07010204 (MN) Crow (Upper Fork)

The Crow River (Upper Fork) 8-Digit Hydrologic Unit Code (HUC) subbasin is located within the North Central Hardwood Forest Ecoregion of Minnesota near the border of the adjacent Western Cornbelt Plains Ecoregion. Approximately ninety six percent of the 949,107 acres in this HUC are privately owned. The remaining acres are County, Federal, State or Conservancy lands.

Assessment estimates indicate 2,864 Farms in the watershed. Approximately sixty three percent of the operations are less than 180 acres in size, thirty three percent are from 180 to 1000 acres in size, and the remaining farms are greater than 1000 acres in size. Of the 2,868 Operators in the basin, sixty percent are full-time producers not reliant on off farm income.

The main resource concerns in the watershed are water and soil quality, animal waste management, windbreak maintenance, wetland management, surface water quality, groundwater protection, and wildlife habitat.

Many of the resource concerns relate directly to agricultural practices and increased development in the region, resulting in fragmentation and increased sediment and pollutant (mercury, fecal coliform, ammonia, excess nutrients) loadings to surface waters.