FINAL ENTERPRISE STORY

Minnesota is the land of 10,000 lakes, but each year more and more lakes are being destroyed by harmful contaminates and pollution. In 2006, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) accelerated their lake monitoring activities due to the passage of the Clean Water Legacy Act which came with additional funding for these projects. Currently, the MPCA is monitoring 100 lakes each year for the quality of water. There are several organizations in each county that are taking steps to grow awareness on what the public can be doing in order to move forward with cleaner lakes and rivers.
The Rice Creek Watershed District (RCWD), which is based out of Blaine, MN, has set out to raise awareness and begin restoration in the areas of Anoka, Hennepin, Ramsey, and Washington counties in Minnesota. Their mission is to conserve and restore the water sources of the district for beneficial use of current and future generations. The Rice Creek Watershed District is now offering three Cost-Share Grant programs in 2009. Matthew Kocian is the Lake and Stream Specialist for the District, who stated that they do not take any donations from the public. However he said they do rely on volunteers to collect water quality samples and cost-share on projects on their land. He also stated, “Many of the projects are initiated by homeowners, completed using a combination of Rice Creek Watershed District staff and contractors. Rice Creek Watershed District does not sponsor river clean ups, such as removing garbage from rivers, but our staff sometimes participates in them. Our projects focus more on reducing pollutants like phosphorus.”
Several lakes around the area has benefited from the projects. Kocian said, “The RCWD has sponsored water quality and infiltration projects (rain gardens and lakeshore stabilization) on many of the lakes in the watershed, including Turtle, Long Lake, Peltier, Johanna and Golden. The word ‘restore’ is a big subjective, without defining an endpoint, but I believe that improvements in water quality in some lakes can be attributed to RCWD projects. Very rarely can ‘restoration’ be achieved in one single project.”
The Rice Creek Watershed also takes responsibility for enforcing certain laws such as reminding the public that it is illegal to dump yard waste such as leaves, twigs, and grass clipping into a public drainage ditch. Also, it is a misdemeanor under state law to obstruct a public draining or tile system. They take it upon themselves to make sure the public are educated on these laws and also finding information on keeping water clean through Bluethumb.org.
The Blue Thumb project is aims to encourage homeowners to use native plant gardening, raingardens, and shoreline stabilization to reduce runoff from their home landscape in an effort improve water quality. Blue Thumb helps partners present a unified public education message. When speaking to Dawn Pape, the coordinator for Blue Thumb, she mentioned that they provide services to mostly businesses, greenhouses, vendors and a lot of government facilities.
What do these projects entail? The first would be the planting of raingardens, which are gardens which take advantage of rainfall and stormwater runoff in its design and plant selection. It is designed to withstand the extremes of moisture and concentrations of nutrients, particularly Nitrogen and Phosphorus that are found in storm water runoff. Raingardens are close to the source of the runoff and serve to slow the storm water as it travels downhill, giving the storm water more time to infiltrate and less opportunity to gain momentum and erosion power. Raingardens look attractive and may support habitat for birds or butterflies. What makes a raingarden is how it gets its water and what happens to that water once it arrives on the surface. But below the surface of the garden, a number of processes are occurring which mimic the hydrologic action of a healthy forest. Soils are engineered and appropriate plants are selected for the raingarden. Nitrogen and phosphorus levels and overall sediment loads in the storm water are reduced by the action of plants and growing media on the water. Multiple raingardens over an area will have a positive cumulative effect on both the volume and quality of storm water runoff.
The other service that Blue Thumb provides is shoreline stabilization. By planting native plants on shorelines and banks, they act as a buffer between the yard and the lake. The roots of native plants filter and absorb polluted runoffs and excess nutrients before they ever enter the water. The natural height and density of native plantings also discourage geese who prefer turf. “We at Blue Thumb like to promote neighborhood blue thumb parties, where the host educated on how to plant around the banks and which specific plants to use. We also will train the host so they can continue Blue Thumb parties on their own, and promote Blue Thumb by putting a sign in their yard,” said Page.
Lake Josephine was one of the more recent Blue Thumb projects, in the city of Arden Hills, MN. Cathy Johnson, a local resident who lives nearby the lake was very impressed by the results of the projects. “We used to take our kids over to the lake on the weekends. We knew the lake was not in perfect condition, but ever since they put in the new landscaping it is more appealing to visit and take family pictures! We take the dogs for walks every day in the summer now and enjoy the beautiful scenery,” she said. Her husband Bob added, “I went over there a few times while they were planting and they were all very friendly to us. I never really had the interest to ask them anymore questions, but once I realized how quickly everything came together I would definitely want to get more involved with their projects.” The Johnson’s have lived near Lake Josephine for over 20 years and said they hope more lakes in the area benefit from restoration.
Information can be found at www.bluethumb.org such as how raingardens work, projects completed by the shorelines stabilization projects and they also have charts helping pick the specific types of plants you can purchase to help with your own garden.

Going Green? Raingardens are the wave of the Future
In 2009 the Green Movement swept the nation with environmentally safe practices. The Green movement promotes recycle content and less plastic use, but water quality has not been a main agenda. Doug Thomas, the administrator for the Rice Creek Watershed, District brought up a few points about the green movements effect. He says the Green Movement and Water Protection are two separate issues that are linked by the same concern. “The green movement in my view has been seen more by the average person as being about energy conversation/clean energy, such as wind power, high efficiency light bulbs, recycling, and using recycled products. That said I have seen some communities like Shoreview through their environmental committee promote water conservation, things like rain-barrels, native plantings, and rain-gardens. If there is a link I think it is with the idea of water conservation and a general theme of clean water,” he said. However, practices such as switching from plastic to paper are not as costly as putting a raingarden into your yard. Thomas says they are doing their best to raise awareness and the green movement is helping. “I guess in the end I do think that the awareness that is coming out of the green movement will spin off when it comes to a citizen making a link or connection to activities that they read about that relate to clean water.”