Farmington Feed: Landscaping for Clean Water
This is the Farmington Feed, bringing you information from the city of Farmington.
Caryn:Hi, and welcome to the Farmington Feed. I'm Caryn Hojnicki, the city's communications specialist, and I'm hungry for another episode of the feed. We have two guests with us today. We'll be talking with the folks from Vermillion River Watershed Joint Powers Organization, which is VRWJPO, and Dakota County Soil and Water Conservation District, Dakota County SWCD. I have with me Brita Moore Kutz, communications and outreach specialist for the VRWJPO.
Caryn:That's a mouthful. And Lindsey Albright, our monitoring and outreach coordinator with the SWCD. Hi, guys.
Caryn:Welcome.
Lindsey:Hello.
Brita:Hi.
Brita:Well, thanks for having
Lindsey:us.
Caryn:So we're excited to talk about your programs because I think Farmington knows a little bit about what you guys are doing, but not not enough, and we wanna get that word out there. So let's start to get to know you a bit first. So, Lindsey, let's start with you. What's your background in, and what are you responsible for in your current position?
Lindsey:So my background going all the way back to college, I'll go start with that is, I actually have an undergrad degree in marine biology. Cool. I've been working at the soil and water for ten years now. As the monitoring and outreach coordinator, I'm responsible for all the surface and groundwater monitoring in Dakota County. So I do all of the water monitoring for Brita's organization.
Lindsey:So I've got eight monitoring sites that I do starting all the way in Elko New Market, stretching all the way into Hastings. I also do monitoring south of here, in the North Cannon River watershed, and I do some lake monitoring up north as well. And then, kind of my outreach side of my position, I'm in charge of the landscaping for clean water program. So that's doing class coordination, teaching all of our landscaping classes, and then doing a lot of the outreach work that we do for our organization as well.
Caryn:Okay. And how about you, Brita?
Brita:Well, thanks thanks again for having me. Yes, my name is Brita and I'm the Communication Outreach Specialist for the Vermillion River Watershed Joint Powers Organization. We can just call it JPO for short.
Caryn:That might be easier.
Brita:Yeah. But my my background is in English and communications. I have a degree in English. And since then, I've been working in doing communication and outreach work for various organizations. I've been with the JPO for almost five years now or more like four and a half, almost five.
Brita:And I manage their social media. So Facebook, Facebook and Instagram and our website content, which is just vermilionriverwatershed.org. That one's pretty easy to remember. And we work with soil and water very closely as a watershed management organization. We have a lot of the same goals, different kinds of local government organizations.
Brita:I could get into that more later, but what I communicate about is mostly the kind of work that the watershed does. We do a lot of on the ground projects that help protect water quality or restore water quality in areas that have gotten degraded. And we also have a big role in like storm water management, like reducing erosion and flow rates, which has an effect on water quality. We wanna really share what we do with people. Watershed management organizations are not always super well known to average people.
Brita:But one way we can get the word out about what we do is through Landscape for Clean Water and other outreach programs with our partners.
Caryn:Yeah. I think it's new to me being new to Minnesota. I've only been here like three years and there's a lot of JPOs, not just watershed, but there are a lot of watershed JPOs as well. Right. Which is very, intriguing to me because we didn't really have a lot of that in Michigan.
Caryn:What sparked your interest in this line of work? You want to go first, Lindsey?
Lindsey:Yeah. I've just kind of a connection to nature, loving to be outside, loving, you know, loving taking the time to go on hikes, caring about the environment and kind of wanting to do my part to help protect it, understand what's going on, the creepy crawlies that are underneath the rocks and getting to go and check those out. So, yeah, getting to go out there and collect the water samples, understand what's in the water. And then, you know, a big part of my job is also just communicating about what the findings are and what we're seeing there and getting, helping people get excited about you know what they can do to help you know protect their tiny little corner of the environment and you know maybe improve just that little bit and help improve that you know 10 square feet that they have in their property.
Caryn:And for your website, what is the website address that people are interested in going to that?
Lindsey:Dakotaswcd.org.
Caryn:Yeah, okay. Brita, what about you? What got you into this?
Brita:Yeah, well, with my background as an English major, a communications generalist for most of my time in the workforce. Before I came to the watershed, I was on more of the ag side. I worked for a large farm organization and before that, an agricultural newspaper. So I came in knowing that the Vermillion River Watershed is split between agricultural and residential land development. And I thought I had a I would have something good to offer there.
Brita:But with the way that the population is distributed, most of the people are in the residential areas. It's changed from that, but I still have an eye on the ag stuff with the help of soil and water. But I've my name is literally the same spelling as the water filter brand. Yeah. So I think I was kind of destined to be in the water field.
Brita:I grew up I grew up in the Pacific Northwest, which has its own unique relationship with water being on the coast, different from Minnesota's lake life culture and, stream fishing and whatnot.
Caryn:Yeah, very Midwest. I also was out on the West Coast for a little bit. Was in Portland, Oregon for a while and it's very different out there than here for sure.
Brita:Oh, very much.
Caryn:So can you tell us a little bit more about what this JPO is and does? Because I'm sure there's a lot of listeners that don't know.
Brita:Yeah, So the organization exists because of a joint powers agreement, very government y term, I know. Yeah. But it's essentially a contract or an agreement that it doesn't have an end date on it. An agreement between Dakota County and Scott County to manage the watershed.
Caryn:Okay. So that's really simple actually. It just sounds like really complicated when you say the name.
Lindsey:Very big.
Caryn:Yeah.
Lindsey:Very governmental. Yeah, for sure.
Caryn:And, so for the soil and water conservation district, what what about that? How did that come about, or how long has it been around?
Lindsey:We are actually in our eighty first year.
Caryn:Wow.
Lindsey:Mhmm. So we, soil and waters, have been around since, we are creations of the Dust Bowl. So it's a, they are not unique to Minnesota.
Lindsey:They are, majority of the states in The United States have soil and water conservation districts. We help landowners in the urban area as well as the rural area with voluntary conservation practices. So, with our landscaping for clean water program, we're helping people with rain gardens, native plantings. If you live in a rural area, we are there to help with, erosion issues, you know, sediment control basins, putting in berms, other things like that. So shoreline restorations, anything like that.
Lindsey:So we have a varied office, particularly with Dakota County's population and the land use that we have. Okay.
Caryn:There are opportunities, programs, if you will, one of them landscaping for the clean water, but also is there other volunteer opportunities through either your organizations that people could get involved with?
Brita:I'm part of a pretty small team, personnel wise. There's only four of us who are assigned to the VRWJPO and we're Dakota County employees. We but we work really closely with our partners at Soil and Water, who we are in the same office building as the Dakota County Extension and Conservation Center. But Dakota County, which is like 97% of the watershed, has their own volunteer program run by their communications department. We work with them to plan volunteer opportunities.
Caryn:Okay. So they'd be listed on their website?
Brita:Yes.
Brita:Okay. We and we also work with Twin Cities Trout Unlimited. They already do a lot of volunteer outreach programming on the Vermillion. So we work to help kind of figure out how to help their their what the work they're doing align with the work we're trying to do to see the biggest impact and, of course, cross promoting what each other has going on. Just this last fall, we we did a trash pickup along the Vermillion in the city of Farmington, mostly in Rambling River Park and kind of the surrounding areas, which was also in which was also supported by Dakota County.
Brita:That's a lot of what we do if we're gonna but we don't have an official JPO volunteer program.
Brita:But we're always thinking of opportunities to help people get involved.
Lindsey:And a big volunteer effort that, Dakota County has is the wet program, wetland health evaluation program.
Caryn:And Yeah. McKenna was just asking to post some information about that.
Lindsey:Yeah. City of Farmington sponsors at least one, wetland monitoring team, and it's run through Dakota County. So they're on a yearly basis, they're looking for volunteers who'd be interested in going out and monitoring a local wetland. So as a Farmington resident, you can sign up to join that team and you go out and you monitor, for the the bugs that live in the wetland, but then you also look at, the vegetation that's there. And that can give us a really good idea of the health of the wetland.
Lindsey:And so, like, the plant species as well as the species and the the quantity, the number of bugs that are within that wetland. So So
Caryn:if someone's interested in doing that, you obviously probably supply them with some stuff to do so. Yep. But I will be posting about it soon, but how many people are you looking for to do that?
Lindsey:It's usually the teams are probably it's like four to six people, I believe, are on the team. And so you wanna go to Dakota County's website. And then in the search bar, you would put in wetland health or you could search WHEP, w h e p, and that would take you to the website.
Caryn:And then how often do these volunteers need to go out and monitor?
Lindsey:I believe they go out the program probably runs May through July, April through July.
Caryn:Yeah, that sounds good.
Lindsey:Something like that. And it's like every couple of weeks, once a month. So it's not intensive. Okay. But it is a couple time a month commitment.
Lindsey:Commitment.
Caryn:Okay. Now, that's good. That's really good to know. Now, let's get to the reason kind of why we're here to talk about landscaping for clean water because that's what what I brought you on for. Can you kind of just go over the basics for it and then we'll then we'll get into talking about when they can sign up or where and what how and all that stuff.
Lindsey:So the Landscaping for Clean Water program is a program that we run through the Dakota County Soil and Water Conservation District in partnership with our watersheds that we have here in Dakota County as well as our city partners. We have four different programs that are class types that we have. We have our introduction class, a maintenance class, a natural shoreline class, as well as a design course. And the goal of this program is to specifically the introduction class is to introduce people to native plants, rain gardens, kind of the possibility of what they could do on their property. So, just give them the idea of, hey.
Lindsey:Like, you know, here is your your kind of your blank canvas of your yard. And by putting these native plants in here, you know, you're reducing your lawn care. You're also capturing water. You're also bringing in these pollinators. You're introducing the habitat.
Lindsey:You're creating bird habitat. You're bringing all of this color and beauty to your yard. And, you know, you're trapping some of that water. You're preventing it from going into the storm drain. You're capturing some of that sediment, some of that pollutant, those pollutants.
Lindsey:And, you know, so it's, again, it's that kind of your little property right there. It's capturing some of that, and it's preventing any of that stuff from going downstream while also adding beauty while also, you know, taking away a little bit of that mowing activity. Oh,
Caryn:for sure.
Lindsey:You know, a little bit of that time that you don't have to be out there mowing every week. Well, it adds up across the summer.
Caryn:Oh, I bet I'll be honest. I don't mow. My husband does all that, but that being said, I don't think he loves doing it either. Like we have a big yard and it's crazy how long it takes just mow our lawn. You know, and when I lived out in Portland, this was the thing.
Caryn:Like a lot of people had native lawns and landscaping, and it was like not just your green little patches that everybody was so proud of in the Midwest. Does that make I feel like that's what it used to be. Like you have to have your green, precious lawn done and it's not, that's not the case.
Lindsey:Yeah and it's, I mean, these, we have nine different introduction classes that we have, starting in February and they go into June. They are across the county. We don't unfortunately, we don't have one in Farmington this year. We have, Lakeville. We have one in, Rosemount this year, and then we have two that are offered online.
Lindsey:We also have one in Randolph this year as well. They you can go to our website, dakotaswcd.org, and then you can go into our classes tab and then select landscaping for clean water. They're all, listed right there. They kick off at 6PM. They usually should be done around 07:00 at night.
Lindsey:And yeah, we kind of just run through the program. It's, you know, talking native plants, talking rain gardens. Rain gardens are kind of a specific type of project that we do where we kind of our it's just a normal garden. Most people walking past wouldn't even know that it is kind of has this extra water quality benefit, but it's just, you know, digging a little bit deeper. It's pooling the water right there, and it's giving it the time to infiltrate down into the ground.
Lindsey:Yeah. So it's but again, most people walking past wouldn't even know that it's there's that little bit of a depression right there. So, and then we wrap up the class just talking about kind of what the next steps are. If you take the introduction class or you take the natural shoreline class, you're then eligible to participate in the design course. It's a $25 fee for the design course.
Lindsey:And this is a hands on class. You can do the either the two night class or the one day. It's a four hour class. We do have one of those here in Farmington. And with that, you sit down with soil and water staff.
Lindsey:We have volunteers, sometimes JPO staff as well as Farmington staff, and they'll sit down and help you out. And we've got maps of your property and we help you kinda work through the process of determining the best spot for your project, the size of your project. We'll go through planting plan, the shape of your project. We'll help you figure out how much mulch to order, how much compost to order, which plants would be the best to purchase, which plants should be located in a certain selection. And then once you have kind of, all of that decided upon, you have your your beautiful plan drawn out, you can then apply for a landscaping for clean water grant.
Caryn:Yeah, that was gonna be my next thing. How much
Lindsey:is this gonna cost? So the cost of the project will vary based on, you know, the size of the project, the materials that you use, the size of the plants, you know, if you opt to, go and pick up the materials or you have it delivered. So that will vary. But, new this year, we have actually increased the amount of the grant available. So previously, it was $250 This year, with the support of our watershed partners, the grand amount has gone up to $400
Caryn:wow. That's significant.
Lindsey:Significant increase. So hopefully that, helps people kind of dream a little bit bigger with their projects this year. And so we do have a minimum size of 100 square feet, so that is a 10 by 10 project. So, that generally will be able to fit in most people's property.
Lindsey:So, that shouldn't that should not deter most people.
Caryn:Yeah, for sure. Just thinking out loud, wow, that's like a lot of information and a lot of help. Like, because I would you tell me, oh, we should do that on our lawn. I would be like, I don't even know where to start. You guys are like, here, this is where you start.
Caryn:This is what you go with. And there's been people that have participated obviously from Farmington, correct? And how amazing did their projects turn out? Did they end up doing the project and winning the grants or did they?
Lindsey:Yep. Yeah, we have we have a handful of people who who go through the class every single year from Farmington and so, yep, in the past years, we've been able to have a class hosted at the Farmington Library and then, you know, having the the design course here at the our our office, the Conservation Building in Farmington as well. Yeah. So then a handful of people have always been able to go through in the end. And if you are awarded a grant, then the soil and water staff, we are available throughout the entire process.
Lindsey:We come out for an initial site visit. We lay out the project for you. We are there with the spray paint, moving things around, helping you figure out the size. Go and we determine like, okay, yeah, this is the spot where you wanna be putting this. Yep.
Lindsey:Here's your shape. And, oh, you're doing a rain garden basin. Okay. Yep. This is where your basin is.
Lindsey:This is where your berm is. We will talk through all the specifics.
Caryn:And explain some of those terms as well.
Lindsey:Explain everything to you. Hopefully, you're familiar with some of that from going to the design course. And then, you know, we head out, you pick up the shovel, you start doing all the And then we are available phone calls, emails. You know, I've FaceTimed with people while they're out there, you know, just like being like, oh, you know, I just have a quick question.
Lindsey:You know, can I just, you know, I just need a quick answer? It's like, okay. Yeah. Let's just FaceTime really fast. I don't need to drive out for that.
Lindsey:Mhmm. And then, you know, we come out for a midpoint check just to make sure everything's good because we don't want, you know, we don't want mulch down plants in, and it's like, oh, wait. Oh, yeah. This is uh-oh. Big problem.
Lindsey:So we come out for the midpoint just to make sure everything's looking good, and you know, people put the mulch down, plants in, and then, you know, come out for that final. We get to look at the, you know, the big grin on the face. We get to hear about all of the hard work and everything that you did. Mhmm. And, we get to share in the joy and the excitement about how the project's done.
Lindsey:This is so exciting. This is this is amazing. And then we have a a cute little sign that we get to give you to you know, so that you can show off your hard work and
Caryn:Mhmm.
Lindsey:You showcase it, it and put it down in there so that you can let everybody know that, hey, I did this awesome project. And then, you know, a couple weeks later, check is in the mail. We do also have a maintenance class. This is something that if you are, even if you don't participate in the intro class or the natural shoreline class, if you are you dabble in gardening and you're just like, you know, I know I can't do a project this year, but I just want some tips. Mhmm.
Lindsey:Sign up for the maintenance class. Come. It's, at Galaxy Library on March 3 at 05:00. Soil and water staff will be there to just give you some tips and tricks on how to deal with deer and rabbits, how to prep your garden in March and April so that it's productive throughout the whole, growing season, and then how to kinda get it ready to go to hunker down for the winter months. And so, that'll just, you know, get you feeling more comfortable about gardening.
Caryn:Yeah. Is there is there a cost to that one?
Lindsey:Nope. All of the classes, introduction, maintenance, and shoreline class, all of those are free. Okay. The design course has a $25 fee.
Caryn:But, I mean, that's so cheap.
Lindsey:And that is that is the book and that is printing and that is mailing. That is what that covers.
Caryn:That sounds like a deal to get your landscaping and get advice and support and all that.
Lindsey:And then it's a two night class for two hours where you come in. It's a lot of listening to me. So sorry about that everybody. But then, yeah, and it's coming and, you get to break out some colored pencils and color in circles and shapes and figure out what, where you're gonna plant those blazing stars.
Caryn:Yeah. So when people do this class, do you see like families coming, like, you know, partners coming and participating together? Or is it just like one one or the other? Because somebody's got the green thumb and somebody doesn't.
Lindsey:It's totally a mix. So, we see one person come because they've got kids at home and they didn't have childcare. We see couples coming. We see people bringing their family because they didn't have childcare at home. So we do have coloring pencils and we have have coloring sheets.
Caryn:Oh, that's So great
Lindsey:to if the kids have to come, bring the kids. And we can set them up in a corner and they are good to go. So kids are definitely welcome. So it's it's a big mixture. We've had people you know, if you've got a kid who is doing an Eagle Scout project, we've definitely helped out kids who need to have a service project, an Eagle Scout project, who are just looking for something to do.
Lindsey:If you have a student who is, needs this for school, needs some volunteer hours, this is a great opportunity. We have helped one where it was a 11 year old where she was just she loved plants. She loved gardening. The parents were not as into it. And she was just like, this is my thing.
Lindsey:And the parents were like, okey dokey. And she planned the entire thing.
Caryn:Wow.
Lindsey:She ran the show. Like, obviously the parents did, you know, had to do all the ordering and everything, but she was like, nope, I'm selecting the plants.
Lindsey:I'm doing the research. I'm figuring out the garden plan. And she, like, she put it all together.
Caryn:That's awesome.
Lindsey:Everything was purchased on her parents' credit card, not hers. But she did everything. It was a good plan. It was impressive. Her parents just sat back and let her run it.
Caryn:Yeah.
Lindsey:Yeah, it was really cool.
Caryn:Awesome. So let's flip back over to the jpo for a minute. I remember there was like some sort of like tour was it last year or the year before where we did and they toured through Farmington.
Caryn:I know our Parks and Rec Director Kellee was involved. Can you do you remember that? Were you on that tour, Brita?
Brita:The last time we stopped in Farmington during a watershed tour would have been 2023.
Caryn:Okay. So few years ago.
Brita:Kellee was Kellee was involved with that. That was so that that involved a stop at in Rambling River Park at a trout stream restoration that the JPO did. It's been a decade now since that project was done, but it holds up. There's an interpretive sign there. It was installing tree roots in the sides of the the channel, the stream channel to stop erosion because the the the river from what I know, I did not work at the JPO at that time.
Brita:The river had was rising so much during the during rainstorms that it was starting to wash over the concrete path next to it.
Caryn:Yeah.
Brita:Yep. And that's a people really like to fish in that spot. So my colleagues installed these tree roots to stabilize the channel. And it's still as far as even though I haven't been there in a while, but in 2023, it still looked great.
Lindsey:Yeah.
Brita:So that's one project we've done in Farmington. We have a few more in the pipeline that I don't have anything to report on at this point, but you can look that up on our website. But yes, do watershed tours every other year usually. Those are geared toward elected officials to help them understand how their community members' tax dollars are supporting the watershed and the benefits that they're getting out of it.
Caryn:Oh, yeah. That's very important that they know what's going on with that for sure because they get asked questions all the time. Right?
Lindsey:You guys have done a couple of, like, full stream remeandering, by Nicolette Middle School as well as, which is on North Creek and South Creek headed towards Lakeville. Both got their nice looking streams now.
Brita:Yes. And those also happened before my time, but we can do projects like that. It's worth noting that to be able to do those kinds of projects, it takes money. And we have a special watershed management tax district levy. It's passed on through the counties and their yearly property taxing authority.
Brita:It's a pretty small amount, but for every property owner in within the political boundaries of the watershed, there's small property tax levy. That that goes to our general fund that can that's just used for, staff and other normal expenses. But to do large scale projects like stream restorations, we also rely heavily on grant funding, most of which has come from the state through the 2008 legacy amendment, the Clean Water Land Legacy constitutional amendment that created the Clean Water Fund, which is administered by the Minnesota Board of Water and Soil Resources. So we regularly are applying to grants through that agency. We also have some with the DNR, even the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency or even the Minnesota Department of Health, depending on what the project is and what funds would be most appropriate for that.
Caryn:Yes. A lot of your work is getting finding the money projects as well. So let's move on a little bit towards our the recent campaign you guys had going on. I don't remember the name. Can you remind me the name of it about watering?
Lindsey:Well, it's a joint effort between Landscaping for Clean Water as well as the Lawn Watering Wisdom wisdom campaign. So it was kind of a multifaceted, two pronged approach.
Caryn:And what did that entail? I heard you know, it looked like it got a lot of views and watches and sustained watching, actually. And what did what was the basis of that campaign?
Lindsey:It was a big partnership between our organization as well as the county. So, JPO was actually the the lead organization for that. So, Brita, do you wanna
Brita:Sure. So the JPO was the lead organization in the sense that my colleague, Kelly, she previously worked at the city of Lakeville and had this big idea to get a whole bunch, like, a whole bunch of partners in the county together to create a video marketing campaign to promote water conservation and landscaping for clean water. Then she came over to the JPO about two years ago and brought this idea with her. And she applied for one of the legacy amendment funded grants, called an accelerated implementation grant that's administered by the Minnesota Department of Health. So in that sense, the JPO was in charge of managing that grant.
Brita:But we worked with Soil and Water because they hosted the campaign on their social media pages and had a consultant helping us create these videos. And we also got funding support from the other watersheds in Dakota County.
Caryn:Because I mean, this was blasted all over.
Brita:Yeah. It was a county wide campaign. The JPO is the largest watershed in Dakota County, and in fact, in the whole, Twin Cities Metro Area, the Southern County Metro Area. That's what I just wanted to throw in there. But yeah, were a big part of leading that program and with the other watersheds, Black Dog in Burnsville, Lower Mississippi River Watershed Management Organization.
Brita:Eagan and Inver Grove Heights. Yes. So that's what that was all about. We developed these two videos with some funny family characters.
Caryn:Oh, for sure.
Brita:Greg and Greg, Lindsay, and Rosie. And we filmed the videos in Fall 2024 and put and started promoting them in January, February 2025 for that round of Landscaping Clean Water classes from just encouraging people to come to the intro class, see what it was all about. Mhmm. The goal, including Landscaping for Clean Water in that campaign, was to emphasize a new angle with it that it could help, like, save time and money.
Caryn:I mean, that's those are the two those are the two important things. Right? Time and money. Yep. Yes.
Caryn:So, I mean, you gotta get people where they're where they're looking. Right?
Brita:Yep. And then the second half of the campaign started in the summertime emphasizing irrigation water conservation. So we demonstrated like how a smart irrigation system works that can keep your house from getting too much water when it's been raining, when the lawn doesn't need it, and encouraged people to sign a water conservation pledge on the Dakota County website. Last summer was quite rainy, so it ended up not being as relevant as it could have been.
Brita:But I still
Caryn:Well, know. But, like But it still is ago, there was, like, a drought or what?
Lindsey:I mean, we had three we had three years of drought. So we Yes. Leading up to the campaign, it was just like, yes, we've got drought. Like, people are irrigating a ton. And then the year we have the campaign, it's like, oh, well.
Caryn:It's but it is still relevant. I mean, you think about it, like, especially if it's raining, like, still shouldn't be watering your lawn. Right? Your lawn doesn't need it.
Caryn:I think that's like part of the whole like Midwest, like we have a green lawn and we got to keep it pristine like attitude, which is what I grew up knowing, right? That's no longer the thought, but some people are still on that like, I gotta keep it green, but watering more doesn't necessarily make it green. Right?
Lindsey:Right. And they're just good tips to think about. I mean, it's, you know, making sure that the sprayer heads are spraying in the correct direction and that you're not watering the street or watering the sidewalk and going if if you know that you're in that the time of day that you're watering, you know, that you're not watering at 01:00 in the afternoon, that you're watering, you know, at 5AM, 4AM where, you know, that it's not evaporating. But
Lindsey:then if you're watering at 5AM, you're most likely not up. So you're gonna wanna check the sprayer heads to make sure that they are actually spraying on the lawn and not the road.
Caryn:For sure.
Lindsey:So there are those little things to make sure that you are checking. Getting a rain sensor to make sure that if you have it on a timer, having a rain sensor, make sure that, you know, if it's raining at 5AM, that's still not going off because it knows that it's raining.
Lindsey:Like,
Caryn:A little smart technology that helps you out. Well, know it happened to me when we first moved here. Were in a rental and apparently one of ours was leaking and we didn't know it, but then they came knocking on our door like, Your water bill's really high. You might need to check your irrigation system. And I was like, oh yep.
Caryn:And then we, there's a big puddle on our lawn because of that and that costs money and wasted water.
Lindsey:Right. We got
Caryn:it fixed. Yeah.
Brita:It's just another example of things you can do on in your own little area to benefit our water resources, just like building a rain garden would be. So there's a lot of talk about big water users going on around the state and the country, really. And that's a lot to think about, but we like to remind people that just conserving water at home can still make a difference both for your pocketbook and for the resource. Most of Dakota County gets its water from groundwater, water that's in aquifers that gets brought up by municipal or private wells. Some folks who live in the country have private wells they get water from.
Brita:And that's a limited resource. And it's great that we have it and it's clean and also provides water to the Vermillion River and other surface water resources. So that's good reason to keep your eye on how much you're using.
Caryn:Yeah, for sure. So is there anything we missed? We talked about getting involved. We talked about the classes, doing your part. Anything else?
Brita:I guess I'll note that the Landscaping for Clean Water grants are essentially passed through the soil and water conservation district through the watersheds. So this it's our way of we invest in people's projects because not only they benefit the county and the watershed that they're in. So if you live in Farmington, you live in the Vermillion River watershed because the entire city is within our boundaries. And I've met people at the classes who show me their maps of their of where they're gonna build their garden and they are right next to the Vermillion River or one of its tributaries, South Creek, Middle Creek, North Creek, or South Branch. It can help prevent stormwater runoff from from that from your area.
Brita:Water that when it hits the ground, it can either soak into the ground, which in rain gardens, they do that or hit, like a hard surface and then it can go down the storm drain or directly into a water resource and whatever it's carrying with it at that time goes down the storm drain as well. So by implementing a rain garden or even a native garden to some extent that reduces stormwater runoff. And you can also help prevent stormwater runoff from getting into our lakes and rivers by adopting a storm drain. That was an outreach opportunity I forgot to mention. It's super easy and free.
Brita:You just go to mn (minnesota). Adoptadrain.org or just Google Minnesota Adopt a Storm Drain.
Caryn:And you get to name your drain too.
Brita:Yes, you do. That's the fun part. And report then how much you pick up from the drain online and see how much of an impact you're making. And we also have storm drain stencils that you can use.
Brita:You spray white spray paint on the ground. I think it stays pretty well. But we have storm drain stencils at our office at the Watershed and the city has some as well, I believe.
Caryn:Yeah, but McKenna said. She had some.
Brita:Those are more things you can do.
Caryn:Yeah. Well, that's great. We covered a lot. This was awesome. So I want to thank you guys for joining me today.
Caryn:Listeners make sure to check out Dakota County SWCD website, right? So it's dakotaswcd.org and the Vermillion River Watershed JPO. It's vermillionriverwatershed.org. Yes. A lot of this information will be out there for you guys.
Caryn:We'll also be posting about your classes and the web opportunities as well. So look on our website if you can't find it on theirs. And then registration is open for
Lindsey:Registration is open right now. Classes first class is Thursday, February 26 in Burnsville, and they run through the beginning of June.
Caryn:And you can attend any class.
Lindsey:You can attend Just any you can even walk up.
Caryn:Oh, okay.
Lindsey:Yep. So Alright.
Caryn:You'll take walk ins.
Lindsey:We we will it's it's helpful if you register ahead of But, yeah, we will we take walk ins. So so kicking off today, the Farmington Library is hosting winter salt week, which is an an awesome week filled with, fun kids related activities. They'll have a fun salty dog outreach book, activity book, as well as buttons and tattoos. There's bookmarks. They'll have pulled a bunch of, winter themed books that you can check out.
Lindsey:There's also, as part of kind of this greater effort to educate people on the use of road salt and kind of some of the adverse side effects of overuse and then as well as some of the solutions and the research that's being done, there is a daily webinar series that is going on with that as well. So there'll be more information about that at the library. But, if you have kids, definitely stop by the library, pick up, a Salty Dog activity book, and you can help Salty Dog and yourself learn a little bit more about how you can do a little bit more to help keep our freshwater fresh.
Caryn:Alright. Well, thank you again.
Brita:And one more thing. I I just note that Vermillion, in our case, has two L's in its name.
Lindsey:Oh, yeah.
Brita:There is a Lake Vermilion up north, but that only has one l.
Caryn:Yes. Good to know if you spell it wrong. Yes. It won't come up correctly. Alright.
Caryn:Well, thank you again, guys.
Brita and Lindsey:Yes. Thank you.
