There are seven major watersheds Koochiching County, this project will work in five of them: Big Fork, Little Fork, Rapid River, Lower Rainy River, and Rainy River Headwaters watersheds. The local Koochiching County Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD) is positioned to assist in several elements of the Watershed Restoration and Protection Strategy (WRAPS) process. This includes gap monitoring for water chemistry, sediment work, TMDL (Total Maximum Daily Load) development, modeling scenarios, and WRAPS development.
The purpose of this project is for North Saint Louis Soil and Water Conservation District to continue to assist with the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency's watershed approach and development of the Watershed Restoration and Protection Strategy (WRAPS) reports in the Rainy River-Headwaters and Vermilion River Watersheds.
The purpose of this project is to develop implementation prioritization strategies to restore and protect the Vermilion River and Rainy River-Headwaters watersheds’ waterbodies and finalize Watershed Restoration and Protection Strategy (WRAPS) reports for both the Vermilion River and Rainy River-Headwaters watersheds.
The Rainy River Basin WPLMN Sampling Program will focus on watershed load monitoring in the Big Fork River, Little Fork River, Rainy River-Rainy Lake, and Vermilion River watersheds. Four total staff will work on various portions of this agreement. The main objective is for one lead sampler and one backup sampler to collect water chemistry and field parameters for eight (8) sites, annually at various flows, especially peak flows, and utilize that data to determine the amount of pollutant load into each stream system.
This project will meet the following goals: develop, implement, and evaluate the impacts civic engagement outcomes for the Rainy River Headwaters and the Cloquet watersheds; create a citizen understanding of the Watershed Restoration & Protection Strategy (WRAPS) process and the role that citizens, lake associations, institutions of higher education, and other stakeholders can play in attaining water quality restoration and protection; provide opportunities for citizens and stakeholders to assist local partners and state agencies in developing priorities for projects to accomplish resto
This project will provide an important framework for civic and citizen engagement and communication in the International Rainy River-Lake of the Woods Watershed, which will contribute to long-term public participation in surface water protection and restoration activities.
The goal of this project is the development of the Rainy River Headwaters, Vermilion River and St. Louis River Watersheds Local Civic Engagement and Watershed Restoration and Protection Strategy.
Lake Minnewaska, a highly used recreational lake, is the largest body of water in Pope County. While scientific studies show that the transparency in Lake Minnewaska has been increasing over the last 30 years, there are numerous ravines on the south shore of Lake Minnewaska that could threaten this trend. The erosion in these ravines is causing large amounts of sediment and phosphorus to be dumped directly into Lake Minnewaska. After a storm in 2011, many trees vegetating the ravines were blown down, ripping out the roots and further exposing the soil along these ravines.
Given access to resources & training, educators are in powerful positions to share stories of the people living on the land we call Minnesota. Through the work of Dr. Mato Nunpa, a team of Indigenous scholars & community interviews, Speaking Out Collective will examine how mass murder, wholesale land theft, enslavement and extermination were justified and taught in schools. By centering silenced Indigenous narratives, this project invites students, educators & districts to reconsider MN history.
We will characterize environmental drivers contributing to the decline of wild rice using lake sediment cores to reconstruct historical wild rice abundance in relation to lake and watershed stressors.
The purpose of this project is to improve understanding of primary productivity in the Red River and the diversity and population structure of the algal communities occurring along the river system. This will be accomplished through taxonomic identification of periphyton and phytoplankton assemblages necessary for characterizing responses to nutrient gradients along the Red River of the North.
Inert museum storage was created for the ethnographically and historically significant Helbing Collection of American Indian Arts and Crafts as recommended in a museum assessment.
To hire qualified professionals to complete roof rehabilitation and exterior work on the former J.C. Schobes Bakery and Confectionery, listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
To rehabilitate an egress door on the Lyric Theater, a contributing feature of the Virginia Commercial Historic District, listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
