By Melanie Stegner

news@pctribune.com

The Pope County Soil and Water Conservation District presented its annual report before the Board of Commissioners at last week’s committee of the whole meeting. Holly Kovarik, District Manager of the SWCD, delivered the report and discussed the state of the SWCD.

“Last year, Pope SWCD was able to contribute $283,782 to area landowners for work on erosion, sediment and stormwater practices. The funds come from the Clean Water Land and Legacy Amendment through competitive grants we applied for and received from the Board of Water and Soil Resources,” said Kovarik.

The SWCD has been working with the city of Glenwood, Glenwood Park Board, ag inspector and the Buckthorn Brigade to focus efforts on the 250-acre public park to treat the buckthorn. “In 2022, a $50,000 grant was secured by our office to treat 41.22 acres in the park. It’s estimated that 100 acres of the 250 have buckthorn,” she stated.

A second phase of this grant was applied for through the Department of Natural Resources Conservation Partner Legacy program that secured another $50,000 to aid in the eradication of buckthorn at Barsness Park.

Pope SWCD has hired Houston Engineering to do a stormwater analysis of the city of Lowry and contributing watersheds. Once the analysis is completed it will help the SWCD with implementation of projects with landowners to help with water quality and erosion concerns. 

In 2022, the Pope SWCD hosted 23 educational events, certified four landowners with a total of 3,228 acres to the Minnesota Agriculture Water Quality Certification Program and continued research at the Rosholt Research Farm to study and evaluate several things including the management of nitrogen fertilizers and cover crops in irrigated crop production and their impacts on water quality.

“Pope County is fortunate to have 258 acres of walk-in access for hunting purposes,” stated Kovarik. The walk-in access program pays landowners for allowing the public to hunt on their land. One new site of 32 acres was enrolled into the program, giving the county three walk-in locations: two in Gilchrist township and one in Langhei township.

The board of commissioners was also supposed to hear from Ottertail Power Company on a proposed Big Stone South to Alexandria power line project, however a scheduling error occurred, and they will be attending a later meeting.

The next meeting of the commissioners will be held on Tuesday, June 20, in the third floor meeting room of the courthouse.