This project will create a high accuracy elevation dataset - critical for effectively planning and implementing water quality projects - for the state of Minnesota using LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) and geospatial mapping technologies. Although some areas of the state have been mapped previously, many counties remain unmapped or have insufficient or inadequate data. This multi-year project, to be completed in 2012, is a collaborative effort of Minnesota's Digital Elevation Committee and partners with county surveyors to ensure accuracy with ground-truthing.
Arts and Cultural Heritage funding will allow us to pursue three major initiatives between July 1, 2015 and June 30, 2016: 1) Offer special exhibits and programs promoting creative and critical thinking in our main museum in St. Paul; 2) A Pop-up satellite Museum at the Mall of America featuring four changing exhibits to attract thousands of new visitors; and 3) Changing exhibits and access at Minnesota Children’s Museum-Rochester to ensure inclusive family experiences for the Rochester community. Recipient:
Kids Voting St. Paul will introduce youth-friendly technologies to enhance civic learning, expand its veterans civic education initiative, increase the number of students participating in Kids Voting elections, pilot a state-wide KidVention, expand and leverage partnerships, and convene a civic education provider summit.
Learning Law and Democracy Foundation will strengthen learning about the Minnesota constitution and government, create a civic self-assessment instrument for Minnesota schools, convene a civic education provider summit, enhance the teachingcivics.org website, expand professional development opportunities, and develop new lessons on Minnesota state and local government.
Goals for Phase 2 of the MN Prairie Recovery Program were to: protect 1200 acres native prairie/savanna; restore 250 acres grassland; enhance 6000 acres grassland/savanna with fire, invasive species removal, and grazing; and continue a new prairie conservation model.
Minnesota Trout Unlimited volunteers, chapters and partners will enhance habitat for fish, game and wildlife in and along numerous coldwater streams on existing Aquatic Management Areas and other public lands around the state, while leveraging approximately $3 million for this.
The Civil War stories of the Oliver Kelley Farm and Historic Fort Snelling were featured in a 30-minute television program and broadcast statewide by Twin Cities Public Television (TPT). A similar TV segment was also aired on the Civil War origins of Juneteenth and how this anniversary continues to to be commemorated in the African American community. These historical topics and many more, including the 1862 U.S, Dakota War, comprised a special 2-hour television program also broadcast by TPT.
The Minnesota Main Street program is a proven, comprehensive strategy that helps communities create new jobs and businesses while revitalizing buildings and preserving their historic downtowns. MNHS's Heritage Preservation department works with the partners
listed above to implement Minnesota Main Street,
which provides the tools, training, information, and networking that communities need to revitalize their business districts.
There are currently seven Minnesota Main Street designated communities: Faribault, New Ulm, Owatonna, Red Wing, Shakopee, Willmar, and Winona.
The Minnesota Digital Library (MDL) is a statewide, multi-institutional collaboration that supports discovery, education, and personal enrichment through digitization of and access to the rich historical resources of the state's public and academic libraries, archives, museums and historical societies, while also preserving these resources for future generations.
MDL partnered with:
The MNHS Indian Advisory Committee (IAC) is made up of tribally appointed representatives of the 11 Minnesota tribes, as well as representatives of key groups, such as educators. IAC advises on planning, developing, and evaluating MNHS activities and initiatives including exhibitions, publications, public programs, and curatorial policy as they relate to the research, collection, preservation, and interpretation of Minnesota and American Indian history in Minnesota.
The Minnesota Historical Society has launched and is expanding MNopedia, the first online encyclopedia about Minnesota. MNopedia is a growing digital resource that provides reliable, multimedia entries related to the state and its history. MNopedia will be tested, refined and broadened with additional content and tools, giving students, teachers, researchers and the general public greater access to information, images, documents and other historical resources relating to Minnesota.
MNopedia is an award-winning online encyclopedia of Minnesota created by MNHS, designed for use by a general audience, teachers, and students. In 2015, the MNopedia library grew to include essays on Hmong, African American, and Jewish history, and articles on topics as diverse as Minnesota in World War I, immigration to the Iron Range, Dayton's department store, and the Grange in Minnesota. A new feature, This Day in Minnesota History, a Minnesota book of days, was added.
Multimedia support enriches the Minnesota Historical Society's programs, exhibitions and websites with innovative, high-quality multimedia productions. Through audio, video, interactive and immersive productions, the program allows the Society to capture and present the stories of Minnesotans and document the impact of Legacy history projects. Rich media content enhances students"" and teachers"" experiences with the Society's curricular resources, engages visitors of all ages at the Society's museums and historic sites and reaches audiences everywhere through web and mobile delivery.
A multimedia group has been created to support the development of educational and informational video productions including online curriculum for 6th grade history, the commemoration of the Civil War, WWI, and more.
The Minnesota Historical Society and the Wilder Foundation worked with two new groups of existing and emerging community leaders in 2015 to enhance their ability to act on important community issues.
During each six-month program, 245 participants explored neighborhood involvement and developed leadership skills to take effective community action.
New State Trail development to complete key missing trail segments or to fulfill funding gaps in trail development projects. Potetial development to include multi-use trail, trail parking areas, trail waysides, or trail bridges. New trail development includes all associated engineering, design and construction, and is to incorporate current Best Management Practices.
DNR regional clean water specialists and area hydrologists work with local partners to provide technical assistance on implementation projects and related outreach, resulting in cleaner water through healthier watersheds, shorelands and floodplains. We help partners identify, develop, target, design and/or implement on-the-ground projects that improve water quality, enhance habitat and protect infrastructure. We help design restorations that provide lasting benefits by mimicking features of healthy ecosystems.
To contract with qualified professionals to prepare planning documents that will help preserve the Norway Lutheran Church (Muskego), listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
With the help of Arts and Cultural Heritage funds, the Minnesota Historical Society is the first institution of its kind to fully digitize its entire oral history collection. This project promotes the discovery and use of the Minnesota Historical Society's oral history collection by digitizing 2,000 hours of recorded audio and making more existing oral histories available to the public on the "Becoming Minnesotan" website, education.mnhs.org/immigration. This collection represents a rich and unique source of history through the experiences of Minnesotans in their own words.
This project will establish a web-based permitting system to capture essential water appropriation information. The system will include an online permit application process for water use and other permits. The online system will streamline the permitting process for applicants and significantly reduce staff time correcting and managing permit applications and water use reports that are incomplete or have incorrectly calculated permit fees. The use of technology in the application and reporting process will also eliminate staff time needed to enter data and scan and route documents.
The Oral History office worked with MNHS's Inclusion and Community Engagement staff on an oral history project related to the History Center's 2015 exhibit Inspiring Beauty: 50 Years of Ebony Fashion Fair. Interviewer Mica Anders-Turner completed 10 interviews to complement the Inspiring Beauty exhibit.
The Conservation Partners Legacy Grant Program is managed by the Department of Natural Resources to provide competitive matching grants to local, regional, state, and national non-profit organizations, including governments.
The Division of Parks and Trails is engaged in critical work to connect people to the outdoors. As part of the work in this project area, the new touch-screen kiosk project will increase awareness about outdoor recreation opportunities at Minnesota state parks and trails among underrepresented groups by creating and installing accessible, touch-screen kiosks with information in multiple languages, in high-traffic, family-oriented locations. Connection plans deliver Minnesota State Parks and Trails' messages to new audiences.
