A water-level view of what ails the Minnesota River

A week ago, my wife and I spent five days paddling the Minnesota River. Escaping busy schedules for a few days in the bush sharpens the senses and stimulates the mind.

Pelicans, kingfishers and eagles, among many other creatures, delighted the eye as our canoe slipped effortlessly downstream. Less delightful were occasional views of land-use practices along the river's banks.

The Minnesota flows through the heart of corn and soybean country. Some of the cropland delivers enough fertilizer and herbicide runoff and sediment to the Mississippi River, via the Minnesota, to play a significant role in creating the massive dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico.

In several places, corn rows were as close to the edge of the eight-foot-high bank as farm machinery could get without tumbling into the river. Soybean rows hugged the riverbank in other places.

Planting crops to the very edge of a riverbank significantly increases soil erosion and transport of nutrients and pesticides into water bodies. That is why Minnesota law requires a 50-foot buffer strip between tilled land and water bodies.

The purpose of such a buffer is to provide a protective zone between the riverbank and crop rows, where tree and other plant roots will hold soil in place. Buffers also retard movement of agricultural chemicals off the land into water bodies, protecting habitat for fish and wildlife.

In places, drain pipes stuck their snouts out of the riverbank, waiting to dump water and agricultural chemicals from croplands into the river.

We also watched unfenced black angus cattle munch grape vines at the edge of the riverbank, then move into the river and pee. Farther downriver, one animal of a group of cattle dropped a hefty stream of manure directly into the water, adding to the nutrient stream polluting the river from edge-of-bank crops.

I am struck by the paradox. Minnesotans voted overwhelmingly to tax themselves and dedicate two-thirds of the money to protect, enhance and restore habitats and to clean up our state's waters. Just weeks ago those dollars began entering the Clean Water Fund and the Outdoor Heritage Fund, constitutionally dedicated to clean up our waters and protect, enhance and restore habitat.

Yet several hundred thousand acres, possibly more, are in open violation of the buffer-strip law statewide. Enforcement is minimal at best.

Remember: Rivers, streams and lakes belong to the public.

I found bright spots in my few days on the river as well. I saw places where soybean rows were indeed 50 feet, maybe more, back from the riverbank. There were many places where floodplain lands were not under cultivation, but had been put into reserve programs. Many farmers have signed up for these important conservation initiatives.

Board of Water and Soil Resources staff have told me these programs have made notable improvement in the water quality of the Minnesota. Many of these easements run out in time, so such programs don't all protect rivers in perpetuity.

Unfortunately, conservation easements and heritage fund money are countered by those thousands of acres in violation of the buffer strip requirement. To use a common-sense metaphor, if we're trying to fill a pail with clean water, it would be best to plug the holes in the pail first.

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Darby Nelson, Champlin, is an ecologist, writer, board president of Conservation Minnesota and a citizen member of the Lessard-Sams Outdoor Heritage Council.

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