In phase V of this program, we purchased two properties totaling 1,076 acres, which exceeds our acre goal by 408 acres. The Prosby addition to the Cupido WMA in Norman County was 955 acres, and the Lehrke addition to the Parke WPA in Clay County was 121 acres. Upon purchase, we restored the uplands and wetlands to the fullest extent possible. Both tracts have been transferred to either the MN DNR or USFWS.
This project contributed to the goals of the MN Prairie Conservation Plan by protecting 539 acres of prairie/wetland/savanna habitat; restoring 151 acres prairie/grassland; and enhancing 24,604 acres grassland/savanna. We will continue to implement subsequent Phases toward meeting the conservation goals described in the MN Prairie Conservation Plan.
The project will advance the protection, restoration and enhancement goals for prairie, grassland and wetland habitats as described in the 2018 MN Prairie Conservation Plan. It builds upon the highly successful model previously established in prior Prairie Recovery Phases and seeks to protect 500 acres in Fee without PILT obligations to be held by The Nature Conservancy, enhance 18,000 acres of permanently protected grasslands, and restore 200 acres of prairie and wetland habitat.
This proposal protects and restores 760 acres of land in the Minnesota prairie-chicken range, that will be transferred to the MNDNR as a WMA or to the USFWS as a WPA. All land will be open to public hunting. MN Prairie Chicken Society and Pheasants Forever will be protecting parcels that focus specifically on prairie chicken benefits, which makes this proposal unique and highly focused. All acquisitions will occur within the prairie and prairie/forest planning regions with a focus in Clay, Norman, Mahnomen and Wilkin counties which is the primary range of prairie chickens in Minnesota.
We propose to integrate Minnesota Wildflowers Information, an online tool for plant identification, with the Minnesota Biodiversity Atlas, to preserve and extend this popular ENTRF-supported resource for future use.
This project helps Minnesota entities that directly or indirectly cause PFAS and microplastics contamination stop the flow of the contaminants by developing strategies to manage solid waste streams.
The Prioritization, Targeting, and Measuring Water Quality Improvement Application (PTMA) connects the general qualitative strategies in a Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) and Watershed Restoration and Protection (WRAP) and the identification of implementable on-the-ground Best Management Practices (BMPs). Leveraging geospatial data from the International Water Institute this application will be developed for two pilot areas within the Red River Basin.
This project will collect real-time parameter data for specific conductance, water temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen, turbidity and stream flow at the United States geological Survey (USGS) gaging stations located at Fargo, ND and Grand Forks, ND on the Red River of the North; and publish the data both on the USGS NWIS website and in the USGS Annual Report.
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.
This is a multi-governmental project funded by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, the United States Geological Survey, North Dakota Department of Health, the Cities of Fargo, Moorhead, Grand Forks, and East Grand Forks to monitor river flow and condition parameters to gain an improved understanding of the nature of the chemical and physical attributes of the Red River of the North.
This project will provide land and water managers in the Red River Basin with data and online tools to prioritize actions on the landscape that achieve water quality objectives identified in local and state plans. This will help identify strategically important locations for implementing erosion control and water management practices. Standardized watershed-based data products will be integrated into a web-based planning tool which will be added to the Red River Basin Decision Information Network (RRBDIN) being developed as part of the Red River Watershed Feasibility Study.
The goal of this project is to development a Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) study that addresses all of the non-mercury-related impaired reaches along the Red River of the North (RRN). The TMDL study will provide an analytical and strategic foundation for recommending restoration strategies for impaired waters. This phase of the project will also include civic engagement efforts by providing water quality framework and stakeholder activities for civic/citizen engagement and communication.
This project is for Minnesota Legislative Clean Water Fund funding to engage citizens in local watershed monitoring, to work with regional partners to promote understanding and protection of watersheds, and to organize and facilitate gathering of scientific data all for the benefit of water quality in the Red River Basin.
This project is for Minnesota Legislative Clean Water Fund funding to engage citizens in local watershed monitoring, to work with regional partners to promote understanding and protection of watersheds, and to organize and facilitate gathering of scientific data all for the benefit of water quality in the Red River Basin.
The International Water Institute (IWI) will monitor 42 sites (3 basin, 12 major watershed, and 27 subwatershed) in the Red River and Upper Mississippi River Basins intensively during the contract period. There will also be 5 sites in the Red River Basin where mercury samples will be collected and sent to Minnesota Department of Health for analysis. The IWI will collect water samples across the range of flow conditions targeting sample collection at times of moderate to high flow.
This project will develop an effective transferable model to engage and educate watershed residents, stakeholders and others to better understand and protect watershed ecostystems through environmental monitoring, training, and formal and informal education programs in their local watershed. The project will build on the foundation of the existing Red River Basin River Watch program by strengthening three main activity areas: 1) curriculum integration and teacher training, 2) youth leadership and civic engagement, and 3) applied research collaboration and watershed science skills building.
As part of the FY 2012 funding cycle, the Board of Water and Soil Resources granted funds for development of the Water Quality Decision Support Application (WQDSA). The WQDSA will provide land and water managers with geospatial data and online tools to prioritize, market, and implement actions on the landscape to achieve water quality objectives identified in local and state water plans and to ensure that public funding decisions are strategic and defensible.
This project will monitor nine locations in the major watersheds (8-digit Hydrologic Unit Codes) of the Lower Red River Basin. The stream outlet monitoring will provide the water chemistry data needed to calculate annual pollutant loads. Staff from the Red River Watershed Management Board (RRWMB) will conduct the sampling, initially manage the data and provide the data to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) for load calculations and import into the STORET data system.
International Water Institute (IWI) staff will monitor 24 sites in the Bois de Sioux, Mustinka (2 sites), Buffalo (8 sites), Red Lake (4 sites), Sandhill (3 sites), Thief (2 sites), and Tamarac River (3 sites) Watersheds intensively over a 2 year period in an attempt to collect 25 samples per year at each site. If conditions allow for the collection of all planned samples, 1200 stream samples will be collected over the time period. Monitoring will include field measurements, observations, and at least three photographs during each site visit.
MN Legislative Clean Water Fund funding to engage citizens in local watershed monitoring, work with regional partners to promote understanding and protection of watersheds, and organize and facilitate gathering of scientific data all for the benefit of water quality in the Red River Basin.
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.
The goal of this project is to engage citizens in local watershed monitoring, work with regional partners to promote understanding and protection of watersheds, and organize and facilitate gathering of scientific data for the benefit of water quality in the Red River Basin.
The goal of this project is to engage citizens in local watershed monitoring, work with regional partners to promote understanding and protection of watersheds, and organize and facilitate gathering of scientific data for the benefit of water quality in the Red River Basin.
The Red River Watershed Management Board (RRWMB) will partner with the Board of Water and Soil Resources (BWSR) on this basin-wide initiative to establish 780 acres of riparian/upland habitat within the Red River Basin (RRB) in Northwest Minnesota. This initiative will use BWSR's Reinvest in Minnesota (RIM) Program to target permanent conservation easements on agricultural lands to restore and protect stream and riparian habitat.
The RIM-WRP program will expand past efforts and provide important benefits to the citizens of Minnesota by restoring and permanently protecting priority wetlands and associated upland native grassland wildlife habitat via perpetual conservation easements. This funding will leverage $12.6 million of federal WRP funds for the State of Minnesota and is expected to create and sustain 343 jobs and income to local landowners, businesses and others in the state based on USDA economic estimates.
The Reinvest in Minnesota (RIM) Reserve Wetlands Reserve Program (WRP) Partnership will accelerate the restoration and protection of approximately 4,620 acres of previously drained wetlands and associated upland native grassland wildlife habitat complexes via perpetual conservation easements. The goal of the RIM-WRP Partnership is to achieve the greatest wetland functions and values, while optimizing wildlife habitat on every acre enrolled in the partnership.
Minnesota's wetlands provide crucial habitat for waterfowl and other wildlife, assist in flood control, and help maintain water quality. However, the state has lost half the wetlands that existed before European settlement and these drained wetlands have not been mapped as part of the National Wetlands Inventory. This appropriation is enabling efforts by Ducks Unlimited to provide a complement to the National Wetlands Inventory by identifying and mapping drained wetlands that have the potential to be restored to provide their various benefits once again.
Audubon Minnesota is requesting funds to enhance 1,625 acres and restore 100 acres of significantly important wildlife habitat on public and permanently protected private lands. Our project and parcel prioritization criteria places an emphasis on Important Bird Areas (IBA) and priority areas identified by the Minnesota Prairie Conservation Plan, within the 8 most northwestern Minnesota counties associated with the Tallgrass Aspen Parklands region, the Prairie Parklands region, and the northwestern edge of the Eastern Broadleaf Forest.
RIM Wetlands - Restoring the most productive habitat in Minnesota will protect and restore approximately 495 acres of previously drained wetlands and adjacent native grasslands on approximately 11 easements across the State to restore wetlands and associated uplands for habitat and associated benefits. The Board of Water and Soil Resources (BWSR) will utilize the Reinvest in Minnesota (RIM) easement program in partnership with local Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCDs) to target, protect and restore high priority habitat.
Under the CREP partnership with USDA, 38 easements were recorded on a total of 2,732 acres to restore previously drained wetlands and adjacent uplands. One easement is a flowage easement that was required to complete wetland restoration work on an adjacent
The Clean Water Fund (CWF) and Outdoor Heritage Fund (OHF) were used together to secure easements on buffer areas. 84 easements have been recorded for a total of 1,441 acres and are reported in the output tables for the final report (acre total does not include Clean Water Fund acres). The total acreage from both CWF and OHF sources for recorded easements is 2,793.2 acres. Only the OHF acres are being reported in this final report to be consistent with the approved accomplishment plan.
Using the Reinvest in Minnesota (RIM) program, this project addresses the potential loss of grassland habitats from conversion to cropland and accelerates grassland protection efforts not covered by other programs. Working in coordination with 11 established Prairie Conservation Plan Local Technical Teams (LTTs), and local SWCDs this proposal will enroll 936 RIM acres (approximately 12 easements), focusing on Minnesota Prairie Plan identified landscapes.
We propose identifying hot spots of groundwater chloride pollution of surface waters due to excessive road salt use, which is a long term source increasing chloride impairment of surface waters.
The project replaced asphalt shingles from the late 1960s with wooden shingles to complete a restoration project started in 2007, the repair the roof of the District No. 44 School, listed in the National Register of Historic Places. It involved removing two layers of shingles and inspecting the underlying sheathing, making historically accurate repairs where necessary, and re-shingling the school with wooden shingles.
The CREST team wants to create a mobile lab with innovative, engaging educational activities that would be used to travel to underserved, underrepresented schools and community events in Northwest Minnesota
