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High Priority Riparian Areas of the Minnesota River Basin

The following land use and cover maps, prepared for 33 counties in the Minnesota River Basin, display and summarize high priority areas for implementation projects, CREP acres, or other conservation easements or contracts. The priority areas are sensitive and marginal lands located in the riparian zone, defined as the greater area of 100 feet from the stream or the 100 year floodplain.  FEMA digital data were used to define the 100 year floodplain for the counties, however these data were not available for the counties of Cottonwood, Faribault, Freeborn, Jackson, Martin, Pipestone, Rice, Steele, Waseca and Watonwan.  The riparian zone for these counties include only the area 100 feet on either side of the stream. Land use and cover data are summarized by the total acres in the county, county acres in the Minnesota River Basin, and county riparian acres in the Minnesota River Basin. The land use and cover acres are based on 1990 data. Land use data defining agricultural areas were not available for the counties of Carver, Dakota, Hennepin, Scott and Ramsey.  Stearns County was not analyzed because of its negligible area in the Minnesota River Basin.

The land use and cover maps were prepared through the cooperative efforts of the Minnesota River Basin Data Center and the Minnesota Board of Water and Soil Resources to identify and prioritize areas for implementation projects in the Minnesota River Basin. Sponsors and funding were provided by the Environmental Trust Fund, McKnight Foundation, Minnesota Board of Water and Soil Resources, Minnesota River Basin Joint Powers Board, County Soil and Water Conservation Districts, and County Water Planners. Data sources include the International Coalition Land Use/Land Cover 1990; MRBDC streams, political boundaries; BWSR Riparian Zone of stream buffer/FEMA floodplain; MDNR Watershed Basins 95; MNDOT BaseMap '98.

The maps may be viewed or printed by choosing from the list of pdf files. Download time increases with file size. Large files may take over 20 minutes to download when using a modem. Subsequent viewing and printing time may be decreased by saving the pdf file to your computer's hard drive.

Netscape:  Save to your computer's hard drive by holding the shift key down while clicking on the desired county map.
Internet Explorer:  Save to your computer's hard drive by clicking on the county map using the right mouse button to bring up the menu choices. Select 'Save Target As...'

The 'Save As...' window will appear that allows you to choose a directory to save to and to rename the pdf file. Although the maps are designed to be printed with a large format printer, the pdf format includes a 'shrink to fit' printing option that allows any sized paper to be used.

How to download Adobe Reader to view pdf files.

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This page was last updated 3/29/01

Minnesota River Basin Data Center
Minnesota State University, Mankato
184 Trafton Science Center S, Mankato, MN 56001
Phone: (507)389-5492
FAX: (507)389-5493
Email: mrbdc@mankato.msus.edu