On July 12, 2016, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR), in partnership with MNIT Services @ DNR, released an interactive map to help Minnesotans understand the buffer requirements for Minnesota’s waterways in a visual way.

What are Buffers?

Minnesota’s Buffer Law was signed by Governor Dayton in June of 2015. This law was amended by the Minnesota Legislature, and signed into law by Governor Dayton in April of 2016.

In short, Minnesota's buffer law helps to protect Minnesota’s water. A buffer is a border of perennial vegetation alongside public waters (such as lakes, reservoirs, wetlands, rivers, streams and ditches, etc.) that filters out phosphorus, nitrogen and sediment from surrounding land before they reach surface waters. The law also provides flexibility and financial support for landowners to install and maintain buffers to help protect Minnesota’s water supply for generations.

Visualizing Minnesota’s Waterways

With more than 90,000 miles of shoreline that require buffers or alternative water quality mitigation, the Minnesota DNR designed the Buffer Protection Map as an educational resource tool for landowners. The map combines existing tabular data with geospatial data to create a visual representation of Minnesota’s waters that require buffers.

Armed with the technical know-how to create an interactive map, the MNIT Services @ DNR team, at the request of the Minnesota DNR, developed a useful tool to help Minnesotans understand where buffers are required.

The first task analyzed and gathered required data for the interactive map, merging available data on public waters and shoreland classifications with information from 95 different drainage authorities. The second task involved partnering closely with DNR’s data governance program and MNIT Services @ DNR application developers to develop a set of web-based collaboration tools so local stakeholders could share feedback with DNR staff during the open comment period.

Minnesotans whose property includes waterways can now find the vital information they need to implement buffer zones through the map’s many features. The Minnesota DNR Buffer Map:

• Identifies public ditches requiring a 16.5-foot buffer (local ordinances may require wider buffers)
• Identifies public waters where a 50-foot average buffer is required (local ordinances may require wider buffers)
• The map also identifies "needing field review" sites. These sites require on-site verification by the DNR to determine if a buffer is necessary or not.

Additional information about Minnesota’s buffer mapping project and the interactive Buffer Map are available on the Minnesota DNR Buffer Webpage.

The geographic information data behind the interactive map is available at the Buffer Protection Map resource, located on the Minnesota Geospatial Commons.