To have the District #50 School, currently serving as Milford Township Hall, evaluated for possible inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places.
Acquire 470 acres of high priority habitat for designation as Wildlife Management Area (Prairie Planning Section) or Scientific and Natural Area (Prairie, and Northern Forest Planning Sections) emphasizing 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). Accomplishments are based on $5,000 per acre average and should be considered a minimum estimate.
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).
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.
Work resulting from this appropriation resulted in the acquisition, development, and inclusion of 2,095 acres into the state Wildlife Management Area (WMA) system, 74 acres into the the state Scientific and Natural Area system, and through easement acquisition added 387 acres to the state Native Prairie Bank.
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.
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.
Minnesota's iconic northern forests, wetlands, and brushland habitats require management beyond basic forestry practices or at smaller scales than commercial operations work. Other enhancements, such as brushland shearing or mowing have low commercial value but high wildlife value. These additional habitat enhancements improve the quality of the forests for both wildlife and outdoor recreation.
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.
Minnesota's iconic forests and brushland habitats require enhancement beyond DNR timber harvest practices. Enhancements, such as brushland shearing provide critical wildlife habitat but are not achieved through timber harvest practices. These additional habitat benefits improve the quality of the forests for wildlife, water quality and outdoor recreation. DNR's Conservation Agenda, Wildlife Action Plan, Forest Action Plan, SNA Strategic Land Protection, Fish Habitat Plan, will guide habitat enhancements in this proposal to meet the objectives put forth in these plans.
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.
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.
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.
Over 527,000 acres of unmanaged woodlands are being used for livestock grazing throughout Minnesota. Managing these grazed woodlands based on the use of best management practices can provide environmental and economic opportunities, including improved water quality, maximized forage production, and higher-quality timber. The best management practices involved are commonly used in other parts of the country with other types of ecosystems, but have not been widely adopted in Minnesota due to a lack of knowledge and experience with implementing them within the ecosystems of Minnesota.
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.
This project will utilize a combination of wetland restoration, invasive tree removal, seeding, and prescribed fire, to improve habitat quality, diversity, and productivity on Wildlife Management Areas and Waterfowl Production Areas within the prairie and metro regions of Minnesota.
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.
With the centenary of the U.S. involvement in the Great War in Europe, the experience of predominantly German New Ulm and Brown County continues to have national significance and relevance to current events. The Brown County Historical Society created an exhibit, "Loyalty and Dissent: Brown County and World War I" on the second floor of their museum to illustrate and interpret the war experience of 1917 and 1918 as it pertained to Brown County.
Continue and expand a River Watch program on the Minnesota River engaging teams of high school students in water quality monitoring and reporting the data to the MNPCA
