Friends of the Sunrise River – Minutes from the 31Mar2011 Meeting
Guest Speakers Craig Mell and Casey Thiel, Chisago County Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD)
Craig and Casey gave an excellent presentation, starting with a brief history of the Chisago County SWCD. It began in 1950 and was comprised of 5 supervisors whose areas were divided according to land, not people. Their mission is “Bringing Conservation to Chisago County”. They provide assistance in the areas of agriculture, lakeshore/streambank, forestry/wildlife, urban, and provide workshops, tours and education to the county. Chisago County SWCD has received Legacy Fund money for several projects, including:
* $230,000 to install stormwater retrofit assessments for overall reduction of phosphorus, sediment, and volume in the Lake Improvement District
* $30,000 for St. Croix escarpment gully stabilization inventory and outreach program (280 gullies identified along County Road 16)
* $38,000 to implement water-smart best management practices to capture/treat stormwater runoff
* $89,000 to stabilize high erosion areasadjacent to public lands and rivers (Kost Dam Park and County Road 81)
Craig and Casey also informed us about Discovery Farms. They are new to MN but have accomplished a lot in WI. They are a joint effort between the MN Dept of Agriculture (http://www.mda.state.mn.us/) and MN Agricultural Water Resources Coalition (http://www.mawrc.com/). There are 4 sites inMN, one of which is in Chisago County. The goal is to get real edge of the field water quality datqa from a no till farm. This will be compared to the predicted data to see how accurate the predictions were.
We were very impressed with the projects being driven by the Chisago County SWCD, and the excellent work Craig and Casey are doing. You can learn a lot more about the Chisago County SWCD at their website: http://www.chisagoswcd.org/. We wish them continued success and are extremely thankful they could take the time to speak with us about their work!
Following the presentation we had a brief business meeting. Present were Marilyn Bobick-Johnson, Joyce Marienfeld, Martha Arnold, Jean Adair, Jeff Strother, Larry Baker, Peter Holte, Jim McCarthey, John Werner, Randy Keene, Vicki Wyss.
Annual Meeting: We decided to hold the Annual Meeting at the Royal Wilcox Community Center in Sunrise. It will be held Thursday April 28th, beginning at 6:30. We will be showing the documentary Trouble Waters. Larry is bringing the documentary DVD and his computer, Jim has a projector and screen, Peter has some speakers – Larry, Peter and Jim will get there early to set up. We will have popcorn and pop. Vicki to send notice to local papers.
Road Clean-up: will be held on Sat. Apr 30th and organized by John Werner. Meet at the Kost Dam Park at 9:00 am for a brief safety meeting and to get your supplies. Vicki to send notice to local papers.
Sunrise River Clean-up: we had talked about May 21st, but the water may still be too high, so we have not firmed up that date yet.
T-shirts: Jean and Jeff will get 50 ordered in various sizes (no smalls). The logo will be on the front and centered. They will decide on the color (not white).