Regional

Critical Mass

SLICE can wait no longer!

Sentinel watersheds approach. One approach that was identified throughout the symposium was the use of sentinel watersheds. Watersheds provide the hydrologic units within which we can relate land use and the vegetative and physical characteristics to water flow and water quality; and therefore, they integrate physical, chemical, and biological data over space and time. By selecting small to medium sized watersheds for intensive monitoring, they can be the harbinger for determining regional hydrologic and water quality conditions and impairment that have resulted from human activities. There was widespread agreement among participants that a systematic monitoring program is needed to improve the understanding of watershed response and the impact of the implementation of best management practices. This support was most often expressed in comments for the establishment of a system of sentinel watersheds. However, the participants appear to have different definitions for a sentinel watershed. Some define it as demonstration watershed, some as a watershed representative of particular conditions, and still others had alternative definitions. The sentinel watershed approach is worthy of serious consideration, where a common definition needs first to be established and communicated. The SLICE program, organized and coordinated by the Department of Natural Resources, is an application of the sentinel watershed approach. Since the symposium, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency has also been exploring with partners the use of a more comprehensive watershed approach.

Habitat Recommendation 12: Improve Understanding of Watersheds to Multiple Drivers of Change

“Additional monitoring needs include the development of selected sentinel watersheds in the state where monitoring will be completed throughout a watershed (e.g., from the mouth up to small subwatersheds). A goal of the sentinel watershed monitoring would be to provide long-term watershed system evaluations and understanding. This would allow the demonstration of the interconnectedness of a watershed and how aquatic life and human recreational uses can be protected as required by the federal Clean Water Act.”

“Attention is also needed in the evaluation of the potential impacts of climate change on land and aquatic habitats in Minnesota. State-level studies are needed to improve projections of how climate change will alter habitats, the distributions of species, and the stressors that aff ect both.”

2008 LCCMR Proposal

Potential directions and language

Result 1: Establish 24 sentinel watersheds and lakes as focal points of long-term monitoring,research, and

environmental education

Objectives1.Build partnerships2.One-time investment in equipment for 4 super sentinel lakes.3. Plugging the super-sentinel lakes into web databases with real-time data streaming.

Outcome:a network of sentinel sites where in kind data collection efforts by multiple interdisciplinary partners will achieve strong inference into complex ecological processes, achieve mutually shared objectives, and will be a highly efficient use of natural resource funds.

Result 1 Proposed Budget items – 3yr costs

• SLICE project manager – $240K

• Water quality & Climate monitoring buoys – $20-60K per site (4 sites $80K – $260K)

• Automated flow gaging stations at inlets - $?

• Site maintenance – $20K per site

• U of MN Institute of the Environment - consultant fees?

Result 2: Reconstruction of past water quality and habitat conditions in the sentinel lakes and responses

to major environmental events in history

Objectives– Reconstruction of historical sedimentation, nutrients, aquatic plants, and oxygen– Add’l objectives TBD

• Will be meeting with Mark Edlund from St. Croix Research Lab in early Aug. to discuss proposal and budget

• Figuring $100K

Result 3: Utilize watershed and lake mixing models to forecast future water quality and fish

habitat conditions given different climate change and land-use scenarios.

Objectives– Coarse watershed and lake modeling in all 24 lakes (PCA – LAP program)– Mechanistic watershed models to estimate external loading (Contract – super sentinel)– 3D lake modeling to estimate internal P-recycling in Super sentinels (Contract – super sentinel)

– Forecasting the outcomes of a range of relevant scenarios on Temperature, DO, and Lake Productivity (i.e., fish habitat)

Outcome:Reports on future water quality and fish habitat conditions given potential climate and land use scenarios most relevant to each sentinel lake.

• Will require outside expertise

• Many possible partners – Miki Hondzo, John Nieber, Bruce Wilson (U of MN), Jim Almendinger (St. Croix), Lucinda Johnson (NRRI), Limnotech, Richard Kiesling (USGS)

• Institute of the Environment could form consortium?

Result 3: Continued

Result 3 proposed budget items

• Augmented funding for PCA to do beefed-up modeling as part of LAP - $?

• Augmented funding for PCA to do lake WQ assessments in years 3 and 4 - $?

• WQ assessments in tributaries of super sentinel lakes - $?

• University or Consultant contract to build/refine models and write reports for super sentinel lakes – $100K

Result 4: Identification of a set of habitat and fish indicators sensitive to human-caused

disturbances to serve as an early warning sign of lake ecosystem stress.

Objectives– Repeated sampling of several habitat and fish indicators– Evaluation of short-term variability and response to phosphorus gradient– Development and refinement of habitat mapping protocols (e.g., CWH, emergents, non-game fish and wildlife mapping, GIS overlays)

Outcome:Operational management plan with protocols and schedules for future evaluation of indicators in sentinel and a larger set of random lakes

Result 4 proposed budget items

• Temp habitat research biologist – $160K

• Zooplankton counting machine - $20K

• Zooplankton student worker - $60K

• Interns – 10 @ $7K per year = $210K

• Acoustic contract (cisco) - $100K– Feasibility still needs to be assessed

Miscellaneous unresolved budget issues

• We’re at approx $1.2M without figuring add’l funding for PCA or other things we want to build in

• Miscellaneous equipment needs?– Tablet PC’s for Research and Regional staff, nets

• In sore need of better public information products and outreach– Web site– Communication plan– Press releases