Watershed plan: Crow Wing County, Minn.
In 2013 Crow Wing County, Minn., took a new approach to local water planning when it revised its Local Comprehensive Water Management Plan. This process not only identified local priority water resource concerns by involving a record number of citizens and stakeholders, but also targeted specific surface and ground water resources upon which to focus implementation efforts. A first of its kind watershed-based, ?protection? model was used to classify each of the county?s 125 minor watersheds by the amount of protected land (public ownership, lakes, rivers, easements, and wetlands on private lands), land use disturbance as well as lake water quality trend data. Implementation strategies were developed from the priority concerns and tailored specifically for each of the 125 minor watersheds in the County.
