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MINNESOTA
Minnesota is taking a two-tier approach to achieving water quality through
watershed projects and information and education programs. The Clean Water
Partnership Program sponsors 36 water management projects in addition to clean
lakes projects. Minnesota has used section 319 funds for technical assistance
in 53 watershed management projects and has made a special effort to involve
all state agencies.
Forestry Audits Evaluate how BMPs Work
Concerned about the impact of forest management on water quality, Minnesota
decided to use section 319 funds to determine the effectiveness of best
management practices and to what extent they are being used in forestry -
operations throughout the state.
Forestry has been identified as one of Minnesota's four major sources of
nonpoint source pollution. Pollutants from forestry operations include
sediment, nutrients, organic debris, pesticides, petroleum products; water
temperature increases are also of concern. BMPs provide the foundation for
water quality protection from these - potential pollutants. Therefore, the
state needed to develop a credible field audit process to evaluate how
extensively silvicultural BMPs are used in forest management operations on
state, federal, county, private industrial, and nonindustrial - private (small
properties) forest lands. In addition, it needed to qualitatively measure the
effectiveness of the state-approved silvicultural BMPs. In developing this
field audit process, Minnesota evaluated waterbodies across the
state--perennial streams, lakes, intermittent streams, open water wetlands,
ponds, and groundwater. The field audits provide valuable information to the
Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, the Minnesota Department of Natural
Resources, and the forest community on the degree to which BMPs are being
employed. Audit results provide a focus for educational efforts and technical
assistance and identify practice deficiencies so that the state can clearly
target corrective measures to improve compliance.
Field audits began in the fall of 1991. The field audit forms used to
evaluate forest management sites were based on the BMPs identified in Water
Quality in Forest Management: Best Management Practices in Minnesota, the
state-approved forestry BMP guidebook. The forms were updated and changed,
based on an ongoing process of field discussions with professional and private
interest groups and observations of how BMPs were actually working. The audit
forms contain 96 BMPs that could be rated for each site. The field audit
process is also structured to provide a qualitative measure of the
effectiveness of the silvicultural BMPs based on visual observations of erosion
to perennial and intermittent waters.
Four field audit teams--each consisting of five to seven experts in forest
management, fisheries, road engineering, soil science, hydrology, and
conservation-- perform the audits. Teams include representatives from the
forest industry, state and federal agencies, county land departments, and
environmental and conservation - organizations.
Team members and alternates attend a two-day calibration workshop to learn
the goals and objectives of the field audits and the BMP process. Teams visit
several field sites and audit the BMPs to become familiar with the field
ratings. Audit sites are randomly selected from state, federal, county, private
industrial, and nonindustrial private forest lands. Selection criteria -
include management activities less than two years old, treatments encompassing
at least 10 acres, and locations within 200 feet of a lake, stream, or
protected wetland. The project has been funded through section 319 grants
totaling $58,000. The state has contributed an additional $8,000 and will
continue to fund this project and other similar ones. In 1991 and 1992, field
audit teams reviewed 158 sites, with about 120 sites targeted for review in
1993. In the first two years, the forestry community met or exceeded BMP
requirements to protect water quality an average of 83 percent of the time.
Even when the audits revealed departures from BMP requirements, 77 percent of
the time these departures were small and localized, with minimal impact on
water quality.
During the program's first year, the audits revealed a significantly higher
compliance level--88 percent-on county, state, federal, and private industrial
lands managed by professional foresters. Compliance from nonindustrial lands
was much lower--71 percent. These results indicate that Minnesota should target
nonindustrial land managers for education and technical assistance.
These future education and technical assistance efforts focus on specific
groups of BMPs. For example, compliance with filter strip BMPs statewide is
high--88 percent in 1991, 93 percent in 1992--suggesting that landowners are
cautious when operating near or adjacent to waterbodies. However, for water
diversion devices (culverts, broad-based dips, water bars) and drainage
structures (outsloping roads), statewide compliance levels were lower--73
percent in 1991, 84 percent in 1992. This suggests that limited resources
should focus on improving the use of these specific BMPs.
Overall findings show that when BMPs are properly installed, they do the
job of containing erosion and sediment movement. The more BMPs are absent or
not properly installed, the greater the amount of erosion and sediment flow.
Specifically, audits show that when BMPs met or exceeded state requirements,
water quality was protected in 99 percent of situations. Even with minor
departures from requirements, water quality was adequately protected almost 60
percent of the time. However, major departures substantially increased
long-term impacts.
Focusing efforts on nonindustrial private land will encourage continued
successful implementation of the nonpoint source control program. The field
audits also provide the forestry community with information on how to improve
specific BMPs to achieve even greater water quality protection. Forestry will
continue to emphasize education. Continuing logger education, resource manager
training, and one-on-one field training will be major efforts. The state
forestry agency will pursue partnerships to develop educational strategies and
outreach programs for nonindustrial private forest landowners.
The expanded field audit process will continue as the cornerstone to
measure success. Continuing to audit forest management operations on all forest
land types will demonstrate progressive improvement in adopting and using
forestry BMPs. The major forestry organizations in Minnesota and appropriate
water quality agencies are receiving results of the field audits through
workshops for professional land managers, training, and other continuing
education programs. The audit process has also been an opportunity for
industry, agencies, and the environmental community to work together to address
environmental issues.
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