Governor Pawlenty chose the Root River watershed to serve as a demonstration for the Impaired Waters component of the Clean Water Initiative. The 81 mile river with its million acre watershed flows from the corn belt of the southern Minnesota to its confluence with the Mississippi River in the southeast corner of the state. Elements of the project include wetland restoration, drainage management and riparian buffers in intensively cropped upper watershed areas, side hill seep buffers and reforestation in Karst plains of middle watershed areas, alfalfa incentives, detention basin clean outs, and critical area seedings in steep lower watershed areas.