Little Rock Creek, a cold-water trout stream in central Minnesota, is impaired due to the lack of trout and other cold water fish. The trout are absent because of high water temperatures, low dissolved oxygen and high nitrate levels, stressors caused from a lack of base flow and overuse of groundwater. This project continues a 2011 initiative to assist irrigators in the Little Rock Creek groundwater recharge area with managing the timing and amount of irrigation applied to their crops.
The Little Rock Lake Total Maximum Daily Load study has identified areas in the watershed where phosphorus reduction is needed and what best management practices need to be applied. This is a coordinated implementation effort with Benton and Morrison Soil and Water Conservation Districts and Natural Resources Conservation Service, the Little Rock Lake Association, the livestock industry and other partners to install best management practices at numerous sites to continue cleaning up Little Rock Lake.
This Phase 9 request for Ducks Unlimited's Living Lakes program will enhance or restore 1,440 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.
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.
This Phase 8 request for Ducks Unlimited's Living Lakes program will enhance or restore 1,070 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 USFWS easement. Where required, DU engineers will design water control structures to restore wetland hydrology and allow active management of shallow lake water levels to enhance their ecology for ducks, other wildlife, and people, primarily in 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.
The goal of this project is to develop a Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) for all impaired stream reaches and lakes within the Long Prairie and Red Eye Watersheds.
This project will provide surface water quality data to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) to inform the Watershed Restoration and Protection Strategies (WRAPS) update process. All locations are in the Douglas County portion of the Long Prairie Watershed. Sites have been targeted based on local knowledge and citizen concerns. A culvert inventory will also be completed through this project. This will provide flow path data that will be utilized in future water quality analysis and project designs.
This project will gather watershed data to support the development of a Watershed Restoration and Protection Strategy with parameter-specific targets that will maintain or improve water quality for the Long Prairie River Watershed. This project will also provide an important framework for civic and citizen engagement and communication, contributing to long-term public participation in surface water protection and restoration activities throughout the watershed.
This project is to finalize the Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs) and Watershed Restoration & Protection Strategies (WRAPS) for the Red Eye and Long Prairie Watersheds.
This funding will be used to help fulfill the goals established in the Long Prairie CWMP. Approximate goals addressed are listed with the activities addressing them. Anticipated projects to be implemented include agricultural waste management facilities, agricultural land management, exclusion fencing, rain gardens, subsurface sewage treatment upgrades, shoreline restorations, and forestry. Other projects will be considered as opportunities arise.
This Sauk River Watershed District project will conduct the Whitney Park river clean-up, adopt a river program and other community events as part of their healthy living programs; will collaborate with the city of St. Cloud to install a rain garden demonstration site at Whitney Park; use local radio and public television stations to promote the District’s “neighborhood rain garden initiative” and other incentive programs.
This project will include analysis of existing and newly collected water quality data to verify the impairments on the currently listed reaches and to determine the status of the remaining river reaches as being either impaired or currently meeting standards. Stakeholder involvement and public participation will be a focus throughout the Watershed Approach Project. The project provides an opportunity to assess and leverage the capacity for the local community to engage in the process of watershed management and to adopt protection and restoration practices.
This project will address Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA), United States Environment Protection Agency (EPA), and public comments on draft Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) studies and Watershed Restoration and Protection Strategy (WRAPS) reports, preliminary draft TMDL studies, and public noticed TMDL studies and WRAPS reports for the Lower Red River Watershed and the Lake of the Woods Watershed and produce final versions of the TMDL studies and WRAPS reports for each watershed.
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.
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).
This project will provide condition monitoring and problem investigation monitoring at the following sites. Mississippi River: Tributaries include Bassett Creek, Cannon River, Crow River, and Minnehaha Creek. Minnesota River: Tributaries include Eagle Creek, Riley Creek, and Willow Creek. St. Croix River: Tributary includes Valley Creek.
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.
This Minnesota Forests for the Future project protected 1,947 acres of forest and forested wetlands with 1,478 acres of perpetual working forest conservation easements and 469 acres of fee title acquisition in Cass, Hubbard, Lake and Morrison Counties; ensuring public benefits, management access and sustainable managed forests.
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.
The Minnesota Forests for the Future Program will use $4.573 million in the Northern and Southeast Forest sections to protect and enhance habitat. In the Northern Forest, we propose to protect 1,500 acres with permanent conservation easements and 400 acres in fee title acquisition, and to enhance 100 acres. In the Southeast Forest, we propose to add 100 acres to the Richard J. Dorer Memorial Hardwood State Forest and enhance 300 acres of existing state forest land.
The MN Forests for the Future Program will use $2,971,000 in the Northern, Southeast and Transition Forest sections to protect 1,966 acres of habitat with permanent working forest conservation easements. Phase 8 builds upon past land protection work and focuses on permanently protecting working forests threatened by conversion to non-forest uses. This program will also protect habitat in priority cold-water refuge watersheds by implementing protection strategies identified in local watershed plans.
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.
To costume and equip seven mannequin figures for a major exhibit commemorating the 150th anniversary of the Civil War and Minnesota's tragic Dakota War of 1862 in a new 528 square foot gallery.
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.
Mankato State University (MSU) will work with the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) and the Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA) to plan a stakeholder process kick off meeting for the Minnesota River Ag/Urban partnership project. MSU will help to plan and facilitate the meeting.
This project will create a high accuracy elevation dataset - critical for effectively planning and implementing water quality projects - for the state of Minnesota using LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) and geospatial mapping technologies. Although some areas of the state have been mapped previously, many counties remain unmapped or have insufficient or inadequate data. This multi-year project, to be completed in 2012, is a collaborative effort of Minnesota's Digital Elevation Committee and partners with county surveyors to ensure accuracy with ground-truthing.
