Rotary Rounds May 17, 2017

Linda McCormick offered our invocation and Keith Olson was our song leader.  John MacFarlane brought as his guest, Anna Washecha, a former member of our club and the new President of West Central Initiative.  President Katie reported that planting at the Community Garden was well underway and showed a couple pictures of the high tunnel we helped construct last year; in 2016, the garden produced over 9000 pounds of food that was distributed to over 3500 individuals.

 

Tim Hunt reported on a school in India that our club and a Rotary Foundation Grant helped secure in 2000-01, building a brick wall around a two acre plat so it could be declared devoted to the school's purposes.  The school has prospered and the 2017 annual report Tim received is available for review; just ask this writer to e-mail it to you.  There was an announcement that we are looking for additional home for our exchange student, who will be a 17 year old boy from Mexico.  President Katie thanked everyone that participated in last week's Fireside chat and also reminded us of the June 7th social at Laurel and Brent Nelson's and the B.K. Soby Golf Tournament and dinner/social on June 15th. 

 

We had a Rotary Minute based on last week's Rounds and then we moved into brags and fines, with Kathy Austvold leading off by reporting on her ten day service trip to India and the graduation of her two nieces with honors.  Keith Olson enjoyed the Fireside Chat, while the picture of the high tunnel at the Community Garden reminded Rod Ebersviller that his daughter set up a new greenhouse last week.  Lois Josefson said thank you (as do I) for the nice comments concerning the Fireside and then reported on the Norwegian students she saw proudly carrying the Norwegian flag and parading as a group to downtown Fergus in honor of syttende mai.  She also promoted attendance at an upcoming (now held) meeting for entrepreneurs, technologists, Veterans, students, idea generators, mentors and investors.  Elaine Olson honored Keith's recent 57th birthday.  Wally Cole reported that the past weekend saw him enjoying two different plays in which two different grandchildren appeared, a fourth grader who had the lead role of Willy in "Willy and the Chocolate Factory" in Sartell and a third grader who led the pack in "Just for Kicks" in Melrose.  Mike Wollan was happy to acknowledge his two relatives that appeared on the front and back cover of Otter Tail Power Company's annual report.  John MacFarlane noted a granddaughter graduated from the University of Minnesota and another one finished third of 60 in a girl's golf tournament the week before.  Tim Hunt said he was heading east for two weeks in honor of two grandchildren -- twins -- graduating from high school and reported their respective college choices are located in Iowa and Maine.  Hal Leland threw in a scooter buck from last week and acknowledged Anna Wasescha returning to our town. 

 

John MacFarlane, on behalf of Buzz Lundeen, then introduced our speaker for the day, Julie Aadland, an area hydrologist for the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.  She moved to Fergus Falls in 1991 to work at the DNR, having grown up in Anoka and graduating from the U of M with a bachelor's degree in Soil and Water Resource Management.  In her youth, Julie spent time exploring the Rum River and enjoying time at the family lake cabin near Aitkin.  She now lives on the Otter Tail River north of Fergus Falls with her husband, Luther; their two daughters are off to college.  Her work area includes Otter Tail, Traverse and Wilkin Counties and she has some responsibility for cooperative work in a couple watersheds, including the Otter Tail Watershed.  She works with landowners, local units of government and agencies who need permits to do work in public waters and also with local units of government on their shoreland and floodplain management plans.  Julie also assists with gathering date on lake levels through a volunteer network. 

 

Julie reported that since the passage of the Clean Water Legacy Act in 2006 and its amendment in 2008, governmental agencies are doing a much better job of coordinating their efforts in her area.  She said the simplest definition of a watershed is an area of land that drains to a point and that their are nine major watersheds in Minnesota which consist of 81 smaller ones.  The DNR's goal is to assess the condition of Minnesota's waters via a ten year cycle.  That process started for the Otter Tail River in 2016 and will last four years.  During the first two years they monitor water quality, ultimately leading to the creation of a watershed restoration and protective study.  The Otter Tail River Watershed is located in Clearwater, Becker, Otter Tail, and Wilkin Counties, the upper portion being described as forested and mixed land use while in Wilkin County, 97% of it is ag land.  In studying the water they look at five components:  connectivity (the existence of pathways for the flow and exchange of water), biology, water quality, hydrology (how water interacts with the land) and geomorphology (study of land forms and how they change over time).

 

There are 75 fish species (three threatened) in the Otter Tail River watershed, more than any other watershed in the Red River all the way to Huron Bay.  There are 13 mussel species, three of which are threatened.  Their intent is not to do "random acts of conservation" -- rather wanting to do things where they can measure results.  Julie reported that between 1985 and 2015 are annual precipitation averaged about 2.1 inches more than during the prior 30 years.  The Otter Tail River is very stable hydrologically, with one-fifth of its area constituting wetlands, meaning that the actual river does not flood very often.  The lower Otter Tail River was straightened and deepened in the 1950's and that has created problems with bank instability and impaired the turbidity of its waters; an effort is underway to restore the waterway and reconnect the old meanders.  She concluded by noting that it is always easier to protect our water resources than restore them and encouraged all of us to do our part by creating buffers to reduce man-made runoffs.  There is no one silver bullet, as 90% of the land in the watershed is in private ownership, so it will take concerned citizens to formulate and implement a plan to preserve and improve our water resources.