This Phase 10 request for Ducks Unlimited's Living Lakes program will enhance or restore 1,325 acres of wetlands and adjacent prairie grasslands for the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and Minnesota DNR on public lands and private lands under permanent easement. DU biologists and engineers will design wetland restorations and water control structures for active management of shallow lake water levels to enhance their ecology for ducks, other wildlife, and people, primarily in SW Minnesota's Prairie Pothole Region.
Provide approximately 15 matching grants for local parks, trail, acquisition of natural areas and trails to connect people safety to desirable community locations and regional or state facilities.
This project will support water quality monitoring and data analysis in the Red River Basin. The monitoring will assist in providing water chemistry data needed to calculate annual pollutant loads for the Major Watershed Load Monitoring Program (MWLMP) and provide short term data sets of select parameters to other MPCA programs.
Leveraging new statewide climate data, we will assess future change in the duration, frequency and magnitude of heavy precipitation and drought events and engage communities to prepare for these extremes.
Phase 2 of the Marsh River Watershed Restoration and Protection Strategy (WRAPS) project includes: continued civic engagement; production of the Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) study, which allocates pollutant load reductions for impaired waters; and production of the WRAPS report, which identifies implementation strategies that will maintain or improve water quality in many lakes and streams throughout the watershed.
The goals of Phase I of the Marsh River Watershed (WRW) Watershed Restoration and Protection Strategy (WRAPS) project are to: 1) gather or develop watershed data needed for the development of the WRAPS project; 2) establish project and sub-basin work groups, develop a social outcomes strategy, and develop a civic engagement evaluation strategy to guide the WRAPS project; and 3) begin to identify, create, and organize tools that can be used to determine potential stressors and priority management areas.
Since 2000, a diverse group of partners has been collectively working in northwestern Minnesota on one of the largest prairie-wetland restorations in the world. Spanning 22,000 acres and adjacent to an additional 16,000 acres of public and private conservation land, the goal of the Glacial Ridge Project has been to demonstrate whether large-scale habitat restoration is a viable way to reduce flooding and improve water quality. Prior to beginning restoration efforts on the project, a comprehensive baseline hydrologic study of the area was completed by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).
The ENRTF grant will introduce 12 young people to conservation careers through full-time, paid internships and apprenticeships on the Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge (16 FTEs over 2 years).
Expanding waste diversion practices across the state this project will: create 16 jobs, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, provide data to measure the social, economic, and environmental benefits of waste diversion.
Legacy funds allow the Minnesota Zoo to extend the season of the Wells Fargo Family Farm beyond its historical May to September season to include full programming and exhibits from April through November.
Enrollment of private lands in conservation programs can provide important natural resource and other public benefits by taking the lands out of production so that they can provide various wildlife and ecological benefits. This appropriation is enabling Minnesota's Board of Soil and Water Resources to provide grants to local soil and water conservation districts for employment of technical staff to assist private landowners in implementing conservation programs.
The Civics Education Coalition will create opportunities for students, enrich teacher capacity to engage students, and build state-wide networks. Work will include an interactive website, online youth summit, youth conference, new lessons for educators, teacher institutes, and expansion of the statewide Civic Education Network and its activities.
The Minnesota Invasive Terrestrial Plants and Pests Center (MITPPC) requests $7 million to fund up to 20 new, high-priority applied TIS research projects to improve Minnesota's natural and agricultural resources.
We will investigate the potential of natural microbes indigenous to Minnesota to biodegrade conventional plastics in the environment as a means for cleaning contaminated soils and waters across the state.
This project proposes to expand recreational opportunities on Minnesota State Trails through the rehabilitation and enhancement of existing state trails and replacement or repair of existing state trail bridges.
Midwest Viking Festival (MVF) presents Viking-era arts, cultural traditions, and folkways with demonstrations, hands-on activities, and performances, including weaving, wood-turning, metalwork, carving, fiber dyeing, pottery making, felting, rune writing, songs, and more.
Red Lake Falls Public Library added 37 new volumes relating to Minnesota history to their collections. The Red Lake Falls Public Library is a small branch of the Northwest Regional Library in northwestern Minnesota. In this Red Lake County library, it is an ongoing and important task to increase their collection of titles of historic significance and regional interest.
Pangea's Cultivate Our Cultures is a one-day free festival celebrating the rich cultural diversity in the Moorhead-Fargo community which showcases the music, dance, and storytelling as well as cultural crafts, customs, and cuisine of a variety of countries.
This program proposes a 15-year goal to provide protection to the remaining 90,000 acres of native prairie/savanna, a 20-year goal to restore and protect an additional 500,000 acres of diverse grasslands/savannas, and a 10-year goal to increase management capacity to annually manage 300,000 acres of grassland and savannas per year. This proposal takes the first steps to achieve these goals by initiating a comprehensive, coordinated and collaborative prairie conservation initiative. Annual investments by the LSOHC will be required to realize these ambitious outcomes.
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.
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.
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 Clean Water Fund (CWF) and Outdoor Heritage Fund (OHF) were used together to secure easements on buffer areas. 71 easements have been recorded for a total of 1,083.9 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 2,105.0 acres. Only the OHF acres are being reported in this final report to be consistent with the approved accomplishment plan.
