need to update the Master Plan for the _ 'St. Croix National Scenic Rtverway 4. The. need for a more pro-active federal, state. local landowner, user management partnership 5. The need for new public/private partnerships for stewardship on a watershed scale. Continued on page 5... .< .; , ;;;- ~~: -`. ,:,~, Y ;: ;•-~ v `K :R ,; ~=