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By Joel Stottrup
It’s difficult now in the wintry landscape to fully take in the project that earned Linda Evans of rural Princeton the title of Outstanding Conservationist of the Year for 2009.
 Right now a person can’t see the sedge grasses, elderberry bushes, bloodroot, anemones and other plants like you would in the spring or summer on the 40 acres that Evans shares with husband Mike Floerchinger and their two dogs, in rural Princeton.
It was “spring beauty” months ago, Evans said last week.
Linda Evans stands at her residence in Bogus Brook Township in rural Princeton last week with the partially frozen Rum River flowing behind her.
One can still see the Rum River at this time of year though. It flows around the edge of much of their property in Bogus Brook Township.
But for those who know what a grass waterway is, they could identify that now on the property, even with the snow, once Evans has pointed it out. The couple had an excavator form the waterway this year and the couple planted it into the grass. It was one of the efforts that the Mille Lacs County Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD) lauded in its naming of Evans as the Conservationist of the Year.
Evans and Floerchinger moved onto their parcel in 1992 after the couple were taken by its setting along the Rum River. Soon, the two began encouraging its natural vegetation by removing invasive plants and set out to make other conservation improvements.
Some of the couple’s acreage was under tillage for crops when they moved onto it. The water that drained off the cropland would move fast enough across the ground to the river that it eroded the soil. The erosion created a gully and the moving water carried sediment and phosphorous into the river, noted Lynn Carter, conservation technician with the Mille Lacs SWCD. Carter and Mille Lacs SWCD Manager Susan Shaw worked with Evans and Floerchinger in carrying out the project to stop the erosion and help make the landscape more natural on their property. The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources forestry division also assisted by having a forester formulate a forestry management plan for the couple’s land.
Evans and Floerchinger had begun some conservation work on their land not long after occupying it. They asked the farmer who was tilling the land on their property to try to use “less invasive means,” in Evans words. About two years after moving onto the property, the couple had the tilling on their property completely terminated. The couple decided instead to put it into the Conservation Reserve Program and also uses the SWCD’s help to turn it all into wildlife habitat.
The only portion that is mowed is right around the couple’s house to provide a fire break, and Evans said the mowing only happens twice a year.
The couple was able to get close to half of their conservation project costs paid for. Evans said that she and her husband still spent thousands of dollars to do the projects.
The work included planting many varieties of deciduous and evergreen trees, and it wasn’t easy, Evans noted. The tree seedlings couldn’t just be spaded in because of the layer of heavy clay soil on their land. It’s the same soil found in spots elsewhere in the Princeton area and was used decades ago to make yellow bricks. The brick making occurred in the little town of Brickton that once existed just north of the city of Princeton.
Because of such soil, Evans said, a person has to dig a hole in order to plant each tree seedling. If it was much softer soil a person could just plunge a spade shovel into the ground, move it back and forth to make an opening, place the seedling roots in and then close the gap.
The couple planted 200 trees in 2008 and 500 more this year. Evans said she did most of the planting because Floerchinger was only available at the end of his work day.
Evans does have a couple things going on outside the home. She is technical director at the Princeton High School Performing Arts Center and is advisor to the school’s environmental club. The club helped get the tree seedlings established one year by placing weed-prevention mats around the seedlings.
About a dozen students from the environmental club were at the Evans-Floerchinger property this past May 9 doing what the SWCD staff calls a stream walk.
The students broke up into groups and performed tasks such as identifying plants, taking water samples from the Rum River, and making various observations about the river from a canoe provided by the couple.
The observations included recording the clarity of the river water, describing the river’s bottom, listing the kinds and numbers of animals along the river, especially frogs, and noting the land use along the river.
A large number of frogs indicate a healthy stream, Carter from the Mille Lacs SWCD, said. If there are feed lots near the banks or cows walking into the river, that can cause pollution results, Carter added.
Carter, reviewing why Evans was named Outstanding Conservationist, described the property she and Floerchinger have as “pristine” and “rich in native vegetation and wildlife thanks to Linda’s conservation efforts.”
Carter also cited the grassed waterway, and extensive tree plantings as helping protect the quality of the water in the Rum River.
 The buffer of wild plants that Evans and Floerchinger have protected on their land along the Rum River and the forming of the grass waterway helps keep pollutants from getting into the river, Evans explained. It was very easy before the grass waterway was built for herbicides to wash off the nearby farm field and go into the river, Evans said. Vegetation slows the drainage and acts like a filter, she noted.
The grass waterway at the Linda Evans and Mike Floerchinger residence can be seen as the low area at left. Farther to the left and at a higher elevation is a farm field under tillage. The grass helps filter agriculture chemical runoff.
Carter also pointed out the stream walk with the students and said it supported the Surface Water Assessment grant that the Mille Lacs SWCD received.
Other conservation credits that Carter listed for Evans included Evans having volunteered at the Minnesota State Fair’s green expo. Evans and Floerchinger also spend a week each summer volunteering at the Midwest Renewable Energy Fair, raising funds for conservation education programs.
Evans is also a strong supporter of small farms and is a member of Family Farm Defenders.
Evans and Floerchinger, a few years ago, had a large active solar energy panel installed on their property to produce electricity for their home.
Evans, speaking last week about the parcel she lives on, said: “I thank God for every moment that I get to live on this property. It’s an honor to live here.”
Evans called it her “duty” to take care of the property as best she can and her duty to spend every penny that such care requires.
Evans also talked about various wildlife she has seen on the property, including opossums, deer, beavers, fox, raccoon, coyotes, timber wolves, weasels and eagles. She mentioned too, the black cherry, ironwood, basswood and butternut trees on her property.
Evans lamented how so many who live in the city do not get to see a tree frog and live amidst “loud cars, the roar of motors, the smell of car exhaust and the feel of hot tar under their feet in the summer.”
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