To provide professional development for two staff members at the national American Association for State and Local History Conference in St. Paul, September 17-20, 2014.
Eight towns in Martin County recently updated their wellhead protection plans. One of the main protection plan items is to seal abandoned wells within the towns' Drinking Water Source Management Areas. This project will provide 50% cost share, up to $1,000, to help offset the cost of sealing abandoned wells.
Provides grants to Soil and Water Conservation Districts that focuses on increasing capacity to address four resource concern areas - Soil Erosion, Riparian Zone Management, Water Storage and Treatment, and Excess Nutrients.
The Stearns County Soil and Water Conservation District will hire an Accelerated Water Quality Technician to focus on projects in the Middle Sauk area showing the greatest pollution reductions. After identifying and prioritizing targeted sites with the highest pollution potential, the Stearns County SWCD will begin surveys and designs and complete them in a timely fashion while current implementation funds are available. The accelerated survey and design in Stearns County will relieve our natural resources of the current strain put on them by the environment and land use.
Many of Minnesota's wetlands have been lost and the remainder degraded. Recent tiling and ditching have accelerated this situation. Through this program, shallow lakes and wetlands were designed, constructed, and intensively managed to benefit wetland wildlife and Minnesota residents. Habitat accomplishments from this proposal have enhanced 19,365 acres of wetlands and shallow lakes to benefit waterfowl and wetland wildlife. Work was accomplish through constructed infrastructure, cattail control, and a significant prescribed wetland burn.
The goal of this program was to accelerate the protection of 887 acres as Waterfowl Production Area's. Pheasants Forever successfully protected eight parcels totaling 1,554.39 acres of prairie wetland and grasslands providing excellent habitat for numerous wildlife.
In total, we under spent on our budget, over delivered on acre goals, and over delivered on match leverage received.
This phase of WMA acquisition protected 1802.55 acres of prairie grassland, wetland, and other wildlife habitat as State Wildlife Management Areas open to public hunting. With these 16 acquisition we have exceeded our planned acres of 1362 by more than 400 acres. Breaking down acres by ecological section we acquired 282 acres in the metro and 1520 acres in the prairie. We have a balance of $52,798 of grant funds and $81,837.48 in program income that will be returned despite exceeding our acre goals.
The goal of this phase of the WPA acquisition program was to protect a total of 915 acres of grassland, wetland and other wildlife habitats as Waterfowl Production Areas open to public hunting. Pheasants Forever purchased 10 parcels totaling 1,150.27 acres of wetlands and grasslands in Minnesota's prairie region. In addition to exceeding our acre goals, $ 37,512.95 of grant funds will be returned.
This phase of WMA acquisition protected 1,260.22 acres of prairie grassland, wetland, and other wildlife habitat as State Wildlife Management Areas open to public hunting. With these 9 acquisition we have exceeded our planned acres of 1030 by more than 230.22 acres. All of the acquired properties had wildlife habitat restored to the highest quality possible.
The Anoka Sand Plain Partnership restored / enhanced 3,714 acres of priority prairie, savanna, forest, wetland, and shoreline habitat on public lands and waters within the Anoka Sand Plain EcoRegion within the Metropolitan Urbanizing, Forest-Prairie, and Northern Forest regions. Total R/E acreage achieved over the course of the appropriation is 126% of our stated acreage goals, and was accomplished through a robust partnership of four direct recipients improving a total of 16 priority sites including WMAs, state forest, national wildlife refuges, city and county lands.
