Imminent Health Threat (IHT) systems are those that are discharging improperly treated human waste onto the ground surface or into surface waters. In addition to the potential water quality impacts, untreated sewage has the potential to introduce bacteria and viruses into the environment. When IHT systems are identified, county or city staff assist the homeowners through the process required to bring their systems into compliance with the septic ordinance.
Each fiscal year of ACHF funding, a majority of the twelve regional library systems agree to allocate 10% of their ACHF funding to support statewide partnership projects. SELCO serves as the fiscal agent for statewide projects.
We will deploy acoustic detectors and revisit roost trees identified in our previous ENRTF project to measure effect of seven years of white-nose syndrome on Minnesota bats.
The Children's Discovery Museum's (CDM) new 3,000 piece Wizard of Oz (WOZ) collection will be properly archived, conservation materials purchased, and exhibit concept and design drawings completed. CDM facilitators and educators will travel to other children's museums in Minnesota for staff enrichment and professional development.
This project seeks to provide data on insecticide contamination in the soil and the insect community across the state and the effect of sublethal insecticide exposure on insect reproduction.
To support teachers in addressing new science standards , we propose a series of workshops across Minnesota facilitating conversation about sustainability and water conservation, specifically integrating western science and Indigenous perspectives.
This project will complete the dataset required for assessment of Aquatic Recreation Use at 8 stream sites and 11 lake sites in the Sand Hill Watershed.
This project will collect water quality data at eight stream sites in three of the MPCA targeted watersheds. The sites are located on Medary Creek, Flandreau Creek, Pipestone Creek (2), Split Rock Creek, Rock River, Poplar Creek and Chanarambie Creek. This project will also promote a citizens monitoring program and encourage individuals to participate in a monitoring program.
This comprehensive water sampling program will assess the water quality of six sites: two main points on the Rock River, two main tributaries to the Rock River, and two points where streams leave the state (Mud and Beaver Creek) for a period of two years.
The Nobles Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD) will test waters needing data for impairment listing in the Rock River and Little Sioux watersheds. Two reaches of the Little Rock River and the Ocheyedan River need stream water assessments. Iowa Lake needs sampling completed for impairment identification. The project will obtain adequate stream and lake data to either list the tested stream reaches and lake on the 303(d) list as impaired, or provide evidence that the stream reaches and lake is not impaired.
This project involves monitoring three data deficient lakes in the Crow Wing River Watershed and one stream site at the inlet to White Earth Lake. The data deficient lakes were on the MPCA Targeted watershed list. After getting the required assessment dataset for these lakes, all targeted lakes in Becker County will be completed for this assessment cycle. The stream site is a site that the White Earth Lake Association and the Becker Coalition of Lake Associations (COLA) will monitor. It is the inlet to White Earth Lake.
This project will obtain lab and field data for waterbodies within the Wild Rice Watershed, to meet surface water assessment goals. Data will continue to be collected further upstream of some 2008 sites and enhance current assessment datasets. Some new tributaries, that lack assessment data, will also be monitored. The project goal is to complete the datasets necessary for the assessment of Aquatic Recreation Use for twelve streams in the Wild Rice Watershed.
This project is a comprehensive two year water sampling program that will effectively assess the water quality of three main tributaries that contribute to the Rock River. These tributaries are the Champepadan Creek, Mound Creek and an unnamed Creek. The sampling frequency will be two times per month in the year 2010 and three times per month in the year 2011. Sampling will begin in April, when the channels are mostly free of ice and continue until October each year.
The soil and water conservation districts within the watersheds for the Redwood and Cottonwood Rivers have been putting conservation practices on the ground for years in a long-running collaborative effort.
The Children's Discovery Museum in Grand Rapids, Minnesota will increase access and deepen engagement with their effectively proven School Service Program. The museum will take down the economic barriers and increase enrollment. This grant will fund more educators and facilitators, curriculum development, scholarship aid, transportation assistance and art/teaching supplies.
Water flows without concern for political jurisdiction boundaries. This often means project work requires a little more coordination. Jackson, Cottonwood and Murray County did the extra coordination to land a grant to reduce sediment to the West Fork of the Des Moines River. The approved grant has four separate projects inthree counties.Jackson County has two projects: the Federated Rural Electric Association sediment control structure and the City of Jackson bioswale.
The Southwest Prairie Technical Service Area 5 (SWPTSA), located in the southwest corner of Minnesota, encompasses 11 Soil and Water Conservation Districts (SWCDs): Cottonwood, Jackson, Lac Qui Parle, Lincoln, Lyon, Murray, Nobles, Pipestone, Redwood, Rock, and Yellow Medicine. This project will protect natural resources within the three major river basins of Minnesota, Missouri and Des Moines Rivers. The SWPTSA will assist member SWCDs in locating and identifying priority subwatersheds that have soil erosion and water quality issues using terrain analysis.
Turtle Island Skywatchers - Innovative Research and Data Visualization project works to protect Minnesota water, wildlife, and natural resources while empowering Indigenous youth as leaders and all citizens as researchers.
We will reconstruct historical lake conditions to identify factors linked to successful walleye fisheries and guide effective management in the face of warming temperatures, invasive species, and nutrient loading.
Minnesotans increasingly value native fishes. For example, >95% of bowfished species in MN are native, yet all are poorly understood. Foundational natural resource data is absolutely necessary for all stakeholders.
Our goals are to engage 100,000 underserved youth statewide in environmental education, engaging them in the conservation and preservation of Minnesota wilderness through the experiences in the outdoors.
Over the past 100 years, about half of Minnesota’s original 22 million acres of wetlands have been drained or filled. Some regions of the State have lost more than 90 percent of their original wetlands. The National Wetland Inventory, a program initiated in the 1970s, is an important tool used at all levels of government and by private industry, non-profit organizations, and private landowners for wetland regulation and management, land management and conservation planning, environmental impact assessment, and natural resource inventories.
Minnesota Sea Grant seeks to create a science-policy fellowship program to train Minnesota's science-policy workforce and advance Minnesota's water resource policy, emulating Sea Grants successful federal-level fellowship program.