Thursday, September 28, 2017, marked the 15th Chisago County Children’s Water Festival. Once again this year, 700 fifth grade students from across Chisago County converged on Wild Mountain in Taylors Falls for this day-long, hands-on, learning opportunity. Students from the North Branch Middle School, Wyoming Elementary, Taylors Falls Elementary, Rush City Elementary, Forest Lake North [...]
Yet another pest that doesn’t belong here. The Emerald Ash Borer, known to those who deal with it daily as EAB, is threatening Minnesota’s ash trees. It’s not a matter of if Minnesota could lose many of its millions of ash trees, but when. We’ve been hearing the warnings for years, but the stakes just [...]
It’s the prime of perennial garden season and you’ve likely noticed pretty flowers around your neighborhood. Could one of them be a rain garden? Rain gardens, on the surface, look pretty much the same as other gardens (pretty flowers), except that they are bowl shaped. When it rains, runoff water gathers in the bowl, soaks [...]
Agriculture is changing and one of Rush City’s farms is leading the way. Petersen Farms of Rush City, Inc. is the third Chisago County farm to become certified in the Minnesota Agricultural Water Quality Certification Program, a voluntary program for agricultural producers to implement conservation practices that protect our water and their land. In turn [...]
“Community Waters” was the theme for this year’s Poster & Essay contest. The Chisago Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD) annual poster contest was another success this year with the 6th grade students from the North Branch Middle School participating. Each year a theme is chosen and presented to area schools. Each year a theme [...]
Thursday, September 29, 2016, marks the 14th annual Children’s Water Festival. Each year, the Festival hosts approximately 750 kids. That means that since 2003 over 9,000 students have learned the important role that healthy waters in Chisago County plays in our daily lives. Water Festival Mission: To provide a quality hands-on learning opportunity to teach [...]
Across the United States, nearly 3,000 Soil and Water Conservation Districts—almost one in every county—are helping local people to conserve land, water, forests, wildlife and other natural resources. The Chisago Soil and Water Conservation District is proud to be a part of this locally-led, voluntary movement, serving as a resource for landowners and farmers of [...]
It’s the height of lawn-mowing season as well as the lake recreation season. What do the two have in common? One can have a big impact on the other. Grass clippings contain phosphorus, the nutrient that feeds algae and turns lakes green. Just one bushel of grass clippings contain 0.1 pound of phosphorus. That doesn’t [...]
Conservation plantings, including pheasant habitat, pollinator habitat, prairie and grassland restorations, and buffer plantings have become more common in Chisago County. With upcoming cost share and technical assistance funding potentially available in the near future, as well as with the new buffer law (requiring buffers on public waters including ditches), the Chisago Soil & Water [...]
Winter might not be an ideal time to start thinking about backyard gardening for green thumb enthusiasts, but it is a great time to get a jump start on waste reduction, gardening and water conservation efforts by setting up a compost bin or rain barrel at your home. This spring, the Recycling Association of Minnesota [...]