This project includes several exhibit creations and enhancements; multilingual signage in English, Ojibwe, Spanish, and Braille, and support to the Children's Museum Educator program.
Minnesota has 9.5 million acres of public forest lands that play an important role in sustaining Minnesota’s environment and economy. The policies and programs used by public timber sale programs can impact post-harvest ecological conditions and have pronounced effects on the composition, structure, and productivity of the forest in the future. Additionally, timber harvesting revenues play an important role in economic activity, employment, and tax revenue.
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 proposal enhances 2,857 acres of open landscape habitat in the Northern Forest and Forest/Prairie Transition Regions for Sharp-tailed Grouse and other species. Enhancement work will take place on protected lands open to public hunting including Wildlife Management Areas (WMAs), National Wildlife Refuges (NWRs), state forest lands, Scientific Natural Areas (SNAs), and county lands. In addition, this proposal seeks to acquire and restore 743 acres of sharp-tail habitat in Lake of the Woods County to be transferred to the MNDNR.
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 2,491 acres of open landscape habitat for $578,200 and brought $12,000 in leverage. We did this by mowing/shearing brush, removing trees and installing firebreaks on WMA's, State Forest, and County owned land in the Norther Forest Region.
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.
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
Expand fishing opportunities in urban areas, teach more kids and families how to fish, and inventory and inform the public about safe and legal shore fishing sites throughout Minnesota.
The Children’s Museum of Southern Minnesota (CMSM) will complete the innovative community engagement process started with the previous Legacy grant. CMSM will build upon the progress created with the previous Legacy grant by transitioning the team's focus to carrying-out of strategic access strategies that engage a diversity of community members in the exhibit development process, resulting in the completion of fabrication plans for exhibits and environments that are accessible; engaging; and reflect the diverse art, culture, and heritage of southern Minnesota.
Building on the exhibit development community engagement process carried through three successive Legacy grants, the Children’s Museum of Southern Minnesota used the 2013 direct appropriation to prepare for and begin building exhibit components for its permanent facility by combining professional museum expertise with local resources, volunteers, and community involvement.
In 2007, the Children's Museum of Southern Minnesota (CMSM) conducted an environmental scan of early learning opportunities for children in southern Minnesota. It became apparent that the region creates few opportunities for children to engage in self-directed learning experiences in social settings; in particular, opportunities that create access to arts, culture, and heritage. This is still true today.
Building on the exhibit development community engagement process carried out through four successive Legacy grants, the Children’s Museum of Southern Minnesota will use the 2014-15 direct appropriation to complete fabrication and installation of several exhibit components for its permanent facility. Local resources, volunteers, and community involvement will be combined with museum expertise to complete this process.
This proposal aims to answer this question: How would the water quality of Minnesota's lakes change in the next century under future scenarios of urbanization, agricultural growth, and climate change?
Currently, there are approximately 5,050 feedlots with fewer than 300 animal units that need to come into compliance with State feedlot rules. Clean Water Feedlot Water Quality Management Grant funds are being used to provide financial assistance to landowners with feedlot operations less than 300 animal units in size and located in a riparian area or impaired watershed.
The Leech Lake Area Watershed Foundation in partnership with the Minnesota Land Trust will protect high priority critical fish habitat and the surrounding watersheds on 30 tullibee "refuge" lakes by securing conservation easements and fee title acquisitions. We will permanently protect approximately 445 acres and 1 miles of shoreland in total. If a lake's watershed has less than 25% land disturbance, the lake has a high probability to maintain clean water and healthy lake ecosystem.
The Northern Waters Land Trust (NWLT) and Minnesota Land Trust (MLT) will protect critical fish habitat within 48 tullibee "refuge" lakes and their minor watersheds by securing conservation easements and fee title acquisitions. These efforts are prioritized toward the 15 highest priority tullibee refuge lakes. Through this Fisheries Habitat Protection program, NWLT and MLT are working to protect 75% of each targeted watershed, a measure that provides a high probability of maintaining clean water and healthy lake ecosystems.
The Northern Waters Land Trust (NWLT), in partnership with the Minnesota Land Trust (MLT), will protect high priority critical fish habitat within 15 tullibee "refuge" lakes and their minor watersheds by securing conservation easements and fee title acquisitions. Through this Fisheries Habitat Protection program, NWLT and MLT are working to protect 75% of each targeted watershed, a measure that provides a high probability of maintaining clean water and healthy lake ecosystems. We will permanently protect approximately 1,000 acres through this proposal.
Leech Lake Area Watershed Foundation and the Minnesota Land Trust collectively protected 765 acres and 8.9 miles of critical shoreland and forest habitat in the watersheds of strategic North Central Minnesota lakes through the completion of 5 conservation easements and 1 fee title acquisition. Acreage protection outcomes exceeded that proposed by 151%; shoreland protected exceeded that proposed by 297%. The grant leveraged $1,119,000 through landowner donation of easement and fee value and other sources, exceeding goals by 134%.
The Northern Waters Land Trust (NWLT) and Minnesota Land Trust (MLT) will protect critical fish habitat within 48 tullibee "refuge" lakes and their minor watersheds by securing conservation easements and fee title acquisitions. These efforts are prioritized toward the 23 highest priority tullibee refuge lakes. Through this Fisheries Habitat Protection program, NWLT and MLT are working to protect 75% of each targeted watershed, a measure that provides a high probability of maintaining clean water and healthy lake ecosystems.
The Northern Waters Land Trust (NWLT) and Minnesota Land Trust (MLT) will protect critical fish habitat within 48 tullibee "refuge" lakes and their minor watersheds by securing conservation easements and fee title acquisitions. These efforts are prioritized toward the 23 highest priority tullibee refuge lakes. Through this Fisheries Habitat Protection program, NWLT and MLT are working to protect 75% of each targeted watershed, a measure that provides a high probability of maintaining clean water and healthy lake ecosystems.
The Northern Waters Land Trust (NWLT) and Minnesota Land Trust (MLT) will protect critical fish habitat within 48 tullibee "refuge" lakes and their minor watersheds by securing conservation easements and fee title acquisitions. These efforts are prioritized toward the 23 highest priority tullibee refuge lakes. Through this Fisheries Habitat Protection program, NWLT and MLT are working to protect 75% of each targeted watershed, a measure that provides a high probability of maintaining clean water and healthy lake ecosystems.
This project will analyze existing and projected data to develop simple tools to predict the effect of land use and climate change on extreme floods and droughts.
The project will assess chemical and biological defluorination activities in environmental samples and identify the microorganisms, metabolic pathways, and intermediates resulting from degradation of fluorinated pesticides and pharmaceuticals.
