Chief Knight Celebrates Earth Day at Minnesota Wetlands Project

This year's Earth Day event at Glacial Ridge provided a day of excitement, as Bruce Knight, chief of the Natural Resources Conservation Service, gave a national NRCS perspective and tour the Glacial Ridge area.

"This is a great honor for us, to have the head of conservation programs covering the whole 50 states with us," said Keith Mykleseth, director of the Glacial Ridge.  Nearly 200 people attend the event.

"It's so rare to see wetlands restoration going on at this scale," Knight said. Much of the agency's projects tend to be smaller, in the 20- to 40-acre range, he said. "But 7,000 - that's a lot of acres."

Knight said he was impressed with the way The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and its many partners have worked together to get the project going.

"It's fascinating to see it now. It's progressing very well," he said. Knight noted that they have reasonable expectations of what can happen in a restoration project.

"It takes years and years for a prairie to heal, takes years for a wetland to come back. In three to four years, it's remarkable how quickly it's coming. You see some things come back quickly and others take more time."

NRCS along with 25 other public and private partners are cooperating in the 28,000 acre Glacial Ridge restoration project -- one of the Nation's largest wetland/tall grass prairie restoration projects -- located in Minnesota’s Northern Tall Grass Prairie Ecoregion.

NRCS’ Wetlands Reserve Program (WRP) is the driving force for the project. Local contractors are restoring natural water levels and vegetation to drained wetlands on WRP land. Eventually 8,000 acres of wetlands will be re-created.

The technique used for restoring the wetland consists of contractors seeding the surrounding uplands with prairie grasses and wildflowers collected within 65 miles of Glacial Ridge.

Knight said, while it's nice to have a day each year to celebrate nature, "It's bigger than just Earth Day. One of President Bush's sayings is, 'for farmers and ranchers, every day is Earth Day.' We need to keep that in mind, pause and reflect on the good work landowners and partners do to help people conserve, maintain and improve our natural resources and environment."

When asked how he likes his job so far, Knight replied, "It is the best job I've ever had in my life. I have the chance to work on conservation issues that I love, for an agency I have the world of respect for."

Story Natalie J. Ostgaard, Crookston Daily Times and Julie McSwain, NRCS State Public Affairs Specialist.  NRCS images.