About the Board of Water and Soil Resources

Board Meetings

• 2012 BWSR Board Meeting Schedule (Fourth Wednesday of the month unless noted) January 25, February (no meeting), March 28, April 25, May 23, June 27,July (no meeting), August 22-23 (tour and meeting), September 26, October 24, November (no meeting), December 12
• Board Meeting Packets
• Minutes
• Bylaws
• Per Diem Policy

Budget

BWSR funding is primarily from the General Fund. The majority of the funds are passed through to local government to administer state policies and programs that improve and protect water and soil resources. Outcomes are evaluated to ensure conservation policy objectives are attained and that resources are expended to assure program success. BWSR also has received dollars through funds established by the Clean Water, Land and Legacy Amendment (approved by voters in 2008).

• BWSR Budget
• Minnesota Clean Water Fund
• Minnesota Outdoor Heritage Fund

Board Members

• Board Member Directory
• Member Location Map
• BWSR Committees (overview and membership of BWSR committees)
• Advisors (list of individuals and organizations that serve as advisors)

Publications and Reports

• BWSR Strategic Plan
• BWSR Snapshots (newsletter)
• January 2012 (Contents: Chisago Soil and Water Conservation District Partnerships and Projects, Tischer Creek Restoration and Protection State Cost-Share Program Project, and BWSR Involvement in Drainage Issues)
• Mission / Overview
• History
• Featured Projects
• Research (BWSR collaborates with research institutions that are seeking to improve the environmental outcomes of conservation practices, especially those that protect and improve water quality)
• More publications and reports

Mission / Overview

The Minnesota Board of Water and Soil Resources consists of 20 members, including local government representatives that deliver BWSR programs, state agencies, and citizens. The board sets a policy agenda designed to enhance service delivery though the use of local government. Board members, including the board chair, are appointed by the governor to four-year terms.

The board is the state's administrative agency for 90 soil and water conservation districts, 46 watershed districts, 23 metropolitan watershed management organizations, and 80 county water managers.

The BWSR mission is to improve and protect Minnesota's water and soil resources by working in partnership with local organizations and private landowners. Core functions include implementing the state's soil and water conservation policy, comprehensive local water management, and the Wetland Conservation Act as it relates to the 41.7 million acres of private land in Minnesota.

Because 78 percent of the state's land is held in private ownership, BWSR's focus on private lands is critical to attaining the state's goals for clean water, clean air, and abundant fish and wildlife. Managed wisely, these working lands - Minnesota's farms, forests, and urban areas - contribute greatly to the production of environmental goods and benefits including cleaner air and water, fish and wildlife habitat, and preservation of open spaces.

Agency programs to assist landowners and local government have resulted in less sediment and nutrients entering our lakes, rivers, and streams; more fish and wildlife habitat; and the drastic slowing of wetland losses. These have been realized in spite of intensification of agriculture, greater demands for forest products, and rapid urbanization in many parts of the state.

BWSR's mission is implemented through the following core functions:

• To function as the state soil conservation agency. (M.S. 103B.101)
• To direct private land soil and water conservation programs through the action of SWCDs, counties, cities, townships, watershed districts, and water management organizations. (M.S. 103C, 103D, 103F)
• To link water resource planning with comprehensive land use planning. (M.S. 103B)
• To provide resolution of water policy conflicts and issues. (M.S. 103A.211, 103A.305, 103A.315, 103A.311)
• To implement the comprehensive local water management acts. (M.S. 103B.201, 103B.255, 103B.301)
• To provide the forum (through the board) for local issues, priorities, and opportunities to be incorporated into state public policy. (M.S. 103B.101)
• To administer for the Wetland Conservation Act. (M.S. 103G)
• To coordinate state and federal resources to realize local priorities.

Operations

Staff members are located in nine field offices throughout the state in Bemidji, Brainerd, Duluth, Fergus Falls, Mankato, Marshall, New Ulm, Rochester, and St. Paul (central office and metro field office). Agency staff provide technical and financial assistance to local governments to plan and implement agency policy on private lands.

The local-state conservation delivery system provides an opportunity to partner state, federal, local, and private resources to private lands projects that help maintain water quality, prevent soil loss and erosion, plan for land use, and protect wetlands. These partnerships in service delivery ensure that the interest of state policy is implemented with local issues and problems in mind.

History

The Minnesota Board of Water and Soil Resources was created in 1987, when the Legislature combined the Soil and Water Conservation Board with two other organizations with local government and natural resource ties: the Water Resources Board (established in 1955) and the Southern Minnesota Rivers Basin Council (established in 1971). The Water Resources Board was composed of five members appointed by the governor, and it had jurisdiction over the establishment of watershed districts, which are special purpose local units of government that manage water within the drainage basin of lakes or river systems. The Southern Minnesota Rivers Basin Council had been established as a commission to prepare an overall conservation and development plan for the southern part of the state. The commission was changed to a board in 1975 and to a council in 1983. When it was merged into the Board of Water and Soil Resources, its membership consisted of 11 members, all residents of the basin area and appointed by the governor.

Legislation establishing the Board of Water and Soil Resources (reflected in Minnesota Statutes 103B.101) outlined its responsibilities to a variety of local governments. Its membership was changed to include 17 members: three representing soil and water conservation districts; three representing watershed management organizations or watershed districts; three representing counties; three citizen members; and five agency members representing the University of Minnesota Extension Service, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, the Minnesota Department of Agriculture, the Minnesota Department of Health, and the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency. The board expanded in 2009 to include two representatives of cities (one in the Twin Cities Metro Area and one in Greater Minnesota) and one township representative.

The earliest incarnation of the Soil and Water Conservation Board was the 1937 establishment of the state Soil Conservation Committee, which helped organize soil and water conservation districts throughout the state, and provided them with promotional, financial, and administrative assistance.

In the 1950s the Soil Conservation Committee became part of the University of Minnesota Soils Department, where it stayed until it was transferred to the Department of Natural Resources in 1971.

In 1967 the committee name was changed to the Soil and Water Conservation Commission, and it was changed in 1975 to the Soil and Water Conservation Board. In 1982 this board was transferred to the Minnesota Department of Agriculture. At that time, its membership consisted of seven members appointed by the governor and five agency personnel representing the University of Minnesota Institute of Agriculture, the Agricultural Extension Service, the Minnesota Department of Agriculture, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, and the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.

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