A coalition of organizations in east central Minnesota has begun work on a plan for the next 10 years of protection and restoration of waters in the Kettle and Upper St. Croix River watersheds. The plan was approved by the Minnesota Board of Soil and Water Resources in June after three years of development and public input.
Watersheds are areas of land where water flows to a specific lake or stream. In this case, most of the land drains to the Kettle River, a major St. Croix River tributary. The planning region also includes the watersheds of several streams that flow directly into the St. Croix.
“The watershed includes hundreds of lakes and over a thousand miles of streams, providing recreational opportunities and valuable habitat for unique plant and animal species,” the plan states. “This area has great cultural importance due to wild rice (manoomin) that grows in numerous lakes and rivers throughout the watershed.”
St. Croix 360 previously published two articles by Kim Samuelson, a member of the Carlton Soil and Water Conservation District board, in 2019 about protecting the Kettle’s watershed: Farmers partner with conservation district to reduce runoff into Kettle River tributary and Kettle River’s watershed is home to beloved and valuable natural resources.
The region comprises about 1,500 square miles, crossing four counties, two Native American tribes with two different governing treaties, and multiple other jurisdictions. It is primarily forested, with wetlands the second most common type of land. Municipalities include Sandstone, Moose Lake, Mahtowa, Bruno, and Kettle River.
The Department of Natural Resources has identified 17 lakes in the basin that contain wild rice, or manoomin in the Ojibwe language. There are also two lakes that are a refuge for cisco, an imperiled fish that is an important food source for other species and is threatened by climate change. The DNR has also designated 77 creeks and rivers as trout streams, totaling 115 miles. Grindstone Lake is also trout habitat.
The Kettle River main stem is also notable for its population of lake sturgeon, one of only a handful of rivers in Minnesota and Wisconsin that are home to the ancient fish species. The Minnesota record for certified weight lake sturgeon (as opposed to a newer catch-and-release category) came from the Kettle in 1994. (The largest catch-and-release sturgeon was on the lower St. Croix in 2019.)
Popular public lands in the watershed include three state parks: Moose Lake, Banning, and St. Croix as well as Solana, Nemadji, General C.C. Andrews, St. Croix and Fond du Lac State Forests.
The plan is the last of three that have now been developed for the Minnesota side of the river basin, preceded by a Lower St. Croix plan approved in 2020 and a Snake River basin plan approved in 2023. Plan partners are Carlton and Pine Counties and Carlton, Kanabec, and Pine Soil and Water Conservation Districts.
“The goal of Kettle River & Upper St. Croix Watershed One Watershed One Plan is to use this information to help guide decisions on where we can best protect and restore the valuable natural resources of this unique watershed,” the partners say.
Protection efforts will be aligned with several goals described in the plan: reducing phosphorus flowing into lakes and rivers by 340 pounds, managing forest lands in high priority areas to protect water quality, improving stream bank areas on 400 acres and 2,000 feet of high priority streams, protecting and restoring 100 acres of wetlands, improve farming practices on 1,000 acres with up to 30 projects to reduce runoff, update 10 septic systems, improving land use planning by updating local ordinances, and launching new stormwater management plans in four communities.
“The results will be a measurable improvement in water quality and protection of these important resources for future generations,” the report reads.
One unique challenge to protecting water quality in the Kettle River region is geologic features called karst. While most such bedrock is found in southeastern Minnesota, there is a band stretching northeast from Sandstone with numerous sinkholes and related features. Karst is essentially limestone that is easily dissolved by groundwater — creating large underground fissures and caverns.
“Of special interest, karst geology has the highest risk of contamination because pores in the bedrock allow contaminants to flow directly to groundwater supplies,” the report reads. “The Lower Kettle River subwatershed has the most acres of karst areas and vulnerable groundwater.”
As a result, the planners say they have prioritized protecting groundwater in areas with the karst geology in order to ensure safe drinking water sources.
Now that the plan has been approved, protection and restoration projects can also receive state funds. The approval was accompanied by a $1.4 million grant from the Board of Soil and Water Resources to kick-off implementation over the next two years. It is expected the project will receive about $8.5 million in state funds over the next decade.
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