Rainy-Lake of the Woods State of the Basin Report (SOBR) 2022

This project is to produce a Rainy-Lake of the Woods State of the Basin Report (SOBR) 2021 update in a binational project partnership of the Lake of the Woods Water Sustainability Foundation (a not-for-profit Registered Charitable Organization), the International Multi-Agency Arrangement (a binational collaborative of 11 agencies: government, US Tribal, and NGO), Grand Council Treaty 3 (Indigenous government), and the Board. An up-to-date SOBR will provide the Board, partners in the project, and the public with: a current understanding and reporting of priority issues in the R-LoW Basin; assessment of progress since the last report in 2014 (www.lowwsf.com/sobr; www.legacyfiles.ijc.org/publications/R-LoW_SOBR_2014_web-res.compressed.pdf); gap analyses and needs recommendations to inform work planning; public communications tools; and relationship building with Indigenous peoples and the inclusion of Indigenous knowledge systems.

Deliverables include a full SOBR report, written for a technical audience, and an Overview summary report, written for a lay-public audience, highlighting in summary form the key information about the state of the priority issues / basin concerns. Priority issues for focus include:  Nutrients and algal blooms; Climate change; Contaminants; Aquatic Invasive Species; Water levels / hydrology / erosion; Fish & fisheries; Watershed governance; Water quality objectives; Emerging concerns; Gap analyses and needs recommendations. This project is also highlighted in our IWI projects StoryMap here.