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Beltrami County SVCD outlines tree sales, ash reuse, restoration and watershed work
Summary
The Beltrami County Soil and Water Conservation District gave its annual update at a county work session, reviewing tree sales, wood-ash land application, watershed planning, shoreland restoration projects and several grant-funded programs.
Brent, a representative of the Soil and Water Conservation District, told the Beltrami County Board of Commissioners that the district’s work goes well beyond its well-known tree program and includes wood-ash reuse, rain gauge volunteer networks, watershed planning and grant-funded conservation projects.
The SVCD sells conservation trees each spring and typically purchases about 20,000 seedlings in the October–December ordering window; annual sales in recent years have ranged from about 20,000 to roughly 24,000 trees, the presenter said. The district also runs a wood-ash land application program in partnership with West Fraser and operates as the technical reviewer under Minnesota Pollution Control Agency requirements, matching soil tests to allowable application rates.
The update highlighted watershed and restoration work. The district said it is finalizing a county geologic atlas and is a fiscal agent and coordinator for the Mississippi Headwaters 1WMP implementation grant, a three-year effort that distributes just over $1,000,000 across five counties to implement priority practices. Examples cited included lakeshore stabilization at Highbanks East and West on the Mississippi River, a $30,000 project funded in part by the Mississippi Headwaters Board, and student-led rain-garden and solar-plus-stormwater projects at Bemidji State University. The SVCD reported assisting with 170 acres of cover crops and pasture seeding through no-till drill and cover-crop programs across the watershed.
The presenter described conservation easement work on four properties (one completed on Moose Lake; others in progress on the Mississippi River north of Wolf Lake, near Grant Creek and around Little Turtle Lake), and volunteer-driven efforts on upper Red Lake public-waste messaging and “Keep It Clean” activities supported by a soon-to-end grant. The SVCD said it had several three-year grants on its books and that its recurring tree program is essentially revenue-neutral (about $26,000 in revenue and similar costs).
The presentation also covered program details: the Forest Stewardship Planning assistance that helps private landowners obtain Sustainable Forestry Incentive Act (SFIA) contracts or 2c tax programs; construction of a county Geologic Atlas; water festivals for 5th graders held at Gene Dillon Elementary School and Concordia Language Villages; and pollinator plantings and shoreline projects funded through HELP grants and other sources.
The SVCD representative closed by inviting questions; no formal action was taken during the presentation.
