About the watershed
The Watershed
Water Resource
Land Use
The UM-GR Watershed is the first watershed downstream from the Mississippi River-Headwaters Watershed and is one of the largest watersheds in the state. All 1.3 million acres of the UM-GR Watershed drain to the Mississippi River, which flows through the watershed from the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) dam in Cohasset, meanders south into the Mississippi River-Brainerd Watershed north of Aitkin, and eventually flows into the Gulf of Mexico.
The UM-GR Watershed extends to the north and east where it straddles two continental divides, a rare tri-vide. A drop of water north into the Laurentian Divide will flow into Canada’s Hudson Bay, a drop of water east of the divide will flow through the St. Lawrence River Divide into the Atlantic Ocean, and a drop of water in the south will flow down to the Gulf of Mexico.
To describe the UM-GR Watershed as wet doesn’t seem to do it justice. It has almost 2,000 miles of rivers and streams, vast amounts of peatlands and wetlands, 625 lakes larger than 10 acres, 79 designated wild rice lakes, and 48 cold water fishery lakes that support fish, like trout and cisco - truly the land of sky-blue waters (MPCA 2019). It spans five counties: Aitkin, Carlton, Cass, Itasca, and St. Louis. The watershed also includes portions of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe Indian Reservation, and a number of communities including Grand Rapids, Coleraine, Cromwell, Hill City, McGregor, and Remer.
According to MPCA Watershed Restoration and Protection Strategy Report (WRAPS), there are 625 lakes in the watershed over 10 acres and almost 2,000 miles of streams, including the portion of the Mississippi River that flows through this watershed. It’s no wonder why the people that live and visit this area list lakes and streams as one of the most important resources. The WRAPS report uses MPCA monitoring data to provide a science-based understanding of water quality, issues, and strategies to address issues in the watershed. WRAPS strategies were considered when planning UM-GR CWMP actions.
The Mississippi River provides drinking water to millions of people downstream including the city of Minneapolis, which uses 21 billion gallons of water annually. This underscores the significance of why it is crucial to protect the clean water here. Lakes and rivers in the MR-GR Watershed generally have good or excellent water quality in large part due to the relatively small amount of development around the waterbodies. In the early 1900s, peatlands were seen as potential crop fields, and a ditching network was dug in an attempt to dry these low-lying areas out for agricultural use. As a result, approximately 25% of the streams and rivers in this watershed have been altered (MPCA 2019).
Overall, the water quality in this watershed is excellent and a key resource to the local economy.
Public land ownership is currently at 37% and private land ownership is 63% (DNR LSP). Forest land (40%) makes up most of the watershed followed by woody wetlands (36%), emergent wetlands (9.5%), open water (5.6%), urban and rural development (3.9%), prairie (hay/pasture, 3.4%), prairie (grasslands, 0.9%), and cultivated land (0.6%) (Figure 2.3 and Figure 2.4) (USGS, 2019). Compared to pre-European settlement, the watershed has maintained similar forest and open water proportions but has lost around 16% of its wetlands with increases in urban, emergent wetlands, and hay/pastureland (LSP). While developed land is under 4% of the watershed, much of it is concentrated on lake shoreline.
This watershed is predominantly made up of forest and wetlands (85% total). While the forested lands can hold a lot of surface water to help grow trees and plants, the vast wetland areas act as a giant filter which catch and clean large amounts of sediment and pollutants while being able to absorb large amounts of snowmelt and rainfall.
