Overview

Kettle River Watershed

The Kettle River watershed covers 672,235 acres in northeast Minnesota and lies within Northern Lakes and Forests ecoregion, covering parts of Aitkin, Carlton, Kanabec, and Pine counties. The headwaters for the Kettle River begin in Carlton County, and the river flows 104 miles south to its confluence with the St. Croix River south of Hinckley.

This watershed includes dozens of lakes and wetlands and a few small streams that flow into the St. Croix River, which borders the watershed on the southeast. There are 23 lakes of 100 acres or greater in the Kettle River watershed. Major cities include Hinckley, Kettle River, Barnum, Willow River, Moose Lake, Sturgeon Lake, Sandstone, and Finlayson. The watershed also includes part of the Fond du Lac tribal lands.

Land uses are predominately forest (55%), agriculture (20%), and wetlands (19%). Current impairments are mercury (lakes and Kettle River), bacteria, and biota.

(Credit: MPCA)

Upper St. Croix River Watershed

The Upper St. Croix River Watershed drains about 2,057 square miles in eastern Minnesota and northwestern Wisconsin. About 26% of that area lies within Minnesota’s Pine County, spanning an area from the Wisconsin border on the east to the Snake and Kettle River Watersheds to the west and south.

Streams of the Upper St. Croix Watershed are among the most biologically intact, healthy, and resilient of watersheds in Minnesota.

The very good water quality and biological communities in the Upper St. Croix River Watershed reflect the majority of land being forests and wetlands, along with minimal hydrologic modification and discharge of pollutants (point and non-point) within this watershed.

The water quality and biological communities will remain exceptional with continued care of and valuing undeveloped land, combined with best land management practices such as perennial vegetation buffers along developed stream sections, improved control of waste runoff at livestock operations, installation of exclusion fencing to limit animal access to streams, and limiting nutrient loading to surface waters from fertilizer applications.

(Credit: MPCA)

Kettle/Upper St. Croix Watershed Partnership

The Kettle/Upper St. Croix Comprehensive Watershed Management Plan was approved by the Minnesota Board of Water and Soil Resources in 2024. 

Visit the dedicated Kettle/Upper St. Croix Watershed webpage (hosted by Pine County SWCD)