Lake Superior North Watershed Total Maximum Daily Load Flute Reed River

Northeastern Minnesota is blessed with many of the state's highest quality natural resources. These resources are important to both the native people and the more recent settlers in this area. The ultimate natural resource is Lake Superior itself, or Anishinaabewi-gichigami in Ojibwe, headwater of the Great Lakes. The Flute Reed River is tributary to Lake Superior, and is identified as impaired for aquatic life use due to excess sediment. The Clean Water Act, Section 303(d) requires Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs) for surface waters that do not meet, and maintain, applicable water quality standards necessary to support their designated uses. A TMDL determines the maximum amount of a pollutant a receiving waterbody can assimilate while still achieving water quality standards. This TMDL study addresses two impaired reaches of the Flute Reed River. The Flute Reed River is considered a valuable rainbow trout fishery among North Shore streams. Trout from Lake Superior enter the stream each spring to spawn. Young trout use the lower reaches of the river for one or two summers and were well represented in the most recent monitoring effort. The Flute Reed River Subwatershed is primarily forested with second and third generation forest cover. The principal community, the town of Hovland, was settled in the late 1800s. Hovland today is still small in population (~300). It is a non-incorporated community with four businesses, a church and post office clustered along a state highway. Residential areas are more dense near Lake Superior, and more scattered in the mid to headwaters area. There is significant private land ownership with associated rural homestead and seasonal home activities.