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RECEIVED NGV 0 5 2001 The vast prairie lands of Southwest Minnesota provided the setting for the 2001 MAWD Summer Tour. The Summer Tour was co-hosted by the Heron Lake, Ka- naranzi-Little Rock, and Okabena-Ocheda Watershed Districts. The Heron Lake and Kanaranzi-Little Rock WDs were created to address flood control and flood damage problems. The Okabena-Ocheda WD was created not only because of flooding, but also because of severe water shortages within the Ciry of Worthington. The Tour began with. attendees being briefed on the history and demographics of all three districts on Thursday evening followed by a welcome reception. The briefing brought home to all in attendance the meaning of the Tour theme "Changing Prairie Landscapes". KLRWD, Nobles County SWCD, the Rock County SWCD, and the Nobles County Board of Commissioners. Next the tour moved on to the Okabena-Ocheda WD (OOWD). The OOWD, using local funding, is implement- ing projects to improve the quantity and quality of the water resources within the district. The project goals include improvement of the lake water quality by implementing BMP's, provide information to watershed residents concern- ing the status of their water and how they can improve it, develop an educational process where managers decisions by rural and urban residents involve the consideration of surface and ground waters, and continue, selective monitor- ing of the key tributary inflow sites so that information on runoff and trends are available for decision making. All three districts have identified the following major problems: the drainage and the resulting peak flows; urban sources of pollution from point sources and storm water runoff; need for increased participation in best management practices, feedlot and nutrient management, and; lack of vegetated buffers on riparian and floodplain and limited participation in field windbreak programs. The Tour began Friday morning with a bus ride through the Kanaranzi-Little Rock WD (KLRWD) and an explana- tion of their conservation practices and projects on the first stop at the Adrian Public Golf Course KLRWD works with a PL-566 project that began at the time the district was formed. The project's primary goal is to prevent serious soil erosion and at the same time reduce flooding. The objectives of this project are to plan and implement conservation tillage, contour farming, terraces, water and sediment control basins, grassed waterways, field borders, and pasture and hay land planting. To date the KLR PL566 Project has written 90 long-term contracts totaling $1,351,240 and 17,095 acres. The KLR Local C-S Project Program, from watershed district levy, has written 48 contracts totaling $72, 858. The total spent in the KLR Watershed to install conservation projects is $2.2 million. This project is co-sponsored by the (continued on page 4) Management In A New Century New Managers Workshop Preliminary Schedule