Minnesota’s Reliance on SWCDs to Address Climate Resilience
•Download as PPTX, PDF•
0 likes•3 views
Breakout Session Slides Minnesota’s Reliance on SWCDs to Address Climate Resilience – John Jaschke highlights the means and measures for climate action that will be delivered through Minnesota’s SWCDs. Monday, February 12 4:35 - 5:00 p.m.
Recommended
Recommended
More Related Content
Similar to Minnesota’s Reliance on SWCDs to Address Climate Resilience
Similar to Minnesota’s Reliance on SWCDs to Address Climate Resilience (20)
More from National Association of Conservation Districts
More from National Association of Conservation Districts (20)
Recently uploaded
Recently uploaded (20)
Minnesota’s Reliance on SWCDs to Address Climate Resilience
- 1. Minnesota’s Reliance on SWCDs to Address Climate Change National Association of Conservation Districts Annual Meeting – Feb 2024 bwsr.state.mn.us Photo credit: Jake Granfors, Pheasants Forever
- 2. Meet the presenters: John Jaschke • Executive Director, Minnesota Board of Water and Soil Resources (BWSR) • 30+ years in conservation field • Experience includes working for and with governments at the state and local level • Grew up on a dairy farm in Morrison County, MN
- 3. About BWSR: Who we are 120 staff members working in 9 locations across Minnesota
- 4. About BWSR: Who we work with • 88 Soil and Water Conservation Districts • 42 Watershed Districts • 87 Counties • 16 Metro Watershed Management Organizations • 12 federally-recognized Tribal Governments • Joint Powers Organizations • State agencies • Non-governmental organizations
- 5. BWSR’s approach to conservation delivery ($158M/yr) Grants + payments to landowners 83% Agency Programs and Operations 17%
- 6. Meet the presenters: Troy Daniell • Minnesota State Conservationist, USDA - Natural Resources Conservation Service • 30+ years in agricultural and conservation fields • Experience includes working for and with governments, states, and local agricultural communities • Grew up and still actively runs a family cattle operation in north Texas
- 7. About NRCS: Who we are 303 full-time staff members working in every county across Minnesota!
- 8. About NRCS: Who we service • Farmers • Ranchers • Private landowners and operators on all land uses • Local Conservation Districts • Government Agencies • Tribes • Earth Team Members • Rural and Urban Community Members • Other Groups Interested in Agriculture
- 9. NRCS Minnesota approach to conservation delivery • Technical Assistance • Locally Led Conservation • Local Work Groups • Financial Assistance: • EQIP • CSP • RCPP • ACEP • Public and private Partnerships
- 10. Minnesota NRCS approach to climate concerns Assist customers with climate- smart practices (mitigation and resilience) Help producers absorb potential risks associated with practices with both technical and financial assistance
- 11. NRCS Partners
- 12. NRCS Partners
- 13. NRCS Partners
- 14. NRCS Partners
- 15. Minnesota NRCS key partners in climate smart ag $2.3M in Tribal grants $998,115 to Ecosystem Services Market Consortium (ESMC) $727,362 to Eco System Services for Drain Water Management $450,000 to Soil Health Coalition $200,000 to Ag in the Classroom 85 SWCD MOU’s for TA 19 SWCD unfunded agreements for TA
- 16. Minnesota NRCS 2023 funds awarded Funding awarded in 2023 RCPP Projects involving Minnesota BWSR – Soil Health (MN Only) - New $25M Red River Basin Commission ND and MN – Soil Health - New $20M Agropur – Dairy BMPS - New $9.8M Existing RCPP Project Implementation $4.4M Program Farmbill Funds IRA Funds EQIP $38.7M $2.9M CSP $33.4M $6M ACEP $1M $904.4K
- 17. Minnesota NRCS looking forward Funding allocated for 2024 Program Farmbill Funds IRA Funds EQIP $24M $30.2M CSP $22.8M $14.8M RCPP $6M $TBD ACEP $1.5M $TBD
- 18. Minnesota NRCS support for climate smart agriculture $25 Million in Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP) funding provided to BWSR SWCDs Soil Health • No-till • Strip-till • Rotational Grazing • Cover Crops
- 19. Addressing Climate Change in MN: A Statewide Effort 19
- 20. Minnesota’s Climate Action Framework Why a Climate Action Framework? • Create a bold vision for Minnesota • Invite conversation • Organize and share our thinking • Ensure accountability • Catalyze action across sectors Carbon Neutral Resilient Equitable
- 21. Framework goals Clean transportation Climate-smart natural & working lands Clean energy & efficient buildings Resilient communities Healthy lives & communities Clean economy Minnesota’s Climate Action Framework
- 22. Minnesota’s Climate Action Framework Key themes • Climate change is happening now • We must accelerate action • Climate change affects everyone, but some are hit harder • We must work together to meet global goals • Opportunity to grow our economy and improve our health, equity, and the environment
- 23. 2023: A historic year for climate funding in MN •40+ climate initiatives passed by State Legislature •Largest-ever investment in climate action •$100 for climate-smart infrastructure
- 24. Natural and Working Lands Goals
- 25. Minnesota’s Climate Action Framework: Natural and Working Lands The vision: • Absorb and store more carbon, produce food and other products • Sustain local economies, enhance climate resiliency • Improve the quality of life for all Minnesotans
- 26. 26 $10 million to restore 6,000 acres of grasslands $190 million to compete for federal funding $33 million for investments in soil health 2023: A historic year for climate funding in MN
- 27. Climate-Smart Conservation: A Locally-Led Effort 27
- 28. Importance of locally-led conservation in Minnesota SWCD staff have valuable connections to their communities and landowners that are essential to achieving conservation goals.
- 29. Climate-focused conservation Soil health Water storage Pollinator habitat
- 30. Soil Health Principles • Minimize Disturbance • Keep living Roots in the Ground • Keep the Soil Covered • Maximize Biodiversity
- 31. Soil health funding (BWSR) timeline 2/15/2024 31 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 $0 $1M CWF $3.5M CWF $1.3M GF $12M CWF $21M GF $25M NRCS $85K McKnight
- 32. BWSR support for local implementation: Soil Health Soil health • $33 million total in state funding for BWSR programs • $40 million total in federal funding for BWSR programs (includes RCPP funds from NRCS) New funding allocated in 2023 for…
- 33. BWSR support for local implementation: Soil Health Types of soil health grants currently available or upcoming in 2024: • Staffing and outreach grants for LGUs • Direct payments to producers: Cover crops, Reduced tillage, No-till, Rotational grazing • Grants for practice implementation and landowner incentives (SWCDs=recipients)
- 34. BWSR support for local implementation: Water Storage Water storage • $17 million in state funding New funding allocated in 2023 for… • Mitigates climate change impacts by slowing flowing water from severe weather events • Protects infrastructure from flood damage • Prepares agricultural lands to withstand more intense rainfall events • Improves downstream water quality • Reduces runoff which decreases erosion and nutrient loss from working lands
- 35. BWSR’s Water Quality and Storage Program Focus on climate resiliency Goals • Increase water storage capacity • Control water rates • Protect infrastructure
- 36. Lincoln County water storage: Before
- 37. Lincoln County water storage: After
- 38. Lincoln County water storage: growing season
- 39. BWSR support for local implementation: Pollinator Habitat Pollinator habitat • $9 million total in state funding New funding allocated in 2023 for…
- 40. BWSR Pollinator Habitat Programs: Lawns to Legumes Reimburses residents up to $400 for creating new pollinator habitat in their yards More than 3,500 projects installed across the state More than $5 million square feet of habitat created since 2019
- 41. BWSR Pollinator Habitat Programs: HELP Program Provides financial and technical assistance to establish habitat on existing conservation lands, such as easements
- 42. BWSR Pollinator Habitat Programs: Habitat Friendly Utilities Provides financial and technical assistance to establish habitat within solar, wind, pipeline and electrical transmission corridors
- 43. Climate-Smart Conservation Success Stories 43
- 44. Minnesota Perspective Success story: Kittson SWCD grows soil health program Kittson County farmers supported in trying soil health practices via expanded flexible incentive program Program also involves a soil health demonstration project to measure benefits over time. Partners include General Mills, University of Minnesota, American Crystal Sugar
- 45. Minnesota Perspective Success story: Advanced Grazing Management Training for LGU staff Three-day training at University of Minnesota (UMN) Extension’s North Central Research and Outreach Center (NCROC) near Grand Rapids 22 field staffers attended FOCUS: Climate, economic, environmental benefits of rotational grazing
- 46. Minnesota Perspective Success story: Duluth park revamp includes stormwater improvements South St. Louis County SWCD added stormwater improvements to $4.2 million Lincoln Park revitalization Stormwater improvements that create water storage = priority item in Duluth Climate Action Plan Bioswales, biofiltration basins, rock-armored culverts and native plantings installed
- 47. Minnesota Perspective Success story: Bois de Sioux WD builds on multi-benefit successes Project to rehabilitate Mustinka River offers flood control, water quality, wildlife habitat benefits “Bringing these projects into the modern day is really important for the productivity of the land around it, for protection of the people that live in this area. And it’s certainly an important climate mitigation tool.” – Jamie Beyer, Bois de Sioux WD Administrator
- 48. Minnesota Perspective Success Story: Forestry partnerships Easements on private land within sentinel landscape area near Camp Ripley (national guard training center) Forest management improves habitat +landscape resiliency to severe weather events Morrison SWCD/Camp Ripley has worked to enroll 329 permanent easements covering more than 33,000 acres
- 49. Minnesota Perspective Success story: Minnesota Agricultural Water Certification Program 1,400 Producers certified Over $1M acres certified 50,307 metric tons CO2-e reduced per year 140,849 tons of soil saved per year Certified Farmers are the most profitable in MN
- 50. Minnesota Perspective Success story: New Producers and Climate Smart Practices Lee Wood Jr. and his wife are living their dreams of full- time farmers. Located near the Camp Ripley Sentinel Landscape. 2017-2018: implemented a 325-acre prescribed grazing system 2022: expanded existing system by 224 acres 2023: approved for a High Tunnel system
- 51. Minnesota Perspective Success story: Education through Media YouTube: 80 videos 601,513 views 58,806 hours watched 3,307 Subscribers Twitter/X: 1,561 Followers Pheasants Forever Articles: 10 NRCS related articles for FY23 BWSR Articles: 19 since 2018
- 52. Minnesota Perspective Success story: Prairie Island Community, Dakota Sioux Elk Run Erosion Control Project The environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) has practices to assist with erosion control. This was a grade stabilization project put in to control gully erosion on a steep unstable bank. 70 grade stabilizations were put in during 2023.
- 53. Minnesota Perspective Success Story: Forestry Blessing Project near Two Harbors Minnesota Jordan Blessing and his family were having troubles with Spruce Budworm. Through practices with the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP). They were able to improve the health and wellness of the forest on their property.
- 54. Thank you John Jaschke Executive Director, BWSR John.Jaschke@state.mn.us (612) 202-3815 Troy Daniell Minnesota State Conservationist, NRCS (651) 602-7900
Editor's Notes
- As of 1/22/2023
- As of 1/22/2023
- As of 1/22/2023
- As of 1/22/2023
- As of 1/22/2023
- Closer to 150+ grants/agreements
- NOTE – I borrowed and added the soil health $33M from slide 23 We also passed nearly $200 M to provide matching grants to compete for federal funding that will support clean energy projects and climate-smart infrastructure As well as major investments in improving Minnesota’s soil health and expanding our state’s grasslands and wetlands. The climate funding approved in Minnesota takes an all-of-government approach to tackling the climate crisis, just as the Climate Action Framework does. We are very excited about the outcome of this legislative session. Our next step if focusing on implementation, to ensure these funding opportunities are met to achieve the ambitious goals we have set this year.
- Whether you consider there to be four (NRCS) or five (MOSH) principles to soil health, it all comes down to these things. Maximize Biodiversity (microorganism, plant, animal), minimize soil disturbance, living roots as long as possible, and keep the soil covered. Photo: Wheat/Corn. Jill Sackett Eberhart Photo: Alfalfa. Jill Sackett Eberhart Photo: Strip Till. Jeff Coulter, University of Minnesota Photo: Winter Cereal Rye, aerial applicated. Mark Zumwinkle, MDA
- Standard BWSR eligible practices have been structural and vegetative. Sediment basins. Conservation cover. Grass waterways. But starting with the FY2017 State Cost Share grants via the Erosion Control and Water Management policy (103c.501), nonstructural land management practices (1 year lifespan….some of the “typical” soil health practices like cover crops and strip-till) became eligible. Sticks in my mind because it was my first year here at BWSR and I joke I would have never joined the team if cover crops weren’t eligible . Also when the flat rate financial assistance option came to existence. In calendar year 2017, the Minnesota Office of Soil Health (MOSH) was formed. In FY2020, Cover Crop Demo grant rolled out as a pilot. Includes landowner surveys and half-way point sitdowns with the grantees to discuss progress and what could change and what could stay the same
- MDA grants for soil health equipment
- IVANHOE — A restored wetlands project in Lincoln County could become a statewide model for achieving less costly agricultural ditch repairs with water storage, flood mitigation and wildlife habitat benefits. The project 4 miles west of Ivanhoe saved farmers on the County Ditch 37 system about $175,000 in shared assessments. It involves three properties, starting with a 2001 Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP) enrollment, and a 2015 Reinvest in Minnesota (RIM) easement immediately upstream. A third property involves a flowage easement. All lie within the Yellow Medicine River watershed, which feeds the Minnesota River. “It’s such a multi-benefit project. It’s good for the environment, good for flood control — and when you control flooding you reduce other pollutants,” said Dale Sterzinger, Lincoln Soil & Water Conservation District manager. Before township, county, state and federal cooperation made the alternative possible, about 100 landowners on the 29-mile-long County Ditch 37 system would have shared the $225,000 repair cost. The alternative cost the ditch system about $50,000. The original plan would have rerouted a 2-mile-long branch around the wetlands. An inspection revealed the 100-year-old tile was crumbling, leaving holes 15 feet in diameter. The entire County Ditch 37 system is evenly split between open ditch and tile. Raising a township road made it possible to increase floodwater storage on Snyder’s land to 61 acre-feet. The entire project involved three landowners, two wetland restorations and a flowage easement. Photo Credit: Area II Minnesota River Basin Projects “Now we are trying to farm that. We’re trying to raise row crops in these basins. The problem is the system was never designed to accommodate large amounts of subsurface drainage. Modern tiling technology and the desire to drain areas for agricultural production are not consistent with the initial intent of the original drainage systems. They would need to be much larger,” Olsen said. As the infrastructure fails, more repairs will become necessary. “By putting all this agricultural runoff through a wetland, we hoped that we could remove some of the nutrient load. We could certainly remove the sediment load. By putting it into this wetland system and working with Kerry (Netzke), we could actually create some stormwater storage,” Olsen said.
- Area II Executive Director Kerry Netzke explained why floodwater retention is important in the region, where the Buffalo Ridge — AKA the Coteau de Prairies, a geological formation 1,000 feet higher than the floodplain below — results in 50-foot-per-mile elevation drops within the Yellow Medicine River watershed. “As the snow melts or as the rain falls and it hits those real steep slopes, it gains that velocity and that force that creates those erosion problems as it reaches those floodplains below. By incorporating floodwater retention projects onto the landscape, we can basically stop that rain or that snowmelt where it’s happening and meter it out slowly,” Netzke said. The Yellow Medicine River Watershed District set flood control as a top priority for its One Watershed, One Plan — a targeted, science-based approach to watershed-wide management. More precisely, Sterzinger said the 10-year plan aimed to create 1,000 acre-feet of storage on the land via structural practices. The view looking north on April 3, 2020, shows the restored wetlands at their maximum water-holding capacity. The Snyder property is to the west, the Steffe flowage easement is to the the east side, and the Gorecki property is straight north of Snyder’s land. Photo Credit: Lincoln SWCD
- By creating 138.5 acre-feet of storage, Sterzinger said the project not only achieved more than 10% of that 10-year goal but also protected Granite Falls from flooding. Gorecki’s property features a 33-acre permanent pool, and nearly 78 acre-feet of floodwater storage from a 233-acre watershed. Snyder’s property features a 23-acre permanent pool. Raising a township road increased floodwater storage to 61 acre-feet from a 101-acre watershed. On Alan Steffe “Without the easements and the payment, it’s not feasible for (landowners) to do these types of projects. It’s not cost-effective for an individual landowner. So we have to have easement opportunities, the cost-share on the restoration costs,” Sterzinger said. “(In) today’s farm economy, landowners can’t put a lot of money into doing this, but they are willing to maybe give up some of their land and put it into an easement to take it out of crop production.”
- John – confirmed with Dan Shaw that “pollinator pathways” is a rebranded name for Lawns to Legumes Demonstration Neighborhoods
- Link to story: https://bwsr.state.mn.us/sites/default/files/2023-02/Snapshot%20Story%201%20March%202023%20Kittson%20SWCD%20UPDATE%20Accessible.pdf
- Link to story: https://bwsr.state.mn.us/sites/default/files/2023-10/Duluth%20Lincoln%20Park%20stormwater%202023.pdf
- https://bwsr.state.mn.us/sites/default/files/2023-04/Snapshots%20Story%203%20May%202023%20CWF%20Bois%20de%20Sioux_Accessible.pdf
- Link to story: https://bwsr.state.mn.us/sites/default/files/2023-02/Snapshot%20Story%201%20March%202023%20Kittson%20SWCD%20UPDATE%20Accessible.pdf
- Photo by Karl Hankanson