Focus on: Seven Mile Creek - Campaign for Forests and Freshwaters

With your help, Great River Greening has an opportunity to make a significant impact on the water quality of Seven Mile Creek located between Mankato and St. Peter, in Nicollet County. It is a minor watershed of the Minnesota River Basin.Seven Mile Creek boasts impressive sandstone bluffs through a beautiful, deep forested valley with a spring-fed trout stream flowing down the middle. The creek is a designated trout stream and very rare for south central Minnesota. Agriculture is the dominant land use covering 78% of the watershed. Agricultural runoff—both overland and through tile systems—has caused extensive erosion to ravines throughout portions of the watershed.Great River Greening, Nicollet Soil and Water Conservation District, MN DNR, Fishers and Farmers Partnership, and other partners are taking a collaborative approach that effectively engages local communities in crafting solutions to advance local water quality goals. Together, we will lead:

• Community awareness and engagement
• Fruitful exchanges between landowners and community members
• Identification of sources of impairment
• Implementation of restoration practices led by experts
• Dissemination of results and scalable action plans to a broader community

The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency has awarded nearly $300,000 towards the Seven Mile Creek effort. Our generous individual and corporate donors help match restrictive public grants that require private matching funds. Through the Campaign for Forests and Freshwaters, you can help too.