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Rice Creek Watershed District Pays Up to $10,000 for a Rain Garden or Prairie Restoration

by Stephen
A completed rain garden with native sedges and wildflowers in a Rice Creek Watershed District, Minnesota front yard, catching runoff from a downspout

The short version

  • Rice Creek Watershed District's Water Quality Grants cover 25 to 50 percent of project cost, or 75 percent for a highly beneficial project, up to $10,000 either way (ricecreek.org).
  • A free site visit from district conservation staff produces the Water Quality Plan design your application is built around.
  • A Citizen Advisory Committee reviews applications before the district board makes the funding decision.
  • The district also runs a separate, smaller Mini-Grant program; this Water Quality Grants tier is the larger of the two and the one covered here.

Rice Creek Watershed District's Water Quality Grants cover 25 to 50 percent of project cost, or 75 percent for a highly beneficial project, up to $10,000 either way, for a rain garden or prairie restoration in the Twin Cities area.

Key takeaways

  • Rice Creek Watershed District covers 25 to 50 percent of project cost, or 75 percent for a highly beneficial project, up to $10,000 (ricecreek.org).
  • A free site visit from district staff produces the Water Quality Plan your application is built around.
  • A Citizen Advisory Committee reviews applications before the district board makes the funding decision.
  • This is the district's larger Water Quality Grants tier, separate from its smaller Mini-Grant program.

How the Rice Creek Water Quality Grants work

Rice Creek Watershed District's Water Quality Grants reimburse 25 to 50 percent of project cost for a residential rain garden or prairie restoration, rising to 75 percent for a project the district rates as highly beneficial to water quality, with a $10,000 cap either way. The process starts with a free conservation site visit, which produces a Water Quality Plan design for the property. A Citizen Advisory Committee reviews the completed application, and the district board makes the final funding decision. Reimbursement is paid against submitted receipts after installation.

Who this program is for

The program serves land and homeowners inside the Rice Creek Watershed District, which covers parts of the northern Twin Cities metro. Note that this is a separate, larger grant tier from the district's own smaller Mini-Grant program, which runs concurrently under a different section of the district's site; the two are not the same application.

See the Minnesota rebates page for the current application link and program details.

See a finished plan for a yard like this