Minnesota Buffers for Wildlife and Water Phase 2

The Lessard-Sams Outdoor Heritage Council provided a recommendation to fund the first phase of RIM Buffers, which provided $2,249,000 and played a part in securing 1,595.4 acres of permanent protection. This second phase of RIM Buffers built upon the successes and momentum of that first phase, securing 1,336.7 acres of permanently established buffers that will continue to provide critical water quality improvements and improved nesting habitat. 

This partnership program permanently added grassland habitat and reduced fragmentation by combining the efforts of the Outdoor Heritage Fund, Clean Water Fund, and bonding to secure buffers adjacent to public waters. Building upon the 100-foot RIM buffers funded through the Clean Water Fund, we added an additional buffer width (up to NRCS 393 standard for CRP buffers) to make clean water buffers more attractive and productive for wildlife. This program contributed toward the development of new habitat complexes and enhancement of existing habitats by expanding the size of narrow corridors and connecting them to large, permanently protected grasslands, wetlands, and shallow lakes.

Furthermore, these wildlife buffers were targeted for landscapes with existing permanently protected habitat to accelerate progress toward achieving minimum thresholds of grass habitat required by waterfowl and other Species of Greatest Conservation Need. Many Species of Greatest Conservation Need benefit from large habitat patches and some require a minimum threshold of grassland habitat within a landscape. 

Buffers are commonly viewed as simply a water quality practice, but buffers have notable positive impacts on wildlife due their unique upland and riverine habitat interaction. Not only are upland grasslands protected or restored, but detrimental impacts to stream-reliant biota is reduced. Many species of amphibians, such as southern MN's Northern Cricket Frog (endangered) rely on aquatic habitat during the breeding season and then spend most of their lives in upland habitat. In Southeastern MN, reptiles such as the Blanding's Turtle (endangered) rely on meandering streams, rivers, and adjacent lands. 

A scoring mechanism was employed to fund high quality wildlife buffer enhancements and target these funds. Buffers for wildlife under this program were prioritized based upon their ability to enhance public land habitats (e.g., WPA’s or WMA’s), protect expiring CRP lands, add key nesting cover to wetland/upland complexes, provide maximum water quality benefits, and enhance shallow lakes. 

At the time this appropriation became available, Minnesota had just over 200,000 acres of Conservation Reserve Program in buffer practices at various stages of their 10-15 year contracts, some soon to expire. The RIM Buffer program served as a complement to other programs to secure some of those expiring acres.