The Conservation Partners Legacy Grant Program, managed by the Department of Natural Resources, provided 56 competitive matching grants to non-profit organizations and governments, appropriating all the available ML12 funds.
To conserve and stabilize five historic murals significant to German-American history in New Ulm Turner Hall, listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
With the ML 2015 appropriation The Conservation Partners Legacy (CPL) Grant Program awarded 70 grants, 22 of these grants were the metropolitan area. Over 24,000 acres were enhanced, 2,500 acres were restored, and 386 acres protected through these 70 projects. Thirty-eight counties had CPL projects completed in them through 47 unique organizations. The average project for the ML 2015 grants was $96,000, with few exceptions most projects were completed on time and many were under budget.
As of 11/1/2023, the CPL program has provided over 970 grants totaling $115 million to over 250 different grantee organizations, improving or protecting over 577,000 acres of habitat. Demand for CPL grants has continued to grow each year as new applicants hear about the program and successful grantees return. In ML 2019 there were 99 grants awarded- 15 metro grants, 29 traditional grants, and 55 Expedited Conservation Partners grants. Through these 99 grants, over 34,000 acres were restored, enhanced, or protected. Over $10.6M was awarded to organizations for projects.
Terrestrial invasive plants such as buckthorn, wild parsnip, garlic mustard, and others are becoming widespread threats throughout many sites in Minnesota. Present chemical and mechanical control methods tend to be costly, effective only in the short-term, or have other negative environmental impacts. However, an alternative practice of using grazing animals for invasive species management is used successfully in many parts of the western United States.
We will use this grant to focus on the rich history of agriculture in Minnesota through presentations and displays by photographers Doug Ohman and AJ Kern. We're promoting art in our area and state through the chainsaw art of Curt Ingvoldstad and the hands-on demonstrations of Lisa Douglas. The antique tractor display at our fairgrounds will be a bit more educational with a sign displaying the various types of tractors, along with facts about some that are on display.
We are planning to bring several musical groups to the fair that will highlight the cultural heritage of our county. We are rich in German and European culture in our area and will be bringing several polka bands in for afternoon entertainment. We will also be including a chainsaw artist this year and are very excited for the new demonstrations that he will be bringing to the grounds. We will bring a blacksmith to the fair as well for demonstrations, something that we have been working to include at our fair for some time.
We plan to rearrange the set-up of our commercial building. This building houses all of our open class exhibitis including the Minnesota Master Gardener group, Minnesota Gladiolus Society displays, all open class creative arts exhibits as well as all open class horticulture and food exhibits. By arranging in a new way we will be able to have a space open to bring in a series of indviduals and groups for creative arts, horticulture and food demonstrations throughout the fair.
This year we'd like to use our Legacy funds to promote the history of Minnesota agriculture through the presentations of Doug Ohman. We're also excited to welcome back chainsaw artist Kurt Ingvaldson to showcase his unique talents. We'll have a spinning demonstration from a local artisan along with music from local jazz and blue grass bands. There are plans to have a local artist repaint our livestock barn signs and we're also looking at creating signs for our antique tractor display to better inform the public about the historical types of tractors.
