Stearns County Lakeshed Project

A lakeshed is defined as the land area that drains into a specific lake.

The Stearns County Lakeshed Project is an action plan to improve the water quality of lakes in the county.  It was developed by the Stearns County Comprehensive Local Water Plan (CLWP) Advisory Committee in cooperation with the Stearns County Environmental Services Department, the Stearns County Soil and Water Conservation District, and the Minnesota DNR Waters office in St. Cloud.  The Lakeshed Project began in May of 1999 when an ad hoc committee was formed by the CLWP Advisory Committee to address land use issues in watersheds throughout Stearns County


Click photo above to view Lakeshed Project Results

The objective of this project was to develop a work plan to further define the goals and action items of the project.  A list of lakes deemed as high priority was developed by the committee and funds from the CLWP were utilized to hire seasonal employees to conduct fieldwork, compile and organize all data collected, and to generate GIS layers and databases using the data.  Fieldwork was conducted to delineate the lakesheds using ground truthing procedures, USGS topography maps, and computer software.  Once all field work was completed for a specific lake, the data was compiled and GIS layers and databases were developed for each lake such as location of the lakeshed, land uses, coarse textured soils, highly erodible land, depth to water table, general soils, feedlot locations, surficial geology, bedrock geology, groundwater pollution sensitivity, wetlands, and pre-settlement vegetation.

The ultimate goal of this Lakeshed Project is to implement action steps to improve water quality.  The database and layers created in GIS are extensive and have a high value for natural resources managers.  Once the data is collected and compiled, it can be analyzed and used to establish project priorities.  This data and information can be disseminated through web site display, CLWP activities, and formal presentations to lake associations, other interested organizations, high schools, colleges, and natural resources managers.

Actions, prioritized by the CLWP Advisory Committee, fall into categories that include education and information, planning and environmental controls, land and water treatment, inventory and mapping, and monitoring.  Conservation practices such as creating or restoring vegetative buffers, grass waterways, correcting erosion sites, water and sediment basins, lakescaping, and bio-engineering projects can be utilized to enhance or protect surface water ecosystems.  Such conservation practices have been implemented since the inception of this project.

Lakeshed management strategies will be one important end result of this project.  The Stearns County Lakeshed Project is a template that can be replicated anywhere and is a tool that can be used by many people for lakeshed protection and lake management efforts.  For more information, contact Sue McGuire of the Stearns County Environmental Services Department at 320-656-6306 or Greg Berg of the Stearns County Soil and Water Conservation District at 320-251-7800,
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