This St. Louis River Watershed assessment will include the waters of Dempsey Creek, West Two River, St. Louis River, Mud Hen Creek, Embarrass River, West Swan River, Partridge River, Barber Creek, East Swan River, Helen Lake, Pine Lake, Cadotte Lake, Colby Lake, Loon Lake, St. James Pit, Strand Lake, Nichols Lake, Ely Lake, Silver Lake, Elbow Lake, Mashkenode Lake, Carey Lake and Island Lake. These lakes and streams are found throughout the St. Louis River Watershed, which spans parts of St. Louis and Itasca Counties.
NATIFS is launching the Indigenous Food Lab in Minneapolis. By providing education and training that give Native people access to healthy, local, indigenous food, we can address serious issues of malnutrition, food-related illness, and economic impoverishment on tribal lands. We are requesting funding to launch virtual programming now, including how-to videos and podcast conversations with Native chefs and other relevant Native health experts.
The goal of this project is to produce a subwatershed assessment report for two subwatersheds in the Lake Pepin major watershed. The subwatersheds included are East Lake and the upper North Creek that drains from Lakeville, both will be studied for total phosphorus and total suspended solids. The report will include two distinct lists of potential best management practice (BMP) location, cost, feasibility, estimated reductions and 30% specifications of top projects.
This archive will be a central resource for accessible Indigenous knowledge around Indigenous foods systems and will include documentation of local traditional ecological knowledge on wild plants, animals, Native agriculture, seed saving, recipes, language, crafting, medicinals, places, histories, health, sports and games, stories, and more.
The North Fork Crow River Watershed (NFCRWD) is mainly agricultural and has numerous public and private drainage ditches. Sub-surface drainage are major contributors to the sediment and nutrient loading into the North Fork Crow River and area Lakes. This project help reach the Rice Lake phosphorous reductions goals. Local landowners are willing to contribute land on public drainage systems to retain water and restore wetlands at three locations with total anticipated yearly pollutant removals of 200 tons of total suspended sediment and 235 pounds of phosphorus.
The primary land use within the North Fork Crow River Watershed District is mainly row crop agriculture with extensive public and private drainage systems. A large portion of existing tile lines have open intakes that directly transport sediment and nutrients to open ditches leading to the North Fork Crow River (NFCR). The NFCR flows into Rice Lake that is impaired for aquatic recreation due to excessive nutrients.
This project will support the review of all public comments submitted for the North Fork Crow River TMDL and make appropriate edits and changes to the draft TMDL based on MPCA guidance.
The North Fork Crow River Watershed planning workgroup has based its comprehensive watershed management plan on seven planning regions. Each planning region has a list of prioritized resource concerns, measurable goals and implementation actions. Implementation actions are targeted in locations within each planning region, prioritized based on local concerns, programs, etc.
Created a new master plan for the park, with extensive community engagement. The master plan will include physical improvements to the park and will meet all Metropolitan Council requirements for master plans. In addition, the master plan will include a programmatic vision for the park, created in collaboration with MPRB environmental staff. Throughout the master plan and programmatic plan process, MPRB will promote the park both through community engagement and special events, both inside the park and throughout the north side of Minneapolis.
Loppet and community collaborators will promote urban nature connection for North Minneapolis residents through storytelling, nature and environmental justice programming, and environmental leadership pathways for high schoolers and young adults.
The goal of this project is to complete Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) modeling on North and South Heron Lake and incorporate the results into the Des Moines River Watershed TMDL report.
Through this project, the North Cannon River Watershed Management Organization (NCRWMO) works cooperatively with the Dakota Soil and Water Conservation District (DSWCD) and landowners to establish best management practices (BMPs) that reduce runoff and decrease the movement of sediment, nutrients, and pollutants into the Cannon River and its tributaries including, Trout Brook, Chub Creek, and Pine Creek.
To make accessible Boys' Life and Scouting and the American Girl and Girl Scout Leader magazines as a basis for understanding scouting history in Minnesota
This project will collect water quality data for 31 sites (22 lakes and 9 stream sites) within the Rainy River Headwaters, Cloquet, and Vermilion major watersheds as part of the 10-year cycle for monitoring Minnesota's waters. Due to the large number and geographic extent of monitoring sites, North St. Louis SWCD (NSLSWCD) is subcontracting with Lake County SWCD and Koochiching County SWCD. An intern from the Vermilion Community College (VCC) Water Resources Program will be hired to conduct monitoring of 4 stream sites and 3 lake sites located between Ely and Virginia.
The North Fork Crow River Watershed District will develop an inventory and inspection database for 103E ditches under their drainage authority. The district will acquire a database software solution to conduct field inspections and to track ditch maintenance projects throughout the district. This software will be used to facilitate statutory compliance including developing a process for completing annual inspection and reporting requirements.
This project will replace a conventional 32 foot wide neighborhood street with a narrowed 22 -24 foot wide street that will include rain gardens, sidewalk, and boulevard trees. North St. Paul is using the term Living Streets to describe a new type of street that will eventually replace most of the city's existing streets. Living streets are narrower and have less pavement than existing streets. Reducing the width of existing streets reduces construction costs and assessments to residents. It allows room for the installation of rainwater gardens to treat stormwater.
This contract will be to initiate the second cycle of the North Fork Crow River Watershed Restoration and Protection Strategies (WRAPS) development. The project will provide needed information and analysis to make sure that implementation strategies are well thought out and targeted. The result will be a framework for civic and citizen engagement and communication, which will contribute to long-term public participation in surface water protection and restoration activities throughout the watershed.
The goal of this project is to add dual endpoints to the turbidity section of the North Fork Crow TMDL so that it addresses the proposed TSS standards.
The Vermillion River Watershed Joint Powers Organization (VRWJPO), in partnership with the City of Lakeville and Dakota County, are working to systematically address Total Suspended Solids (TSS) sources contributing to the North Creek tributary of the Vermillion River (North Creek) through use of a prioritized, targeted, and measurable subwatershed assessment approach to identify and implement the most cost- effective and feasible projects to address North Creek's TSS, fish, and macroinvertebrate impairments.
The North Shore Forest Collaborative (via Sugarloaf) seeks to contract foresters to perform a concerted private land forestry outreach to restore ecological health to Minnesota?s North Shore forest landscape.
Northern white cedar wetland plant communities provide unique ecological, economic, and wetland functions, including high value timber, long-term carbon storage, winter refuge for deer and other wildlife, wildlife habitat, and thermal buffering for brook trout streams. However, these plant communities have been declining in Minnesota for decades mostly as a result of development impacts. The Minnesota Board of Water and Soil Resources is using this appropriation to continue efforts aimed at improving the quantity and quality of white cedar wetland plant communities in Minnesota.
The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources will coordinate the collection of high-resolution elevation data for northeastern portion of Minnesota using Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) systems. The geographic area of the work includes Minnesota counties of Carlton, Cook, Lake, and St. Louis Counties and that portion of Koochiching County that comprises Voyageurs National Park.
This program acquired 1 parcel for a total of 396 acres which fell short of our total acre goal of 410 acres by 14 acres. The Gun Lake parcel purchased in this appropriation illustrates how we are working together to protect only strategic habitat critical to improving sharp-tailed grouse populations. All acquired acres are within the northern forest region. We have a balance of $24,300 that will be returned to the Fund.
This program will protect, enhance and restore up to 1,419.7 acres of open and brushland habitat and 145 acres of forest habitat in northeastern Minnesota, provide access to additional public lands for recreation, provide multiple environmental benefits, and benefit sharp-tailed grouse and other open and brushland species in greatest conservation need (several of which are state listed as endangered, threatened or special concern) by pursuing acquisitions in Kanabec and Aitkin counties.
This sharp-tailed grouse habitat partnership protected 492 acres, primarily brushland, in northeastern Minnesota for addition to the Wildlife Management Area system providing multiple environmental and wildlife benefits. The partnership between Pheasants Forever, MN Sharp-tailed Grouse Society, and the MN Department of Natural Resources has become a strong and efficient partnership through the Northeastern Minnesota Sharp-Tailed Grouse Habitat Partnership appropriations. The Pomroy Pastures and Gun Lake parcels purchased in this appropriation exemplify how we are working togethe
This Sharp-tailed Grouse Habitat Partnership protected 834 acres, primarily brushland, in Kanabec County for addition to the WMA system, providing multiple environmental benefits.
This partnership will protect, restore and enhance 2,769 acres, primarily brushland, in northeastern Minnesota. Habitat will be added to the WMA system and enhanced on existing public lands for species in greatest conservation need, outdoor recreation, and environmental benefits.
The Nature Conservancy and US Fish and Wildlife Service will work together to permanently protect native prairie and associated complexes of wetlands and native habitats in western and central Minnesota by purchasing approximately 705 acres of fee title properties and/or permanent habitat easements. Approximately 350 acres will be native prairie. Work will be focused in areas identified as having significant biodiversity by the Minnesota Biological Survey and located in priority areas in the Minnesota Prairie Conservation Plan.
