Have you heard of One Watershed, One Plan also known as 1W1P? In 2008, Minnesota’s voters passed the Clean Water, Land and Legacy Amendment. The Minnesota Legislature has appropriated the Clean Water Funds to each watershed that has completed a comprehensive watershed plan. We are in the Pine River watershed, in Crow Wing County and Cass County, with a minimal amount in Aitkin County and Hubbard County. The Crow Wing and Cass County Soil & Water Conservation Districts (SWCDs) work together to manage the Pine River 1W1P funds. We should be proud that Lower Hay Lake has been selected as a priority lake to develop management practices to improve the Pine River Watershed.

The planning team developed individual lake plans to help lake associations focus time and effort on plan priorities. Both Upper and Lower Hay have Lake Plans. Upper Hay is critical for Lower Hay’s activities because Hay Creek is the most significant contributor of phosphorus to Lower Hay. A quick summary of the Lower Hay plan is to reduce the annual phosphorus loading by 5% over the next ten years. The present Lower Hay annual phosphorus load is 912 lbs per year which needs to be lowered by 46 lbs per year. To accomplish this, in the next 10 years we plan to:

• Install ten rain gardens

• Have six shoreline restoration projects

• Plant 500 trees along the shoreline

• Permanently protect 1,383 acres of undeveloped land (combined with Upper Hay)

• Continue the WAPOA water testing program

• Maintain and pump all septic systems every three years

• Seal ten unused wells

• Minimize salt usage on driveways, sidewalks, and in water softeners

The Pine River Comprehensive Watershed Management Plan can be seen here!