Lower Minnesota River Watershed District presents basinwide strategy, cites funding and governance constraints

Will Lytle, the new administrator of the Lower Minnesota River Watershed District, told the Carver County Board on the district’s strategic framework and upcoming watershed management plan that the district must shift from project‑by‑project responses to a basinwide, measurable approach. The district’s dual mission — maintaining navigation and managing water quality and quantity — complicates funding and governance, Lytle said. ‘‘The river will not wait,’’ he said when summarizing the board’s vision statement. LMRWD managers said the district’s boundary is mostly flood plain and that revenue is raised under conventional watershed funding methods focused on the flood plain, which Lytle described as regressive relative to where the pollution originates. He told commissioners the Minnesota River…