One Watershed One Plan.
One Watershed One Plan Purpose
Imagine you are in a bathtub, and the water that flows through your bathtub comes from 23 bathtubs that are upstream from you. You would really want the people in the bathtubs upstream to keep their water clean. Well it is the same in the Whitefish Chain of Lakes, our 14,000 acres of water has water flowing in to it from 300,000 acres of water upstream from us. We would want that water to be as clean as possible
That is why the Pine River Watershed Alliance (an offshoot of WAPOA) and WAPOA are working together, with very valuable help from the Crow Wing County Soil and Water Conservation District, and the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency - an important alliance for the betterment of the lakes.
The purpose of the One Watershed One Plan program is to develop comprehensive watershed management plans that:
align local water planning purposes and procedures under this chapter and chapters 103C and 103D on watershed boundaries to create a systematic, watershed-wide, science-based approach to watershed management;
acknowledge and build off existing local government structure, water plan services, and local capacity;
incorporate and make use of data and information, including watershed restoration and protection strategies under section 114D.26;
solicit input and engage experts from agencies, citizens, and stakeholder groups; focus on implementation of prioritized and targeted actions capable of achieving measurable progress; and
serve as a substitute for a comprehensive plan, local water management plan, or watershed management plan developed or amended, approved, and adopted, according to chapter 103B, 103C or 103D.
There is a lot happening upstream: logging, farming, cattle raising, a city sewage treatment plant, and a lot of septic tanks. Our goal is to continue to support, and at times engage (pay), other experts with multi-state reputations to give us information about certain problems in our own Whitefish Chain.
WAPOA’s Involvement in One Watershed, One Plan
WAPOA’s programs, including AIS Prevention and Education, Shoreland Restoration, Water Quality Testing, Natural Resources, the Run for the Walleye, and our mission of protecting water quality are perfectly aligned with the 1W1P land management and water protection plans. We will design our annual goals to support the 1W1P through its ten-year plan. WAPOA will work to educate everyone to understand how they impact water quality, and to take personal actions to reduce their impact.
WAPOA will work with our members, local government units, Crow Wing County, the Pine River Watershed Alliance, lake associations, and community organization to support the programs and objectives of the Pine River One Watershed One Plan.