11/29/2006 Env Bd Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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Friends of the Mississippi River Multi - metric IBI based citizen monitoring The Rice Creek Watershed has undergone significant hydrologic alteration. Starting a hundred years ago, lands were tiled and ditched and vast wetlands were drained for agricultural production. In the economic boom following WWII, the southern portion of the watershed was changed again as growing communities replaced farmland with houses and roads. Today, the next wave of development has hit the sod farms of Blaine, the cornfields of Lino Lakes and the pasture land of Hugo. Agricultural ditch systems are being converted for use as stormwater conveyance. Meanwhile, as land prices soar, battles are being waged over ditch maintenance, wetland conservation and ecological protection. The Rice Creek Watershed District (RCWD) is attempting to manage this transition from agricultural drainage to suburban development, while at the same time address mitigation and restoration of the many impaired waters in the watershed. Recently the RCWD has embarked upon an ambitious plan to restore major ditch systems to natural hydrologic systems that improve ecological health while accommodating suburban stormwater runoff. The first step in this process was the adoption of a Comprehensive Wetland Management Plan that seeks to accommodate stormwater conveyance for new development while providing for habitat and water quality improvements within the Anoka County Ditch 53 -62 system, best known as the site of the new Vikings' Stadium. This system drains to impaired waters Golden Lake, Rice Creek and Long Lake. Restoration is also planed for Anoka County Ditch 10 -22 -32 that drains to impaired waters Marshan Lake, Rice Creek and Long Lake as well as for Anoka County Ditch 46 that drains to impaired waters Rice Creek, Peltier Lake, George Watch Lake, Marshan Lake and Long Lake. In some cases, such as Washington County Ditch #2 (JD2), the RCWD faces a difficult balancing act with respect to its obligations regarding drainage and its obligations for natural resource protection. In an effort to balance those two needs, the RCWD recently removed obstructions in JD2 to prevent local flooding while, at the same time, restoring downstream wetlands as part of RCWD's efforts to improve riparian and wetland habitat in the Hardwood Creek system where JD2 forms the upstream portion of Hardwood Creek, an impaired water. Hardwood Creek flows into impaired waters Peltier Lake, Rice Creek, George Watch Lake, Marshan Lake and Long Lake. This project underscores the need to involve communities in the monitoring of local wetlands and streams so they can better appreciate the impacts of various activities and help to better inform decision - makers. 1. In order to monitor the effectiveness of these restoration efforts on water quality improvements to impaired waters and in order to more fully engage community stakeholders and policy makers in the process of impaired waters restoration, we will develop and implement a citizen biological monitoring program within Rice Creek and its tributaries. This Stream Health Evaluation Program (SHEP) will use a new model for volunteer monitoring. Based upon an ecoregion specific, multi -metric stream Index of Biological Integrity (IBI) developed by the MPCA, professionally trained volunteers will collect quantifiable and quality assured data on the biological health of streams within the Rice Creek Watershed. Professionally trained volunteers will perform biological monitoring on eight stream sites throughout the watershed. Monitoring sites will be chosen to evaluate the impacts of recent and planed changes by the RCWD to existing hydrologic systems upon the watershed's impaired waters. Once collected data has been analyzed, citizen volunteers will present results and conclusions to local city councils, county boards and the watershed district board. Once established, the program will be ongoing, allowing for trend analysis to evaluate the impacts of both restoration efforts and other changes in land use. SHEP will evaluate the biological health of Rice Creek and its tributaries. Collected monitoring data will indicate progress not only towards restoring aquatic life impairments in Rice Creek and Hardwood Creek but will also serve as an indirect measure of improvement in recreational impairments in many of the watershed's lakes. 2. The Volunteer Stream Monitoring Partnership (VSMP), with support from MPCA Biological Monitoring Unit staff, will provide technical assistance and training to ensure that the volunteers correctly use the monitoring protocols, understand and appropriately use the IBI, and learn macroinvertebrate identification. FMR will work closely with Rice Creek Watershed District (RCWD), Anoka Conservation District (ACD), Anoka County Parks and City of Lino Lakes staff persons to chose site locations that will best evaluate the impacts of restoration of hydrological systems upon impaired water bodies. Anoka County Parks will provide the use of park facilities for both training and lab work and will provide monitoring equipment and supplies needed by the volunteers. The City of Lino Lakes will provide additional monitoring supplies. RCWD, ACD, Anoka County Parks and Lino Lakes will provide assistance in recruiting volunteers for the program. Mary Karius of the Rivers Council of Minnesota will perform quality control on all samples identified by the volunteers and provide technical assistance. The VSMP will provide opportunity for the Page I of 2