Project River Bend, Six County River Management Plan

The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources proposed a management plan for the Minnesota River. Part of that plan was the designation of the Minnesota River as a Wild and Scenic River. This proposal was unacceptable to the counties involved. The counties feared that a Wild and Scenic designation would remove their decision making power. Instead, the counties proposed Project River Bend. This project was a management plan designed to avoid the state mandate program through the use of local decision making power to guide the course of management in the Minnesota Rive Valley between Franklin and Le Sueur. This course would involve economic considerations that may not have been included if the river had been managed under the Wild and Scenic River Program.