Cleveland area farmer participates in project to restore wetland

Mar. 23—CLEVELAND — Leo Koppelman has spent 65 years farming within eyesight of Middle Lake Jefferson near Cleveland. During the nearly 160 years the farm has been in the family, it's been the site of traditional farming and not-so-typical agriculture.

Leo's dad for 50 years raised mink, and now Koppelman, along with his brother and son, operate a hog operation.

In recent decades Koppelman, 82, has seen the water quality in the Jefferson-German chain of lakes deteriorate and witnessed sediment and nutrients carried into Middle Jefferson after heavy rains.

Now, thanks to a restored wetland at the edge of the farm, just across a county road from Middle Jeff, runoff water from upland farms is being held back to reduce sediment, phosphorous and other nutrients from getting into the lake.

"I've had lots of compliments on it," Koppelman said. "People who drive by it like the way it looks." He said the project will look even better in the coming year or two as they have laid down wildflower and native grass seeds.

"We've been working on this project six or seven years but the funding wasn't there. But the funding finally came through."

A $387,000 Clean Water Fund grant from the Minnesota Board of Water and Soil Resources was secured, allowing the Le Sueur County SWCD and others to create a larger plan to reduce erosion, sediment and nutrients in the watershed.

Koppelman's restoration project cost $40,000, with matching funds coming from Le Sueur County's aggregate mining tax and the Greater Jefferson-German Lakes Association, which raised $12,000. Koppelman's cost share was 10% of the project.

"It turned out pretty awesome," Le Sueur County SWCD Manager Mike Schultz said of the project. "It was engineered to handle a 5- or 6-inch rainfall event."

The wetland got an early test after it was completed last year when heavy rains fell. "It was able to treat all of the water from a 5-inch rainfall. And there's a spillway that can hold even more water, but it never topped the spillway," Schultz said. "So that was exciting. The lake is only about 75 feet away."

Impaired lakes

Middle Jefferson — one of five lakes in the chain that includes German, East Jefferson, West Jefferson and Swede's Bay — is impaired for aquatic recreation due to nutrient loading. The chain lies within the Cannon River watershed, which drains into the Mississippi River.

Koppelman's site is one of 13 identified as high priorities within the 15,400-acre watershed, based on terrain analysis, a Total Maximum Daily Load study and onsite verification.

Ryan Jones, the area engineer with the SWCD, said the area of restored wetland was previously filled with sedimentation, and water flowed over it and also caused water to flow in other directions, damaging roads and culverts.

"We did some grading to remove the sediment and redirect the water so the runoff from the watershed flows through this area and gives it a chance to spread out and and settle things out."

Jones said big, effective projects like this one take two things: funding and a willing landowner.

"The biggest thing here is you have a willing landowner. Sometimes that's the biggest hurdle."

Schultz said they are always talking to landowners about potential projects they might be interested in doing. "We have conversations with landowners and they have an idea, but we don't have funding in place. So maybe years later we get the funding and can do it. We've been able to make a lot of good partnerships in the watershed."

Koppelman said that over the years he's felt the sting of unfair criticism by some that his farm was a big polluter even though the water flowing across his property is coming mostly from other land. "All I've heard is, 'Koppelman's hog farm is polluting the lake.'"

Even in the 1970s, when the county determined that overflow caused by rain and snowmelt was polluting the lake, the Koppelmans began taking steps. They built a hog manure lagoon and closed a couple of barns. Six years ago, Koppelman enrolled land in the federal Conservation Reserve Program and replaced a 1960s-built gabion basket. Designed for erosion control, it no longer functioned properly.

Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund dollars also allowed for a bluff stabilization project on the property.

Broad approach

The Clean Water Fund grant has allowed for the creation of 21 best management practices that would work in the region. Practices tied to the grant include structures designed to slow and filter runoff, 275 acres of cover crops, and two wetland restorations totaling about 27 acres. The Koppelman project alone is projected to reduce soil erosion by 161 tons a year, curb sediment loading by 69 tons a year and reduce phosphorus loading by slightly more than 79 pounds a year.

Schultz said when all the practices are put in place, they will address 40% to 50% of the recommended phosphorus reduction recommended by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency.

Beyond nutrient loading, the chain of lakes has seen shore and bluff erosion from higher lake levels and increased precipitation.