07020007 (MN) Middle Minnesota

The Middle Minnesota 8-Digit Hydrologic Unit Code (HUC) subbasin is located in the Prairie Parkland Ecological Province of Southwestern Minnesota. This largely agricultural watershed is 861,886 acres in size. Approximately ninety seven percent of the basin is comprised of private land, with the remainder owned or managed by a variety of public and tribal entities.

Estimates indicate 2,043 farms in the watershed. Approximately thirty one percent of the operations are less than 180 acres in size, fifty one percent are from 180 to 1000 acres in size, and the remaining farms are greater than 1000 acres.

The main resource concerns in the watershed are sediment and erosion control, stormwater management, drinking and source water protection, drainage management, waste management, nutrient management, surface water quality and wetland management.

Many of the resource concerns relate directly to topography, agricultural practices and increased development in the region resulting in increased sediment and pollutant loadings to surface and ground waters.