The Department of Public Transformation will hire a Development Consultant to lead the Board and staff toward more sustainable and intentional fundraising strategies. Specifically, a consultant teaches skills in building annual giving programs, creating audit systems and policies, coach staff and board on effective fundraising strategies, and implement processes that can evolve as the organization continues to grow.
We will determine the distribution, relative density, and spatial occupancy patterns of 3 small weasel species in Minnesota to fill key knowledge gaps in weasel distribution and status in Minnesota.
Acquire approximately 400 acres of high priority habitat for designation as Wildlife Management Area (Prairie Planning Section) or Scientific and Natural Area (Prairie, and Forest/Prairie Planning Sections) emphasizing Minnesota Prairie Conservation Plan implementation and coordination with partners. All lands will be open for public hunting and fishing (a limited number of SNA’s are proposed for limited hunting for instance archery only or hunting but no trapping).
Work resulting from this appropriation resulted in the acquisition, development, and inclusion of 964 acres into the state Wildlife Management Area (WMA) system by way of five acquisitions. The acres acquired met the accomplishment plan goals of 960 acres, and spent 96% of the budget. The acquired acres compliment the WMA program by adding habitat function and natural resource ecosystem services.
Grasslands continue to be the most threatened habitat in the state. This programmatic request will build on the DNR's history of enhancing and restoring grasslands, embedded wetlands, and oak savannas to increase wildlife populations. The Prairie Plan, Pheasant Plan, and Wildlife Action Plan will guide our efforts to ensure we are operating in a strategic and targeted manner.
We restored and enhanced a total of 40,539 grassland acres with 446 activities on Wildlife Management Areas, Scientific and Natural Areas, Native Prairie Bank easements, Waterfowl Production Areas, and National Wildlife Refuges.
Grasslands continue to be the most threatened habitat in the state. This programmatic request will build on the DNR's history of enhancing and restoring grasslands, embedded wetlands, and savannas to increase wildlife populations. The Prairie Plan, Pheasant Plan, and Wildlife Action Plan will guide our efforts and ensure we are operating in a strategic and targeted manner. This proposal will enhance and restore grasslands on parcels that are permanently protected and most open to public hunting.
This project supports continuing development of County Groundwater Atlases for approximately three years. The goal is to provide this valuable water and resource management information infrastructure to every county.
DNR completed nine stream habitat projects with this appropriation. Four fish passage projects opened up access to 180 miles of river and 13,521 acres of lake and wetland habitat. We enhanced habitat on 39 Aquatic Management Areas, totalling 1440 acres, through the efforts of four positions funded by this appropriation. It also funded two stream habitat positions that oversaw the completion of 23 DNR projects and over 50 partner-lead projects funded by various OHF sources.
The following table provides a short summary of the accomplishments under this appropriation. In total, the DNR enhanced and restored 283 sites for a total of 17,087 acres.
We used a programmatic approach to achieve prioritized aquatic habitat protection, restoration, and enhancement for lakes, trout streams, and rivers across all LSOHC planning regions of Minnesota.
With this appropriation, the DNR enhanced and restored over 11,700 acres of public lands or permanently protected private lands under easement. Projects under this appropriation included prescribed fire, prescribed or conservation grazing, woody removal, and enhancing plant diversity. With this appropriation we were able to exceed our target acreage by 38 percent.
We will use a programmatic approach to achieve prioritized aquatic habitat protection, restoration, and enhancement of lakes and streams across all the LSOHC planning regions of Minnesota.
Acquire 910 acres of high priority habitats for designation as Wildlife Management Areas or Scientific & Natural Areas emphasizing Prairie Conservation Plan implementation and coordinating with partners. All lands will be open for public hunting, fishing and trapping.
We restored 2,081 acres of grassland and enhanced 42,425 acres of grassland for a total of 44,506 acres of wildlife habitat across 329 sites with these funds.
Diverse habitat is critical to sustaining quality fish populations in lakes and rivers. The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (MNDNR) will complete nine fish passage projects to restore habitat connectivity for fish and other aquatic life, and restore reaches of five different rivers, creating nine miles of diverse aquatic habitat. Though the actual footprint of fish passage projects is relatively small, these projects will reconnect over 10,000 acres of lake and river habitat.
Grasslands continue to be the most threatened habitat in the state. This programmatic request will build on the DNR's history of enhancing and restoring grasslands, embedded wetlands, and oak savannas to increase wildlife populations. The Prairie Plan, Pheasant Plan, and Wildlife Action Plan will guide our efforts to ensure we are operating in a strategic and targeted manner.
Acquire approximately 230 acres of high priority habitat for designation as Wildlife Management Area or Scientific and Natural Area in the LSOHC Prairie, Forest/Prairie Transition, and Northern Forest Planning Sections emphasizing Minnesota Prairie Conservation Plan, Conservation That Works, 3.0 WMA and AMA Acquisition & Management Strategic Plan and, SNA Strategic Land Protection Plan with priority given to sites of high and outstanding biodiversity significance by the Minnesota Biological Survey.
Grasslands continue to be the most threatened habitat in the state. This programmatic request will build on the DNR's history of enhancing and restoring grasslands, embedded wetlands, and oak savannas. The Prairie Plan, Pheasant Plan, and Wildlife Action Plan will guide our efforts to ensure we are operating in a strategic and targeted manner. This proposal will enhance and restore grasslands on 5,700 acres parcels that are permanently protected and most open to public hunting using prescribed fire, tree removal, high-diversity seedings, and similar practices.
Grasslands continue to be the most threatened habitat in the state. This programmatic request will build on the DNR's history of enhancing and restoring grasslands. The Prairie Plan and Wildlife Action Plan will guide our efforts to ensure we are operating in a strategic and targeted manner. This proposal will enhance and restore grasslands on 2,856 acres that are permanently protected using prescribed fire, tree removal, high-diversity seedings, and similar practices. Most lands enhanced with these funds are public and open to hunting.
This DNR Aquatic Habitat appropriation used a programmatic approach to achieve prioritized aquatic habitat restoration, and enhancement of lakes and streams across all the LSOHC planning regions. Two large stream restoration projects totaling 54 acres were completed with this appropriation. Also, habitat enhancement projects were completed on 51 Aquatic Management Areas, totaling 1252 acres. Stream habitat work for this appropriation and LSOHC-funded projects from other appropriations was aided by funding for a stream restoration coordinator and interns.
We restored and enhanced a total of 15,577 grassland acres with 239 projects on Wildlife Management Areas, Scientific and Natural Areas, and Native Prairie Bank easements.
The 1901 Dodd Ford Bridge, a significant contributor to the development of Amboy, was slated for replacement by Blue Earth County. Federal funds were sought by the County for the project. This initiated section 106 and 4(f) reviews, which concluded that it would be prudent and feasible to renovate the bridge on site. However, more specific data is required about the historic bridge renovation program and costs. The grant money assisted in funding the hire of a consultant to examine costs and methods to restore and preserve the 1901 Dodd Ford Bridge.
This project will quantify and qualify the effectiveness of herbicide treatments and native plant re-establishment at Duck Lake through systematic vegetative surveys pre and post herbicide application and following mid-summer die-off of curly-leaf pondweed. The data and analysis will ultimately be used in the development of TMDLs, implementation and protection strategies for other lakes in the Middle Minnesota Major Watershed.
We will generate genome sequences of bacteria growing in wastewater treatment bioreactors, allowing us to improve phosphorus and nitrogen removal from wastewater in Minnesota and to discover novel pharmaceutical compounds.
6,870 acres of grassland and wetland habitat will be enhanced or restored through this proposal to benefit upland dependent species on Minnesota lands open to public hunting. These include Wildlife Management Areas (WMA), Waterfowl Production Areas (WPA), and National Wildlife Refuges (NWR). We will accomplish this by working with our partners to follow best practices to conduct wetland restorations, conservation grazing, invasive tree removal, prescribed fire, and diversity seeding in the prairie, forest/prairie transition, and metro regions.
This program enhanced 10,064.8 and restored 50.7 acres for a total impact of 10,115.5 acres by restoring wetlands, removing invasive trees, seeding prairies, prescribed burning, and installing infrastructure for conservation grazing. These practices took place on Waterfowl Production Areas (WPA's), and Wildlife Management Areas (WMA's) in the prairie and the forest/prairie transition regions of Minnesota.
In this phase of the Enhanced Public Lands - Grassland program, Pheasants Forever (PF) will enhance or restore 4,000 acres of upland and wetland habitat. The goal of this program is to improve habitat on existing Wildlife Management Areas (WMAs), Waterfowl Production Areas (WPAs), and National Wildlife Refuges (NWRs) that are open to public hunting. PF does this by working with agency partners to develop restoration and enhancement plans and hiring local, private contractors to complete work.
This program enhanced 10,583 and restored 198 acres for a total impact of 10,781 acres by restoring wetlands, removing invasive trees, seeding prairies, prescribed burning, and installing infrastructure for conservation grazing. These practices took place on Waterfowl Production Areas (WPA's), and Wildlife Management Areas (WMA's) in the prairie, metro and the forest/prairie transition regions of Minnesota. We exceeded our acre goals in every category, brought $45,768.51 in match funds, and are returning $833.50 in funds.
