Report: Cannon River Watershed Management Strategy

What do you know about the ?

Fortunately for us, the Cannon River Watershed Partnership, which is based in Northfield, recently completed a watershed management strategy with the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency and other local partners.

The reason for the strategy, says CRWP Executive Director Beth Kallestad, is simple.

“Water desn’t necessarily know county boundaries,” she said.

The Cannon River Watershed is about 941,000 acres and is made up of land in parts of six counties—Dakota, Goodhue, Rice, LeSueur, Waseca and Steele.

The Cannon River starts in Shields Lake, flows west, south then east to Faribault. The Straight River starts in Oak Glen Lake, then flows north to join the Cannon River in Faribault. After that, it is known as the Cannon River as it flows north then east to join the Mississippi River at Red Wing, Kallestad for Northfield Patch.

Kallestad says state law requires local water plans, even though water can enter one county clean and out the other county dirty.

“To really manage water, you need to do it on the scale of the watershed,” she said.

Minnesota has 81 major watersheds and a few years ago the MPCA approached the CRWP about this project.

“We thought it was important to have something based on the watershed scale,” she said, “because we think that’s best for the water quality.”

The CRWP, and operates with grants, donations and a dedicated group of volunteers, hopes that without a government entity operating rivershed management, that the report can guide local government when it comes to decisions concerning the area's water.

“We’re hopeful what’s in this will help them when they look to update their plans,” Kallestad said.

Recent emphasis on water quality has been a Catch-22 for many advocates.

Awareness and effort has allowed for some reversal of fortune for impaired waters—such as the Cannon River in Faribault—but also because there are more people looking for impaired waters, they're finding more.

For more information on the Cannon River Watershed, read the attached PDF.