cottonwood-middle minnesota one watershed one plan

The Cottonwood-Middle Minnesota Comprehensive Watershed Management Plan began in April 2023 with planning grant funds awarded by BWSR, through the One Watershed One Plan program, in late August of 2022. Grant Administration/Coordination and Fiscal Management is being provided by the Redwood-Cottonwood Rivers Control Area. 

The counties of Brown, Cottonwood, Lyon, Murray and Redwood, their respective SWCDS, Area II MN River Basin Projects, RCRCA and the City of Springfield comprise the 13 members of this Memorandum of Agreement. Blue Earth County and SWCD, and Yellow Medicine County and SWCD have opted out of the planning due to having <5% of their counties within the watershed boundary. The Policy Committee met the 3rd Wednesday of the month at 2:00 PM at the Springfield Area Community Center. 

Houston Engineering, Inc. has developed tools to aid implementation: 

* Benefits Estimator and Spreadsheet Tool, lovingly know as the BEAST - will allow plan partners to map, and calculate the measurable results in a consistent manner.

* MS4Front Tracking System - this will allow plan partners to map and track the BMPs installed and see the progress being made to date. 

* Stacked Hydrograph Hydrologic Model of the CW-MM watershed - this model will break the watershed into 10 small sub-watersheds and identify those sub-watersheds where storage projects can be most beneficial.

POLICY COMMITTEE

The Policy Committee is comprised of 13 members; one appointed member for each partnering entity. The Policy Committee sears as the decision-making authority for everything related to the planning grant, including all the expenditures and content of the plan.