Minnesota’s environment is changing in response to a variety of stressors – including population growth, residential development, industry, agriculture, invasive species, and climate change – and the state’s iconic lakes, and the goods and services they provide (e.g., fishing and water recreation), are an important part of what’s being impacted. To manage effectively for these changes it is important to understand how the state’s many lakes respond to these stressors.
The Minnesota Historical Society recognizes the natural relationship between sustainability and historic preservation and the importance of environmental stewardship as we preserve our cultural heritage for future generations. For this reason, the Society is studying its level of sustainability, including levels of energy consumption, water usage, waste and resource use.
Producing new materials from regional plant byproducts for renewable solar energy. This project engages many students in environmental research; this homegrown technology will ultimately provide affordable energy to Minnesota families.
MNHS continues to strive for environmental, economic and social sustainability in its sustainability program. To pinpoint opportunities for ongoing progress, the sustainability program will harmonize a broader range of institutional needs and objectives. The program will establish integrated, continuous, electronic reporting that unites environmental, social and economic risk analysis. This reporting will be used to further reduce our environmental impact and improve the sustainability of our operations as a whole.
The Minnesota Historical Society continues to strive for environmental, economic and social sustainability with its third year of the sustainability program. Continued focus is being placed on educating staff and visitors about sustainability through the project's "More for the Mission" campaign. Sustainability campaigns include a staff alternative commuting event and an upcoming staff stair campaign. The goal of these projects is to engage staff in the significance of sustainability in their daily lives.
MNHS continues to strive for environmental, economic, and social sustainability in the fifth year of its sustainability program. Staff and visitors are engaged with sustainability through the project's "More for the Mission" campaign. Recent energy-efficiency projects within our facilities have allowed us to achieve the five-year goal of 15 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.
Recommendations for reducing the Minnesota Historical Society’s environmental impact will be presented and implemented during the second phase of this project. It's estimated that the recommendations can save the Society $1.7 million over five years and divert two million kilograms of greenhouse gas emissions from the atmosphere.
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.
To hire qualified professionals to research and assemble materials specific to historic preservation in Minnesota preparatory to a national preservation conference.
This project will improve water management in the State of Minnesota. The result will be a water management tool that can be used by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) to determine low flow statistics when establishing permit discharge limits and by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (MDNR) to help in water appropriations and permitting. This tool will also be used by watershed districts in understanding and quantifying the State's water budget, the Nature Conservancy in its Ecological Limits of Hydrologic Alteration (ELOHA) process, and the U.S.
The project will improve water management in the State of Minnesota. The result will be a water management tool that can be used by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) to determine low flow statistics when establishing permit discharge limits and by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (MDNR) to help in water appropriations permitting.
This area of the Minnesota River Basin has been identified as contributing significant amounts of sediment to the watershed. The primary cause of the sediment is from gullies and ravines. This project by the Greater Blue Earth River Basin Alliance (GBERBA) continues efforts begun with FY2011 Clean Water Funds. Using data collected through Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and LiDAR, GERBA will install best management practices to address severe ravines and gullies in targeted specific locations.
With the approval by the U of M Board of Regents of a recently proposed MA program in Heritage Studies and Public History, the Teaching Heritage Collaborative will shift focus to the development of program curriculum and recruitment. In addition, the History Day partnership between the U of M and MNHS will be enriched through further development of campus engagement programs.These will include new cohorts of the Summer History Immersion Program for high school students as well as on-campus research experiences during the school year.
Partner: University of Minnesota--Twin Cities
The University of Minnesota and Minnesota Historical Society are collaborating to enhance heritage education across Minnesota. One of the goals is to bring university students out of the classroom, engaging them in work in communities whose heritage may be overlooked or undervalued. The university will build educational programs that bring awareness for cultural heritage awareness and protection.
The U of M and MNHS are collaborating to enhance heritage education across Minnesota. This project engages students in field experiences with the archaeological collections and interpretive programs at Historic Fort Snelling and is providing research support for new programs at the Oliver Kelley Farm. These projects will help build models for collaborative instruction that fosters cultural heritage awareness and protection.
With the approval of many ACHF projects and partnerships that include a component of enhanced online access to Minnesota Historical Society information and materials, the Society needed to increase the capacity of its technology platform.
This funding enabled the Society to help deliver web development services, and to purchase servers and equipment to meet the increased demands created by the ACHF programs.
Here are examples of three web sites created through this project that allow the general public to learn about other ACHF-funded history projects:
This funding allows the Minnesota Historical Society to broaden access to many of its Legacy-funded programs through the internet. It supports the web development professionals who plan, build and implement digital components that are part of many Legacy-funded history projects.
One example, the MNopedia website, was launched in August 2011. MNopedia will provide reliable, multimedia entries about Minnesota people, places, events and things.
The Minnesota Historical Society continues to focus on broadening access to many of its Legacy-funded programs through the Internet. This funding supports the web development professionals who plan, build and implement digital components that are part of many Legacy-funded history projects.
Every culture engineers. We may use different words and materials, but we all share a need to design solutions to everyday problems. Through the We Are All Engineers project, The Works Museum will leverage the organization’s expertise in elementary engineering education and the cultural knowledge of community partners to co-create and deliver new elementary education programs that align with the cultural benchmarks in the Minnesota State Science Standards introduced in June 2019.
The Minnesota State Council on Disability (“MSCOD”) seeks to preserve and raise awareness of Minnesota’s disability culture in sync with the 25th anniversary of the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”) through a theatrical production, public opinion survey and research, and an ADA celebration/training conference. Activities will also highlight the low employment rate of people with disabilities. Most of the public activities will occur in the second year of the grant.
The Chicano Latino Affairs Council in collaboration with the Minnesota Humanities Center will use funding to address the education challenges and opportunities faced by Latino students. The central theme and core value is “culture and language matter,” that culture and language is an asset and not a liability. A research project will focus on identifying specific strengths in Latino culture that improve education engagement.
The Greater Blue Earth River Basin Alliance (GBERBA), a nine County/SWCD JPO has identified buffers as a basin priority. This initiative will work towards the goal of identifying all DNR protected shoreland in the GBERBA counties without a 50 foot vegetative buffer. Buffer strips protect surface and groundwater from a multitude of pollutants. During stormwater run off events buffers can remove between 50 and 100 percent of nutrients, pesticides, pathogens, and sediment. The estimated sediment reduction for this project is 756 tons per year prevented from entering our waters.
