As of 11/1/2022, the CPL program has provided over 900 grants totaling $109 million to over 200 different grantee organizations, improving or protecting over 339,000 acres of habitat. Demand for CPL grants has continued to grow each year as new applicants hear about the program and successful grantees return. In ML 2018 there were 107 grants awarded- 18 metro grants, 20 traditional grants, and 69 Expedited Conservation Partners grants. Through these 107 grants, over 18,000 acres were restored, enhanced, or protected. Over $11M was awarded to organizations for projects.
The Conservation Partners Legacy Grant Program will be managed by the Department of Natural Resources to provide competitive matching grants of up to $400,000 to local, regional, state, and national non-profit organizations and government entities. In it's first 7 years of funding, the CPL program has provided 410 grants totaling $37 million to 133 different grantee organizations, positively affecting over 220,000 acres of habitat. Demand for CPL grants has continued to grow each year as new grantees hear about the program and successful grantees return.
Grassland ecosystems evolved to depend on periodic disturbances, such as fire and grazing, to maintain their health and stability. Periodic disturbances help control invasive species, add nutrients back into the soil, germinate plant seeds, enhance wildlife habitat, and more. In Minnesota habitat managers have used fire as a disturbance tool for decades but the use of grazing has been much rarer, mostly because of a lack of necessary infrastructure such as fencing.
The Conservation Partners Legacy Grant Program will be managed by the Department of Natural Resources to provide competitive matching grants of up to $400,000 to local, regional, state, and national non-profit organizations and government entities.
We need updates to the 4-H exhibit building that is owned by the Agricultural Society, but it is used by the 4-H exhibitors to house their projects during the fair. Fine Arts, Crafts, Photography, Woodworking, Clothing and Textiles, and Quilts are just a few of these project areas. This building sustained some water damage to the interior of the building. The problem has been fixed but the interior plywood and insulation needs to be fixed to safely have these projects, exhibitors and fairgoers inside of this building.
1. Kern Photography: R. J. Kern is an American artist whose work investigates ideas of home, ancestry, and a sense of place. His portraits focus on intimate, interdependent relationships of people, animals, and landscape as a means of exploring how ancestry shapes identity and how myth intertwines with personal history. His camera has led him from an inquiry into his lineage in the farming communities of Scandinavia and Ireland to the examination of similar communities near his home in Minnesota.
