The goal of this project is to develop a Watershed Restoration and Protection Plan (WRAPS) to be used at the local level. It will increase the number of citizens participating in education and outreach events; foster information and idea exchange around watershed issues through relationships and social networks; involve community members in crafting civic engagement activities/plans in which they feel ownership and desire to implement; and promote awareness, concern, and watershed stewardship to community organizations/institutions.
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:
Minnesota Public Radio is the state's largest cultural organization, providing 96 percent of the population with free access to some of the best broadcast cultural programming in the world. Minnesota Public Radio is using a grant from the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund to implement projects around the following four goals:
This funding is for arts, arts education, and arts access, and to preserve Minnesota's history and cultural heritage.
The Minnesota Children's Museum will develop a literacy focused exhibit to catalyze community engagement around early childhood learning and education.
This project addresses five reaches of the Minnesota River that have aquatic recreation impairments as identified by high concentrations of E. coli. The project will describe the water quality impairments, complete pollutant source assessments, establish loading capacities and allocations for the impairments, and develop implementation strategies.
Minnesota Youth in Government (YIG) is a youth-led experience that engages middle and high school youth in democratic governing leadership. Students learn about government process and gain an understanding of local, state, national and international concerns. They research and debate, participate in model Assemblies, United Nations, Youth Conferences on National Affairs, retreats and trainings, and National Judicial Competition, and gain an appreciation of diverse viewpoints in respectful ways.
The goals for this project were to: protect 1,200 acres native prairie/wetland/savanna; restore 250 acres prairie/wetland; enhance 6,000 acres grassland/savanna with fire, invasive species removal, and grazing; and continue a new prairie conservation model. This phase resulted in a total of 1,425 acres protected, 22,298 acres enhanced, and 110 acres restored. When combined with phases 1 and 2 of the Prairie Recovery Program we have cumulatively protected 4,070 acres, enhanced 58,134 acres and restored 314 acres using OHF funds.
Arts and Cultural Heritage funding will allow us to pursue three major initiatives between July 1, 2016 and June 30, 2017: (1) Offer special exhibits and programs promoting creative & 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. (3) Changing exhibits and access at Minnesota Children’s Museum-Rochester to ensure inclusive family experiences for the Rochester community.
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.
The goal of this project is to establish a framework that the local government can use to guide their involvement as the UMR Watershed Project progresses over the next four years. This will result in strategies to protect or restore the waters in this watershed. These strategies will be used as the basis for making informed local water quality and land use planning decisions, as well as development of grant applications to implement the restoration and protection of waters in the UMR watershed.
To hire a qualified interpretive specialist to develop an interpretive plan for the history along 287 miles of the Minnesota River Valley National Scenic Byway.
Minnesota Trout Unlimited will enhance degraded habitat for fish and diverse wildlife in and along priority trout streams with existing permanent protection. Increasing threats to these relatively scarce resources require accelerating habitat work to reduce the backlog of degraded stream reaches and buffer streams from the increased frequency and intensity of large rainfall and flooding. In the process of restoring habitat, we also increase climate resilience by reconnecting streams to their floodplains and removing barriers to fish movement to colder water.
The Minnesota State Band is a 45-piece concert band that performs a wide variety of music throughout the year. This year, the band celebrates 125 years as an arts organization. We are a part of Minnesota's rich history.
When we receive legacy funding, our goals are to increase the number of concert tours, continuing to reach out to smaller communities around Minnesota, sharing our love of music with residents, and planning joint events with school and community music and arts groups throughout our state.
This project is a documentary and includes working in partnership with East Side Freedom Library (ESFL) and Vietnamese Social Services (VSS) and with Cambodian American Partnership (CAP) as a program partner with the collaborative aim to provide a platform for Southeast Asian women to share their experiences preserving history, honoring more inclusively the lives impacted, and building awareness of these stories in Minnesota, of particular relevance for our state where Cambodian, Hmong, Laotian, and Vietnamese American communities established post-Vietnam War and continue to grow.
The goal of this project is to simulate up to ten scenarios using the recently completed Hydrologic Simulation Program FORTRAN (HSPF) model for the Mississippi River–Lake Pepin (MRLP) watershed. The mode will be used to investigate a variety of management scenarios to support further planning work and implementation in the watershed. Model scenarios are being developed to inform 1W1P planning activities and future implementation.
This project will build a working watershed SWAT model that can readily be used by the MPCA to provide information to support conventional parameter TMDLs and to identify critical areas for BMP installation/evaluation that can be supported by the efforts of the local Farmer Led Council as well as other land owners within the Mississippi River-Winona watershed.
This project will address Step 2b in the Watershed approach process and computation of TMDLS for those impaired waters determined to be in need of them.
This project proposes utilizing a precision conservation framework to assess two small impaired agricultural watersheds (HUC12) to determine optimal locations of best management practices and structures on the landscape that will address local water quality issues in a more strategic manner. The watershed assessment process will create GIS-generated maps that will be available to local SWCD staff that will inform decision-making for interested landowners.
The Mississippi River Winona/La Crescent (WinLaC) Watershed Restoration and Protection Strategy (WRAPS) Update Project will help local watershed partners prioritize areas of the WinLaC watersheds through watershed monitoring and analysis, inventorying wells and mapping Best Management Practices (BMPs).
Jumping worms are an invasive, exotic that poses a threat to forests by removing soil organic matter and seedlings. It is necessary to develop IPM tactics for mitigating jumping worms.
DNR acquired a fee-title parcel designated as an Aquatic Management area in Itasca County. This acquisition protected 41 acres and exceeded the accomplishment plan goal. Nine trout stream conservation easements were also added to the AMA system. Two Forests for the Future easements with a combined total of 171 acres were acquired, achieving protection in priority watersheds while maintaining working forest in private ownership.
Update the state's 20-year-old native plant community classification guides to incorporate new data; streamline user application and access to products; and increase connections to evolving climate and vegetation trends.
The protection of insect-feeding animals is reliant on sustained insect abundance. We will investigate the ecological roles and energy transfer by Minnesota insects and train future insect researchers
Construction funding is needed to stabilize a unique shoreline site using a bioengineered design incorporating native plants soil wraps, stream barbs and root wads to create aquatic habitat.
Native to the western United States and Canada, mountain pine beetle is considered the most devastating forest insect in North America. Trees usually die as a result of infestation and an unprecedented outbreak in the west is currently decimating pine forests there. While mountain pine beetle is not presently believed to reside in Minnesota, there are risks posed by an expanding species range resulting from warming climate and the potential for accidental introduction via lumber imports from infested areas.
Native to the western United States and Canada, mountain pine beetle is considered the most devastating forest insect in North America. Trees usually die as a result of infestation and an unprecedented outbreak in the west is currently decimating pine forests there. While mountain pine beetle is not presently believed to reside in Minnesota, there are risks posed by an expanding species range resulting from warming climate and the potential for accidental introduction via lumber imports from infested areas.
This project supports monitoring and assessment activities by MPCA EAO staff and includes lab analysis, equipment, and fieldwork expenses associated with monitoring and assessment activities within the described priority watersheds.
Lake Monitoring: Lakes are monitored for nutrients, clarity and other information to provide the data needed to assess the aquatic recreation use support.
This project supports monitoring and assessment activities by MPCA EAO staff and includes lab analysis, equipment, and fieldwork expenses associated with monitoring and assessment activities.
Lake Monitoring: Lakes are monitored for nutrients, clarity and other information to provide the data needed to assess the aquatic recreation use support.
This project supports monitoring and assessment activities by MPCA EAO staff and includes lab analysis, equipment, and fieldwork expenses associated with monitoring and assessment activities within the described priority watersheds.
Lake Monitoring: Lakes are monitored for nutrients, clarity and other information to provide the data needed to assess the aquatic recreation use support.
