FERGUS FALLS, Minn. (AP) - As Minnesota moves toward tougher enforcement of buffer strips intended to keep farm runoff from fouling streams and lakes, Otter Tail and other counties are showing how a less confrontational approach can work.
When Gov. Mark Dayton recently pushed for tougher state enforcement, Minnesota Public Radio (https://bit.ly/1HyvLFA ) reports that farm groups pushed back, calling his plan unworkable.
But in Otter Tail County, officials are taking an analytical approach and reaching out to landowners with customized guidance on how to meet the local ordinance, which also calls for the buffer strips.
“Even though it’s an existing ordinance, most landowners don’t realize it’s out there,” said Brad Mergens, the conservation district’s manager who must carry out the buffer enforcement effort approved by the county board last year. “Our goal is to be flexible. We’ll go on site with every landowner and work with them.”
The county set up specific guidelines for identifying areas that need buffers. After an area is identified, technicians meet with landowners, measure the area and provide information about government programs that pay landowners to install the buffer strips.
Landowners who don’t respond to a first letter will get a second and then a third. The county will ask for legal action only if landowners don’t respond by the end of the five-year compliance effort.
In three Otter Tail townships reviewed by Mergens’ team so far, 40 percent of landowners have responded to the county’s letters telling them their shoreland needs buffers.
Tim Koehler, a senior programs adviser for the state Board of Water and Soil Resources, said actions taken in Blue Earth, Dakota, Dodge, Grant, Olmsted, and Otter Tail counties are good examples of how voluntary approaches get results without legal action.
“Once you have local people working with local producers and providing them the information and providing them the incentives, we’re getting nearly 100 percent compliance,” Koehler said.
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Information from: KNOW-FM, https://minnesota.publicradio.org/radio/stations/knowksjn/
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