The Water Column


On the last Friday of May, my wife and I began canoeing the Long Prairie River State Water Trail.  We put in on Lake Carlos and paddled to the outlet, portaged the riffle dams and ducked under the first culvert.  We were on our way, riding a river that gently flows through a diverse landscape of shaded woods, farm fields, floodplain meadows and forests.  We logged roughly 24 river miles.  Our goal is to trek all the way to the confluence of the Crow Wing River by summer’s end.  It’s a 94 mile adventure. We were never more than 10 or 20 minutes from home, but felt miles and years away in the wild. Spending an entire day on the river had me thinking about how all this water connects us. It is more than a river - it is a watershed.


The Long Prairie River is one of four major watersheds in Douglas County. It covers approximately 565,078 acres (883 square miles) and encompasses parts of Douglas, Otter Tail, Todd, Morrison and Wadena counties. The watershed includes more than 220 lakes greater than 10 acres in size and 965 miles of rivers and streams. That is a lot of water - a lot of water that can be impaired or improved, depending on how we work with it.


Minnesota has adopted a “watershed approach” to addressing the state’s 80 major watersheds. This approach looks at the drainage area as a whole rather than focusing on lakes and stream sections one at a time. This increases effectiveness and efficiency. Organizations like the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency and Douglas Soil and Water Conservation District and even Lake Associations coordinate and develop plans to monitor, maintain and improve the watershed ecology.


From the Douglas SWCD website: “Our “One Watershed, One Plan” initiative focuses on comprehensive water resource management. By addressing the entire watershed, we aim to enhance water quality, reduce flooding risks, and support sustainable land use practices. This collaborative approach ensures that every drop of water is effectively managed from its source to its final destination, benefiting both the environment and our communities. Join us in protecting and preserving our precious water resources.”


How can we join in protecting and preserving our precious water resources? Previous Water Columns have pointed out that we should think more about water, where it comes from, where it goes, how we use it. Now we are in the season where we move from thinking to action. Nearshore best management practices are a key to protect enhance or restore our lakes. Protecting and preserving water resources requires stewardship.


Stewardship is an ethical value that embodies the responsible planning and management of resources. In Douglas County, our lakes are one of our most important resources. We recreate, fish, swim, and live on these bodies of water. Each shoreline owner can take steps to reduce nutrient runoff and implement conservation actions. It can be done through partial restorations, rain gardens, lakescaping and in ways that have an eye-catching appeal. Lakeshores were not meant to have suburban lawns mowed to the water’s edge.  A natural shoreline is the best, but sadly we have lost more than half our our natural shorelines in Minnesota. The rate of loss continues at 1-2% per decade. That is too much, and contributes to degraded lake quality. 


The Douglas County Lakes Association is launching a Lake Steward program. Established by Minnesota Lakes and Rivers Advocates, the Lake Steward program empowers homeowners to evaluate their practices and take incremental steps to protect our waterways for generations to come. Through this neighbor-to-neighbor interactive initiative, we’re fostering commitment and pride in the natural beauty of shorelines that absorb runoff, stabilize the soil, and provide essential habitat. Successful Lake Stewards are awarded a sign to display on their property.


We need Lake Steward volunteers in Douglas County.  We need evaluators and participants. You can learn more about this program with Minnesota Lakes and Rivers here: https://mnlakesandrivers.org/lake-steward/. Or contact Jay Sieling at ghotierman1@gmail.com.  Let’s make Douglas County “Lake Steward central”


In the words of the Lorax: “Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not.” 





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