The sun is casting diamonds on the water in Brown’s Creek, birds are fluttering all around me, and I’ve just found a puffball mushroom twice as big as my head.
Click!
Also, I’m fairly certain I’ve just been added to a long list of charismatic megafauna caught on film by the trail cam at the Brown’s Creek Conservation Area.
This fall, voters in Washington County will weigh in on a referendum that could re-authorize the county’s Land and Water Legacy Program, originally created with voter approval in 2006. If approved, $40 million in new funding will be allocated toward protecting high quality habitat near lakes and rivers over the next 20 years.
Since 2006, Washington County’s Land and Water Legacy Program has helped to protect 1900 acres of land, including 328 acres at Big Marine Regional Park, 102 acres at St. Croix Bluffs Regional Park, and smaller additions at Cottage Grove Ravine, Lake Elmo Park Reserve, and Pine Point Regional Parks. County funds also helped to establish Lumberjack Landing in Stillwater and Bayport Park, both of which are located on the St. Croix River, Oxbow Trails along Valley Creek in Afton (Belwin Conservancy), and Mississippi Dunes Park on the Mississippi River in Cottage Grove.
The Brown’s Creek Conservation Area in Grant is located towards the headwaters of Brown’s Creek and is one of the lesser known “Legacy Lands.” Despite being only 10 acres in size, it is a haven for deer, turkeys, foxes, pollinators, songbirds, and even bears, many of which have made cameo appearances on the trail cam, just like me. Washington County purchased the property in 2017 with Land and Water Legacy funding and then turned it over to the Brown’s Creek Watershed District, which monitors water quality, stream life, plants, and migratory birds on site, and is working to restore prairie, woods, and wetlands there too.
A few miles further north, wildlife sightings are equally common at Big Marine Park Reserve and Keystone Woods Wildlife Management Area. In fact, when I stopped out for a short hike last week Friday, I was delighted to see a trio of trumpeter swans gliding gracefully across the water in a small lake along Manning Ave. Swans almost went extinct in the early 1900s but were saved thanks to a decades-long recovery effort started by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) in the late 1980s.
In 2024, more than 2000 acres of farm and ranchland, formerly known as Kelley Farms, went up for sale in this location. Trust for Public Land worked with Minnesota’s Outdoor Heritage Fund to purchase 1820 acres to create the new Keystone Woods WMA and Washington County used its Land and Water Legacy funds to purchase several hundred acres on the other side of the road that will eventually be added to Big Marine Park Reserve. Combined, the WMA and regional park protect a large swath of wetlands, woods, and grasslands that are home to short-eared owls, sandhill cranes, Blanding’s turtles, swans, and other rare species.
Washington County is the third fastest growing county in the state, and more than 22,000 new people have moved here over the past six years. Through its Land and Water Legacy program, the county aims to protect lakes, rivers, streams, and drinking water aquifers as local communities grow, provide outdoor recreation opportunities, and create habitat connections for wildlife.
In some locations, the county’s Land and Water Legacy program has even played a role in restoring impaired lakes back to good health. In Woodbury, Washington County helped the city to purchase 36 acres of land near La Lake in 2013 and establish oak woodlands and prairie on 11 acres of new land at La Lake Park in 2025. As the land surrounding La Lake has been returned from fallow farmland back to prairie and oak savanna, runoff pollution has decreased as well. Previously, La Lake was on Minnesota’s list of impaired waters due to excess nutrients, but in 2024 the lake was “delisted” thanks to improved water quality.
More often, conservation easements protect high quality habitat and sensitive water resources from future development. For example, Valley Creek in Afton is one of the only trout streams in east central Minnesota that has maintained a naturally reproducing population of brook trout for decades. Valley Creek’s good health is largely thanks to Belwin Conservancy, a nonprofit organization that stewards 1600 acres of prairie, woods, and wetlands within the Valley Creek watershed. Three of Belwin’s newest properties – Valley Creek Overlook, Valley Creek Bluff, and Oxbow Trails – were purchased with support from Washington County’s Land and Water Legacy Program.
To learn more about Washington County’s Land and Water Legacy Program, including locations of completed projects, visit the county’s website here.
From giant puffballs, to swimming swans, fall colors, and flowing waters, there are many natural treasures to enjoy on these legacy lands – and all conveniently located mere minutes from home.
