This is the Farmington feed, bringing you information from the city of Farmington. >> Hi and welcome to the Farmington Feed. I'm Karen Hajniki, the city's communications specialist, and I'm hungry for another episode of the feed. We have two guests with us today. Uh we'll be talking with the folks from Vermillion River Wershed Joint Powers
Organization, which is VRWJO, and Dakota County Soil Water Conservation District, Dakota County SWCD. I have with me Breida Moore Cuts, communications and outreach specialist for the VRWO. That's a mouthful. [laughter] And Lindsay Albbright, our
monitoring and outreach quarter with the SWCD. Hi guys, welcome. >> Hello. >> Hi. Thanks for having us. So, we're excited to talk about your programs because I think Farmington knows a little bit about what you guys are doing, but not not enough and we want to get that word out there. So, let's start to get to know you a bit first. So, Lindsay, let's start with you. Uh,
what's your background in and what are you responsible for in your current position? Um, so my background going all the way back to college, I'll go start with that is, um, I actually have an undergrad degree in marine biology. Cool. Um, I've been working at the soil and water for 10 years now. As the
monitoring and outreach coordinator, I'm responsible for all the surface and groundwater monitoring in Dakota County. So I do all of the water monitoring for Breida's organization. So I've got eight monitoring sites that I do starting all the way in Elco New Market um stretching
all the way into Hastings. I also do monitoring south of here um and the North Can River wershed and I do some lake monitoring up north as well. And then um kind of my outreach side of my position. I'm in charge of the landscaping for clean water program. So that's doing um class coordination,
teaching all of our landscaping classes and then um doing a lot of the outreach work that we do for our organization as well. >> Okay. And how about you, Breida? >> Well, thanks thanks again for having me. Uh, yes, my name is Breida and I'm the communication outreach specialist for
the Vermillion River Wershed Joint Powers Organization. We just we can just call it JPO for short. >> That might be easier. >> Yeah. But my my background is in English and communications. Uh, I have a degree in English and since then I've been
working in doing communication and outreach work for various organizations. I've been with the JO for almost five years now or more like four and a half almost five and I manage their social media so Facebook Facebook and Instagram
and our website content which is just vermillion riverwwatered.org that one's pretty easy to remember. >> Yeah. >> And working with we work with soil and water very closely uh as a watershed management organization. Um, we have a
lot of the same goals just or different kinds of local government organizations. I could get into that more later, but I I what I communicate about is mostly the kind of work that the wershed does. We do a lot of on the ground projects that help protect water quality or restore
water quality in areas that have gotten degraded. And we also have a big role in like storm water management uh like reducing erosion and flow rates um which has an effect on water quality. We want to
really share what we do with people. Wershed management organizations are not always super well known to average people. Um, but one way we can get the word out about what we do is through Landscape for Clean Water and other outreach programs with our partners.
>> Yeah, I I think it's new to me being new to Minnesota. I've only been here like three years and there's a lot of JPOS's, not just watershed, but there are a lot of watershed JPOs as well, right? >> Which is very um intriguing to me because we didn't really have a lot of that in Michigan. >> What's sparked your interest in this line of work? You want to go first,
Lindsay? Yeah, I've just kind of a connection to nature, loving to be outside, loving, you know, loving taking the time to go on hikes, caring about the environment and kind of wanting to do my part to help protect it, understand what's going on, uh, the
creepy crawies that are underneath the rocks and getting to go and check those out. So, um, yeah, getting to go out there and and collect the water samples, understand what's in the water, and then, you know, a big part of my job is also just communicating about what the
findings are and what we're seeing there and getting helping people get excited about, you know, what they can do to help, you know, protect their tiny little corner of the environment and, you know, maybe improve just that little bit and help improve that, you know, 10
square ft that they have in their property. >> Mhm. And for your website, what is the website address if people are interested in going to that? >> Dakota SWCD.org. >> Yeah. Okay. Brea, what about you? What got you into this? >> Yeah. Well, with my my background as an
English major, I've been based I've been a communications generalist for most of my time in the workforce. Before I came to the watershed, I was in on more of the A side. Um, I worked for a large farm organization and before that an
agricultural newspaper. So I came in knowing that the Vermillion River wershed is split between agricultural and residential land development and I thought I had a I would have something good to offer there
but with the way that the population is distributed most of the people are in the residential areas. It's changed from that, but I still have an eye on the A stuff with the help of soil and water, but I've my name is literally the same
spelling as the water filter brand. So, I think I was kind of destined to be in the water fields. >> Um, I grew up I grew up in the Pacific Northwest, which has its own >> Yep. >> unique relationship with water being on
the coast. uh different from Minnesota's lake life culture and uh stream fishing and whatnot. >> Yeah, very Midwest. I I also was out on the West Coast for a little bit. I was in Portland, Oregon for a while and >> very different out there than than here for sure. >> Oh, very much.
>> Um so, can you tell us a little bit more about what this JO is and does because I'm sure there's a lot of listeners that don't know. >> Yeah. So, the organization exists because of a joint powers agreement. very governmenty term, I know, but it's
essentially a contract or an agreement >> that it doesn't have an end date on it. An agreement between Dakota County and Scott County to manage the watershed. >> Okay. >> And so that's really simple actually. It just sounds like really >> complicated when you say the name.
>> Very big, very governmental. >> Yeah, for sure. And um so for the soil and water conservation district, what what about that? How did that come about or how long has it been around? We are actually in our 81st year. >> Wow. >> So we um soil and waters um have been
around since uh we are creations of the dust bowl. So it's a uh they are not unique to Minnesota. They are um majority of the states in the United States have soil and water conservation districts. We help land owners in the urban area as well as the rural area
with voluntary conservation practices. So, um, with our landscaping for clean water program, we're helping people with rain gardens, native plantings. If you live in a rural area, we are there to help with, um, erosion issues, you know, sediment control basins, um, putting in
BMS, other things like that. So, um, shoreline restorations, anything, um, like that. So, we have a very, uh, we have a a varied office, particularly with Dakota County's population and the the land use that we have. >> Okay. there are opportunities um
programs if you will one of them landscaping for the clean and water but also is there other volunteer opportunities through either your organizations that people could get involved with I'm part of a pretty small team uh personnel-wise there there's only four of us who are assigned to the
VRWO and we're Dakota County employees so we but we work really closely with our partners not at soil and water who we are in the same office building as in the Dakota County Extension Conservation
Center, but Dakota County, which is like 97% of the watershed, uh, has their own volunteer program, uh, run by their communications department. We work with them to plan volunteer opportunities. >> Okay. So, they'd be listed on their
website. >> Yes. Okay. And we and we also work with Twin Cities Trout Unlimited. They already do a lot of volunteer outreach programming on the Vermillion. So, we work to help kind of figure out how to help their their what the work they're
doing align with the work we're trying to do to see the biggest impact and of course cross-promoting what each other has going on. Uh just this last fall we we did a trash pickup along the Vermillion in the city of Farmington
mostly in Rambling River Park and kind of the surrounding areas >> um which was also in which was also supported by Dakota County. That's what that's a lot of what we do if we're going to but we don't we don't have an official JPO volunteer program. >> Okay.
>> But we we're always thinking of opportunities to help people get involved. >> And a big volunteer effort that um Dakota County has is the wet program, wetland health um evaluation program. And >> oh yeah, McKenna was just asking to post some information about that.
>> Yeah. City of Farmington sponsors um at least one uh wetland monitoring team. Um and it's run through Dakota County. So they're on a yearly basis, they're looking for volunteers who'd be interested in going out and monitoring a local wetland. Um so as a Farmington
resident, you can sign up to join that team and you go out and you monitor um for the the bugs that live in the wetland, but then you also look at um the vegetation that's there and that can give us a really good idea of the health of the wetland. And so like the plant species as well as the species and the
the quantity the number of bugs that are within that wetland. Um so >> yeah. So if someone's interested in doing that um you obviously probably supply them with some stuff to do. So y >> but I will be posting about it soon. But how many people are you looking for to do that?
>> It's usually the teams are probably it's like four to six people I believe are on the team. And so you would want to go to Dakota County's website and then in the search bar you would put in uh wetland health or you could search WE wh and that would take you to the website.
>> And then how often do these volunteers need to go out and monitor? >> Um I believe they go out the program probably runs May through July, April through July, something like that. And it's like >> every couple of weeks once a month is
what So it's not it's not intensive. Okay. >> Um, but it is a a couple time a month commitment. >> Okay. Oh, that's good. That's really good to know. Now, let's get to the reason kind of why we're here to talk about landscaping for clean water cuz that's what um what I brought you on
for. Um, can you kind of just go over the basics um for it and then we'll get into talking about when they can sign up or where and what how and all that stuff. So, the landscaping for clean water program is a program that we run through the Dakota County Soil and Water Conservation District in partnership
with um our watersheds that we have here in Dakota County as well as our city partners. Um we have four different programs that or class types that we have. We have our introduction class, a maintenance class, um a natural
shoreline class, as well as a design course. And the goal of this program is to specifically the introduction class is to introduce people to native plants, rain gardens, kind of the possibility of what they could do on
their property. So, um, just give them the idea of, hey, like, you know, here is your your kind of your blank canvas of your yard and by putting these native plants in here, you know, you're reducing your lawn care. You're also capturing water. You're also bringing in
these pollinators. You're introducing the habitat. You're creating bird habitat. Um, you're bringing all this color and beauty to your yard and, you know, you're trapping some of that water. You're preventing it from going into the storm drain. You're capturing some of that sediment, some of that pollutant, um, those pollutants and, you
know, so it's again, it's that kind of your little property right there. It's capturing some of that and it's preventing any of that stuff from going downstream >> while also adding beauty while also, you know, taking away a little bit of that mowing activity that, you know, a little bit of that time that you don't have to
be out there mowing every week. >> Um, it adds up across the summer. >> Oh, yeah. I I'll be honest, I don't mow. My husband does [laughter] all that. But that being said, I don't think he loves doing it either. Like we have a big yard and it's crazy how long it takes just to mow our lawn, you you know, and when I
lived out in Portland, that was this was the thing. Like a lot of people had native lawns and and landscaping and it was like not just your green little patches that everybody was so proud of in the Midwest. Does that make >> I feel like that's that's what it used to be like you have to have your green
precious lawn done and it's not that's not the case. >> Yeah. And it's I mean these um we have nine different introduction classes that we have um starting in February and they go into June. Um they are across the county. We don't unfortunately we don't have one in Farmington this year. We
have uh Lakeville. We have one in uh Rosemount this year. And then we have two that are offered online. We also have one in Randolph this year as well. They you can go to our website dotaswcd.org and then you can go into our classes tab and then select landscaping for clean
water. They're all um listed right there. They kick off at 6 p.m. They usually should be done around 7:00 at night. And yeah, we kind of just run through the program. It's, you know, talking native plants, talking rain gardens. Rain gardens are kind of a specific type of um project that we do
where we um kind of are um it's just a normal garden. Most people walking past wouldn't even know that it is kind of has this extra water quality benefit, but it's just, you know, digging a little bit deeper. It's pooling the water right there and it's giving it the time to infiltrate down into the ground.
So it's but again most people walking past wouldn't even know that it's there's that little bit of a depression right there. So um and then we wrap up the class just talking about kind of what the next steps are. If you take the introduction class or you take the natural shoreline class, you're then eligible to participate in the design
course. There's a $25 fee for the design course. And this is a hands-on class. You can do the either the twoight class or the one day. It's a 4-hour class. We do have one of those here in Farmington. And with that, um, you sit down with soil and water staff. We have volunteers, sometimes JO staff as well
as Farmington staff come and they'll sit down and help you out and we've got maps of your property and we um help you kind of work through the process of determining the best spot for your project, the size of your project. We'll go through planting plan, the shape of your project. will help you figure out
how much mulch to order, how much compost to order, uh which plants would be the best to purchase, which plants should be located in a certain selection. And then once you have kind of um all of that decided upon, you have your your beautiful plan drawn out, you
can then apply for a landscaping for clean water grant. >> Yeah, that was going to be my next thing. How much is this going to cost? Um [laughter] so the cost of the project will vary based on um you know the size of the project um the materials that you use, the size of the plants, you know if
you opt to um go and pick up the materials or you have it delivered. So that will vary but um new this year we have actually increased the amount of the grant available. So previously it was $250. This year um with the support of our our watershed partners the grant
amount has gone up to $400. >> Oh wow. That's significant significant increase. So hopefully that um helps people kind of dream a little bit bigger with their projects this year. And um so we do have a minimum size of 100 square ft. So that is a 10x10 project. So um
that generally will be able to fit in most people's property. So um that shouldn't that should not deter most people. >> Yeah, for sure. Just thinking out loud like wow that's like a lot of information and a lot of help. Like cuz I would you tell me, "Oh, we should do
that on our lawn." I would be like, "I don't even know where to start." And you guys are like, "Here, this is where you start. This is what you go with." And there's been people that have participated obviously from Farmington, correct? And how amazing did their projects turn out? Did they end up doing the project and winning the grants or
did they >> Yep. >> Yeah. We have We have a handful of people who um uh who go through the class every single year from Farmington. And so, Yep. Um in the past years we've been able to have a class hosted at the Farmington Library and then you know having the the design course here um at
the our our office the conservation building in Farmington as well. Yeah. So then a handful of people have always been able to go through in the end and if you are awarded a grant then the soil and water staff we are available throughout the entire process. We come out for an initial site visit. We lay
out the project for you. you know, we are there with the spray paint, um, moving things around, helping you figure out the size. We go and we deter like, okay, yeah, this is the spot where you want to be putting this. Um, yep, here's your shape and, oh, you're doing a rain garden basin. Okay, yep, this is where
your basin is. This is where your burm is. We will talk through all the specifics and explain some of the those terms as well, right? We explain everything to you. Hopefully, you're familiar with some of that from going to the design course. And then, you know, we head out, you pick up the shovel, you start doing all the work. And then we
are available phone calls, emails. Um, you know, I've facetimed with people while they're out there, you know, just like being like, you know, I just have a quick question. You know, can I just, you know, I just need a quick answer. It's like, okay, yeah, let's just FaceTime really fast. I don't need to drive out for that. >> And then, you know, we come out for a
midpoint check just to make sure everything's good because we don't want, you know, we don't want mulch down plants in. And it's like, oh, wait. >> Oh, yeah. >> This is uh Oh, big problem. So, we come out for the midpoint just to make sure everything's looking good. And then, you know, people put the mulch down, plants
in, and then, you know, we come out for that final. We get to look at the, you know, the big grin on the face. We get to hear about all of the hard work and everything that you did. >> And, um, we get to share and the joy and the excitement about the project's done. This is so exciting. This is this is
amazing. And then we have a a a cute little sign that we get to give you to, you know, so that you can show off your hard work and, you know, showcase it and put it down in there so that you can let everybody know that, hey, I did this awesome project. And then, um, you know, [clears throat] couple weeks later,
check is in the mail. We do also have a maintenance class. This is something that if you are um even if you don't participate in the intro class or the natural shoreline class, if you are you dabble in gardening and you're just
like, you know, I know I can't do a project this year, but I just want some tips. >> Mhm. >> Sign up for the maintenance class, come. It's um at Galaxy Library on March 3rd at 5 o'clock. soil and water staff will be there to just give you some tips and
tricks on how to deal with deer and rabbits. Um how to prep your garden in March and April so that it's productive throughout the whole um growing season and then how to kind of get it ready to go to hunker down for the winter months.
And so um that'll just you know get you feeling more comfortable about gardening. >> Yeah. Is there is there a cost to that one? >> Nope. All of the classes, introduction, maintenance, and shoreline class, all of those are free. Okay. >> The design course has a $25 fee. >> But I mean, that's so cheap. >> And that is that is the book and that is
printing and that is mailing. Like that is that is what that covers. >> That sounds like a deal to to get your your landscaping and get, you know, advice and support and all that. >> And then it's a twoight class for two hours where you come and it's a lot of listening to me. So, sorry about that everybody.
>> [laughter] >> But then, yeah, then it's coming and uh you get to you get to break out some colored pencils and color color in circles and shapes and figure out what uh where you're going to plant those blazing stars. So, >> yeah. So, when people do this class, do
you see like families coming like you know partners coming and participating together or is it just like one one or the other cuz somebody's got the green thumb and somebody doesn't? >> It's totally a mix. So, um we see one person come because they've got kids at home and they didn't have childare. We
see couples coming. We see people bringing their family because they didn't have child care at home. So, we do have coloring pencils and we have um we have coloring sheets. So, if the kids have to come, bring the kids and we can
set them up in a corner and they are good to go. So, kids are definitely welcome. So, it's it's a big mixture. We've had people, you know, if you've got a kid who is doing an Eagle Scout project, we've definitely helped out >> kids who need have a service project, an Eagle Scout project, who are just
looking for something to do. If you have a student who is um needs this for school, um need some volunteer hours, this is a great opportunity. We have helped one where it was a 11-year-old where she was just she loved plants, she
loved gardening. the parents were not as into it and she was just like this is my thing and the parents were like okie dokie and she planned the entire thing she ran the show like obviously the parents did you know had to do all the ordering and everything but she was like nope I'm selecting the plants I'm doing
the research >> I'm figuring out the garden plan and she like she put it all together >> that's awesome >> like it was you know everything was purchased on her parents credit card not hers but >> she did everything and it was like it was a good it was a good plan it was impressive And you like her parents just
sat back and let her run it. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. It was really cool. >> Awesome. So, let's flip back over to the JO for a minute. Um I remember there was like some sort of like tour. Was it last year or the year before where we did and and they toured through Farmington? I know our parks and rec director Kelly
was involved. Can you do you remember that? Were you on that tour? >> When the last time we stopped in Farmington during a watershed tour would have been 2023. >> Okay. So, a few years ago. >> Yes. Kelly was Kelly was involved with that. That was so that that involved a stop at in Rambling River Park at a at a
trout stream restoration that the JO did. >> It's been it's been a decade now since that project was done, but it still hold it still holds up. There's an interpretive sign there. Um it's it was installing tree roots in the sides of
the the channel the stream channel to stop erosion because the the the river from what I know I did not work at the JO at that time the river had was rising so much during the during rainstorms that it was starting to wash over the
concrete path next to it. >> Yep. >> And that's a people really like to fish in that spot. So my colleagues installed these tree roots to stabilize the channel and it's still as far as
even I haven't been there in a while but in 2023 it still looked great. >> Yeah. >> So that's one project we've done in Farmington. We have a few more in the pipeline that I don't have anything to report on at this point, but you can
look look that up on our website. And but yes, we do we do watershed tours every other year usually for >> there those are geared toward elected officials >> to help them understand how their community members tax dollars are
supporting the watershed and the benefits that they're getting out of it. Oh yeah, that's very important that they know what's going on with that for sure because they get asked questions all the time. Right. >> You guys have done a couple of like full stream remandering um by Nicollet Middle
School as well as um which is on North Creek and then South Creek headed towards Lakeville. >> Yes. >> Both got their nice looking streams now. >> Yes. that and that would th those also happened before my time. But we can we
can do projects like that. It's worth noting that to be able to do those kinds of projects, it takes money and we have a special watershed management tax district levy. It's passed on through the counties and their yearly property
taxing authority. It's a pretty small amount, but for every property owner in within the political boundaries of the watershed, there's small property tax levy um that that goes to our general fund that can that's just used for uh
staff and other normal expenses. But to do largescale projects like stream restorations, we also rely heavily on grant funding. Most of which has come from the state through the 2008 legacy
amendment, the clean water, land legacy constitutional amendment that created the clean water fund which is administered by the Minnesota board of water and soil resources. Uh so we regularly are applying to grants through that agency. We also have some with the
DNR, even the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency or even the Minnesota Department of Health, depending on what the project is and what funds would be most appropriate for that. >> Yes. A lot of your your work is getting finding the money that to do these
projects as well. >> So, let's move on a little bit towards our the recent campaign you guys had going on. I don't remember the name. Can you remind me the name of it about watering? Well, it's a joint effort between landscaping for clean water as well as the lawn watering wisdom
campaign. So, it was kind of a multiaceted uh two-pronged approach. >> And what did that entail? I heard, you know, it looked like it got a lot of views and watches and sustained watching actually. And what did what was the basis of that campaign?
>> It was a big partnership between our organization as well as the county. So, um JO was actually the the lead organization for that. So, Brea, do you want to >> Sure. So, the JPO was the was the lead organization in the sense that my
colleague Kelly, she previously worked at the city of Lakeville and had this big idea to get a whole bunch like every a whole bunch of partners in the county together to create a video marketing campaign to promote water conservation and landscaping for clean water. Then
she came over to the JO about two years ago and brought this idea with her and she applied for a one of the legacy amendment funded grants uh called an accelerated implementation grant that's administered by the Minnesota Department
of Health. So in the in that sense the JO was in charge of the managing that grant. Uh we als we but we worked with soil and water us because they hosted the campaign on their social media pages
as and and had our cons had a consultant helping us create these videos and we also got fund funding support from the other watersheds in Dakota County. Uh blast >> because I mean this was blasted all over. >> Yeah, it was a countywide campaign. Uh
the JO is the largest watershed in Dakota County and in fact in the whole uh Twin Cities metro area, the seven county metro area. That's which I just wanted to throw in there. But yeah, we we led we were a big part of leading
that program with the and with the other wersheds uh Black Dog in Burnsville, Lower Mississippi River Wershed Management Organization Heights. Yes. So, so, so that's what
that was all about. We developed these two videos with some funny family characters. >> Oh, for sure. >> Greg and Greg, Lindsay, and Rosie. And we filmed the videos in fall of 2024. and put and started promoting them in
January, February of 2025 for that round of landscape for clean water classes from just encouraging people to come to the intro class, see what it was all about. >> The goal including landscape for clean water in that campaign was to emphasize
a new angle with it that it could help like save time and money. >> I mean, that's those are the two those are the two important things, right? Time and money. Yes. >> So, I mean, you got to get people where they're where they're looking, right? >> Yep. And then the second half of the
campaign started in the summertime emphasizing irrigation, water conservation. Mhm. >> So, we demonstrated how like how a smart irrigation system works that can keep your house from getting too much water when it's been
raining when the lawn doesn't need it and encouraged people to sign a a water conservation pledge on the Dakota County website. No, >> last summer was quite rainy, so it ended up not being as relevant as it could
have been, but I still know. like but still two years ago there was like a drought or whatever. >> I mean we had three we had three years of drought. So we leading up to the c to the campaign it was just like yes we've got drought like >> people are irrigating a ton and then the year we have the campaign it's like oh
well >> but it's but it is still relevant. I mean you think about it like what especially if it's raining like you still shouldn't be watering your lawn, right? Your lawn your lawn doesn't need it. And I think that's like part of the whole like Midwest like we have a green lawn, we got to keep it pristine like
attitude, which is what I grew up knowing, right? That's no longer the thought, but some people are still on that like I got to keep it green, but watering more doesn't necessarily make it green, right? And they're just good tips to think about. I mean, it's, you know, making sure that the sprayer heads
are spraying in the correct direction and that you're not watering the street or watering the sidewalk and going if if you know that you're and that the time of day that you're watering, you know, that you're not watering at 1:00 in the afternoon, that you're watering, you
know, at 5:00 a.m., 4:00 a.m. where, you know, that it's not evaporating. >> But then if you're watering at 5:00 a.m., you're most likely not up. So, you're going to want to check the sprayer heads to make sure that they are actually spraying on the lawn and not the road for sure.
>> So, there are those little things to make sure that you are checking. Getting a rain sensor to make sure that if you have it on a timer, having a rain sensor, make sure that you know if it's raining at 5:00 a.m. that's still not going off because it knows that it's
raining. Like little smart technology that helps you out. Yeah. >> Well, I know it happened to me when we first moved here. you're in a rental and apparently one of ours was leaking and we didn't know it but then like they came knocking on our door like your water bill is really high like you might need to check your um irrigation system
and I was like oh yep and we there's a big puddle on our lawn because of that and that you know cost money and wasted water so it got it fixed but yeah >> it's just another example of things you can do on in your own little area to
benefit our water resources just like building a rain garden would So, you know, there's a lot of talk about big water users going on around the state and and the country really. And >> that's that's a lot to think about, but
just we like to remind people that just conserving water at home can still make a difference both for your pocketbook and for the resource. Most of Dakota County gets its water from groundwater. um water that's in aquifers that gets
brought up by municipal or private wells. Some folks who live in the country have private wells >> they get water from >> and that's a limited resource and it's great that it's great that we have it and it's and it's clean and it and also
provides water to our to the Vermillion River and other surface water resources. But so that's good reason to keep your keep your eye on how much you're using. >> Yeah, for sure. So, is there anything we missed? We talked about getting involved. We talked about the classes,
doing your part. Um, anything else? I I guess I can I'll note that the landscaping for clean water grants are essentially passed through the soil and water conservation district through the waterheds. So this it's our way of we
invest in people's projects because not they benefit the county and the watershed that they're in. So any if you if you live in Farmington, you live in the Vermillion River wershed because the entire city is within our boundaries.
So, and we I've met people at at the classes who show show me their their maps of their of where they're going to build their garden and they are right next to the Vermilion River or one of its tributaries, South Creek, Middle
Creek, North Creek or South Branch. It can help prevent storm water runoff from from that from your area. water that when it hits the ground, it can either soak into the ground, which in rain gardens, they do that, or hit like a hard surface and then they can it can go
down the storm drain or directly into a water resource and whatever >> whatever it's carrying with it at that time goes down the storm drain as well. So, by implementing a rain garden or even a native garden to some extent, uh that reduces storm water runoff. And you
can also help prevent storm water runoff from getting into our lakes and rivers by by adopting a storm drain. That was that was an outreach opportunity I forgot to mention. Um it's super easy and free. You just go to mninnesota.adoptad
drain.org or just Google adop uh Minnesota adopt a storm drain. >> And you get to name your drain, too. >> Yes, you do. [laughter] That's the fun part. And then you can and then you report how much you pick up from the drain online. and see how much of an impact you're making. >> Yeah.
>> And we also have storm drain stencils >> that you can that you can use. You spray white white spray paint on the ground. >> I think it stays pretty well. But we have we have storm drain stencils at our office at the wershed and the city has some as well, I believe. >> Yeah. But McKenna.
>> Yeah. Yep. >> So those are those are more things you can do. >> Yep. Well, that's great. Um we covered a lot. This was awesome. So, I want to thank you guys for joining me today. Listeners, make sure to check out Dakota County SWCD
website, right? So, it's Dakota SWCD.org and the Vermillion River Wershed JPO. It's vermillion riverwatershed.org. >> Yes. >> A lot of this information will be out there for you guys. Um, we'll also be posting about your classes and the web opportunities as well. So, look on our
website if you can't find it on theirs. And then registration is open for >> registration is open right now. Classes first class is Thursday, February 26th in Burnsville and they run through the beginning of June >> and you can attend any class. You can
attend classister just you can even walk up. >> Oh, okay. >> Yep. So you'll take walkins. >> We we will it's it's helpful if you register ahead of time, but uh yeah, we will we take walk-ins. though. So, kicking off today, the Farmington
Library is hosting Winter Salt Week, which is an an awesome week filled with uh fun kids related activities. They'll have a fun Salty Dog outreach book, activity book, as well as buttons and tattoos. There's bookmarks. They'll have
pulled a bunch of uh winter themed books that you can check out. There's also um as part of kind of this greater effort to educate people on the use of road salt and kind of some of the adverse side effects of overuse and then as well
as some of the solutions and the research that's being done. There is a daily webinar series that is going on with that as well. So there will be more information about that at the library. But, um, if you have kids, definitely stop by the library, pick up, um, a
Salty Dog activity book, and you can help Salty Dog and yourself learn a little bit more about how you can uh, do a little bit more to help keep our freshwater fresh. >> All right. Well, thank you again. And one more thing, I I just note that
Vermilion in our case has two L's in its name. Oh, yeah. There's a lake vermilion up north, but that only has one L. >> Yes. Good to know. If you spell it wrong, it won't come up correctly. >> All right. Well, thank you again, guys. >> Yes. Thank you.