To produce a one-hour documentary on the history of the laborers who constructed the Minnesota State Capitol, listed in the National Register of Historic Places, based on thorough and completed research.
Our mission is to provide high quality early childhood experiences in conjunction with Ojibwe and Dakota language immersion to urban families in the Twin Cities area.
The Wilder Foundation Archive was made more accessible to the public as a result of building on initial efforts by organizing and preserving fifty-nine (59) cubic feet of archival materials. The materials were inventoried and digitized, preservation issues were addressed and remedied and finding aids were created and made available. Some historic documents were donated to the Minnesota Historical Society, the University of Minnesota Social Work Archive, Stillwater Historical Society and the NPRHA Archives East End.
This program acquired, developed, and added 638 acres to the state Wildlife Management Area (WMA) system. These lands protect habitat and provide opportunities for public hunting, trapping and compatible outdoor uses consistent with the Outdoor Recreation Act (M.S. 86A.05, Subd.8).
The WinLaC Prioritization and Public Participation Project will identify priority water quality issues and concerns for the watershed approach in the Mississippi River - Winona and La Crescent watersheds. Information obtained from this project will help develop the Watershed Restoration and Protection Strategy (WRAPS) Update report as well the WinLaC Comprehensive Watershed Management Plan.
This project will continue the development of a Pre-Watershed Restoration and Protection Strategy (WRAPS) assessment, evaluation, community outreach and involvement, and development project that will provide for a comprehensive and more successful watershed restoration approach.
This project will produce a final Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) report and Watershed Restoration and Projection Strategy (WRAPS) reports for the Winnebago and Mississippi River – La Crescent watersheds including the drafting of public notice versions of the reports, responding to comments during the public notice period and producing the final TMDL and WRAPS reports.
To hire a qualified consultant to develop a Historic Structure Report that will help preserve the Winona Public Library, listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
To restore the battlement on the Winona Armory, listed in the National Register of Historic Places, and currently used as the Winona County History Museum.
Four individual national register nomination forms were prepared for Central, Madison, Jefferson and Washington-Kosciusko elementary schools located in the city of Winona. A qualified historian was hired to prepare the documentation. The schools had been previously evaluated and found to be eligible for nomination.
The Winona County Well Sealing Costshare Program will utilize Clean Water Funds to speed water well sealing in a continuing effort to protect the groundwater aquifers used for drinking water in Southeast Minnesota. Since 1990, 1303 unused water supply wells have been sealed in Winona County with costs ranging from $500-$10,000+ per well.
$530,500 of the allocated $600,000 was used to enhance 150 acres of Wirth Park habitat. This project included habitat enhancement of woodlands and wetlands involving invasive species removal and planting of native species. This project benefits animal species including the pileated woodpecker and the threatened Blanding’s turtle. Primary outcomes include better quality plant communities, reduced fragmentation, and higher functioning wetlands.
Wirth Lake is located in Theodore Wirth Regional Park in the City of Golden Valley. The lake was listed as Impaired due to excessive phosphorus levels. In recent years water quality goals were met except during instances where seasonal overflows from Bassett Creek into Wirth Lake occurred.With one relatively simple project, the Bassett Creek Watershed Management Commission anticipates that the excess phosphorus problem will be resolved once and for all.
In 2016, VocalEssence WITNESS welcomes artist Melanie DeMore to help us explore the Underground Railroad in Minnesota—specifically how our state has been a place of sanctuary for refugees from the time of slavery through today. As part of this project, Melanie will help record absent narratives of those who have found sanctuary in Minnesota, and these stories will be shared in video and written form to explore the concept of sanctuary as part of the WITNESS School Program.
Wolves are a hot topic in Minnesota, with the public sharply divided on management issues such as wolf hunting. The complexity of the topic lends itself to a lot of misunderstanding and misinformation that is not always helpful to resolving the polarized debate.
To hire a qualified historian to complete an evaluation to determine eligibility for listing in the National Register of Historic Places for the Woman's Club of Minneapolis.
An online timeline of legislation that has significantly affected women from Suffrage (1920) to the present was published. The entries are listed in chronological order. Each point on the timeline has a summary of the legislation and is linked to documentation related to the law's passage. Specific legislation can be indentified in conjunction with how many female legislators were holding office at that time.
The personal recollections of six women who have sought or held office in Minnesota were videotaped. These oral histories speak of the barriers, biases, challenges and opportunities they faced in politics. The recorded interviews are permanent additions to the Minnesota Historical Society archives. They were also used in a 30 minute broadcast television program on TPT (Twin Cities Public Television).
As part of a larger project to create a documentary on women's political history in Minnesota, historic footage, photographs, news clips and portions of taped oral history interviews were assembled and edited. The project produced a thirty-minute video documentary prepared for broadcast on Minnesota public television stations. AAUW owns the copyright and has offered programs and DVD copies to communities statewide, including a copy sent to the Minnesota historical Society.
My proposed project is to create the Urban Native Plant Guide. This set of laminated cards will be a user friendly, portable guide to some of the native plants present in the Minneapolis-St. Paul community. The guide will be created through collaboration and insight from local Native elders and will include traditional uses of the plants, along with their names in Anishinaabe, Dakota, and Lakota where available.
To hire a qualified architect to conduct a conditions assessment of the 1913 Woodland Park Baptist Church, listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
Hundreds of Minnesota women served on the French Front during World War I as volunteers for organizations such as the Red Cross. Their stories are often overlooked by history. The grand niece of Alice O'Brien, daughter of William O'Brien, has researched and developed a manuscript that combines chapters about Alice's life before and after the war with her letters home from the front during her service in France. The story is a personalized telling of what women volunteers experienced as Canteeners for the Red Cross. A copy of the manuscript was given to the Minnesota Historical Society.
