The Berger Fountain, known as the dandelion fountain to most, was installed in 1975 by Benjamin Berger and has been a beloved neighborhood landmark in Loring Park and a favorite location for wedding photographers and children ever since. Ben Berger was a park board commissioner and, after seeing a dandelion fountain in Australia, fundraised to build a sister fountain right here in Minnesota.
This study will leverage our current bioacoustics monitoring framework to assess avian diversity at the statewide scale through a citizen science acoustic monitoring program, with a focus on private lands.
This project will expand the Truth Telling Series that collected, preserved, and shared suppressed Dakota and Anishinaabe histories through community oral narratives. The project will document untold and silenced narratives from Black Minnesotans in urban and rural communities to develop new and easily accessible curriculum for grades Pre-K-6, in partnership with numerous BIPOC scholars, elders, and community partners. The project includes a collaborative story collection. The stories will be collected, documented, and written.
This project will reduce sediment to the Minnesota River, and protect private land and public infrastructure. Blakeley Trail (County Rd 60) in southwest Scott County is surrounded by deep ravines. As these ravines incise, they cause road shoulder landslides, which cut into private property, threaten the road at the head-cuts and generate sediment which creates maintenance and flooding issues downstream. The Scott Watershed Management Organization and the Scott County Highway Department have partnered on this project because of the multiple benefits.
Seminary Fen, a 600-acre complex in Carver County, supports one of only 500 calcareous fens in the world and is one of the highest quality calcareous fens in southern Minnesota. The Fen feeds Assumption Creek; one of the metro area's last known trout streams that supports naturally reproducing native brook trout. Assumption Creek then discharges to the nearby Minnesota River. The Fen's unique hydrology, soils, plants, and habitats are highly sensitive to water quality and sedimentation stress.
This Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) project will develop a TMDL Report and Implementation Plan defining the sources contributing to the impairments and outlining the steps necessary to bring Bluff Creek back to meeting water quality standards.
This project will develop a Final TMDL report and Implementation Plan for the Bluff Creek Watershed. The main outcomes of this project are the development of a Final TMDL Report approved by MPCA and EPA and a Final Implementation Plan approved by MPCA.
The Cannon River Watershed is a diverse watershed from the standpoint of topography, land use, and land cover, but a central issue of concern is increased sedimentation and turbidity within the river. One of the best ways to keep sediment from entering the Cannon River is to install vegetative buffers on the smaller tributaries in the upper reaches of the watershed. This project is important as it aims to help identify strategic locations where buffers are needed and to assist landowners to install buffers that will directly help reduce sedimentation within the watershed.
We will partner with urban municipalities and school districts to support planting of climate-resilient tree species. Activities include planting trees, gravel bed nursery creation, tree assessment and mapping, and community.
Once thought to have an essentially inexhaustible groundwater supply, Minnesotans are now realizing our rates of use are regionally unsustainable. Recent advanced modeling by the MN DNR and Metropolitan Council of aquifer supplies, in conjunction with predicted demand, indicate the major metropolitan area aquifers are currently subject to extraction rates that exceed recharge. Simply stated, we are mining our groundwater.
This project is to refresh the Cannon River Watershed Hydrologic Simulation Program FORTRAN (HSPF) model. The previous model was developed for the time period of 1995-2012. This phase will extend the model to include data through 2019. All time series data will be updated through 2019, land classification zones will be restructured, hydrology calibration will be updated as needed, and final reporting including technical memo and model package.
This project with the Cannon River Watershed Joint Powers Board will conduct lake and stream sampling for the watershed restoration and protection strategy (WRAPS) update in the Cannon River Watershed. This sampling will track changes from the 2011 results, along with fill in gaps, delist or keep an eye out for new impairments, and gather data for permitting. The sites of sampling were selected by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) and will be looking at lake and stream chemistry and stream bacteria.
The Cannon River Watershed Habitat Protection and Restoration Program will protect approximately 275 acres in fee, and restore and enhance approximately 181 acres of high priority wildlife habitat within the Cannon River Watershed, including wetlands, prairies, Big Woods forest, and river/shallow lake shoreline. Its goal is to protect existing high quality habitat, restore degraded habitat, prevent degradation of water quality, and provide public access.
The goal of this project is to use a science-based and participatory approach to understanding and promoting conservation practices in the agricultural community.
The goal of this project is to apply the Hydrological Simulation Program FORTRAN (HSPF) model to evaluate scenarios to support potential management actions and implementation in the watershed, construct Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) studies, and to develop a conceptual site model of the lakes for understanding phosphorus release.
Complete section 3 of Watershed Restoration and Protection Strategy (WRAPS) document for the Cannon and Zumbro Watersheds and provide input to sections 1 and 2.
The Cannon River Watershed Habitat Protection and Restoration Program will protect approximately 264 acres in fee, and restore and enhance approximately 238 acres of high priority wildlife habitat within the Cannon River Watershed, including wetlands, prairies, Big Woods forest, and river/shallow lake shoreline. Its goal is to protect existing high quality habitat, restore degraded habitat, prevent degradation of water quality, and provide public access. We will restore and enhance riverine, forest, wetlands, oak savanna, and prairie habitat
The Cannon River Watershed Habitat Protection and Restoration Program will protect approximately 290 acres in fee, and restore and enhance approximately 358 acres of high priority wildlife habitat within the Cannon River Watershed, including wetlands, prairies, forests, and river/shallow lake shoreline. Its goal is to protect existing high quality habitat, restore degraded habitat, prevent degradation of water quality, and provide public access.
The Cannon River Watershed Habitat Protection and Restoration Program will protect approximately 180 acres in fee, and restore or enhance approximately 136 acres of high priority wildlife habitat within the Cannon River Watershed, including wetlands, prairies, forests, and river/shallow lake shoreline. Its goal is to protect existing high quality habitat, restore degraded habitat, prevent degradation of water quality, and provide public access.
Through fee-title acquisition, Trust for Public Land permanently protected 253 acres (115% of our goal) throughout the Cannon River Watershed. This resulted in two additions to existing Wildlife Management Areas (WMAs). These now publicly accessible and protected areas include wetland, prairie, and Big Woods forest habitat. The permanent protection of these places has reversed habitat loss, allowed for habitat restoration, and increased access to public lands for hunting, fishing, hiking, and other outdoor recreation opportunities.
Asian Media Access (AMA) will embark on a capacity-building project aimed at cultivating individual donors from Asian American and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs) and the public, and encompasses a multifaceted approach to enhance grant writing, reporting, nonprofit management, and fundraising capabilities. Key activities include: 1) train and assist board/staff on grant writing and reporting; 2) build internal expertise in grant writing and reporting by obtaining consultation and training from experts in Donor Solicitation.
To enhance nonoprofit arts groups' ability to serve the artistic cultural and geographic diversity of the metro area through grants for minor capital improvements equipment and supplies.
Revitalizing the old deer yards into Caribou Yards is a transformative initiative aimed at creating habitats for a herd of caribou. The need for this project arises from the closure of the old deer yards, which were previously inhabited by white-tailed deer until the last one passed away of old age. Subsequently, the fencing surrounding these three habitats has weathered and suffered damage during the years of inoccupancy.
This project will place the Cedar River watershed on a sustainable and clearly understood implementation process for comprehensive water management. All people living in the watershed and all groups operating and managing land in the watershed, are responsible stakeholders in the effort. Objectives for this phase of the project include:
1. Develop a comprehensive watershed restoration and protection strategy.
2. Continue development of a more coordinated and comprehensive citizen participation process.
The entities of the Cedar - Wapsipinicon watershed planning area hope to achieve the Cedar - Wapsipinicon Comprehensive Watershed Management Plan goals, including surface water quality, groundwater quality, excessive sedimentation and erosion, and flooding goals. Work includes cost-share incentives, project development, technical/engineering assistance, education/outreach, and administration/grant reporting.
The United States Environmental Protection Agency requires the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) to carry out the Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) program in the state of Minnesota. Minnesota has an abundance of lakes and river reaches, many of which will require a TMDL study. In an effort to expedite the completion of TMDL projects, the MPCA has decided to construct watershed models. These models have the potential to support the simultaneous development of TMDL studies for multiple listings within a watershed.
This project targets stabilizing 900+ feet of eroding shoreline in the Cedar Lake Farms Regional Park converting it into a healthy native buffer on Cedar Lake.The project addresses phosphorus loading by reducing erosion from unstable shoreline banks adjacent to Cedar Lake. This will increase infiltration, intercept upland runoff, and stabilize the soil at the water's edge to decrease erosion and the addition of phosphorus into the lake. It is estimated that a shoreline stabilization at Cedar Lake will reduce 12-25 lbs/ year phosphorus depending on the regression rate.
There are two main goals of this Cedar Basin HSPF project,
A. Overall development of the HSPF model in the Cedar Basin of Minnesota; and
B. Shell Rock River nutrient, DO , impairment modeling and TMDL completion.
The Children’s Museum of Southern Minnesota (CMSM) will build upon a strong foundation of Minnesota Arts, Culture and Heritage (ACH) learning experiences made possible with prior MN Legacy funding support to:
To increase the Steele County Fair's capacity to showcase children's art by purchasing new display materials. Portable wall panels will allow work to be hung in a gallery type fashion, and offer more surface area to display children's art.
Completion of the activities in the previously-funded project. The project will result in the construction of an approximately 7200 s.f. maintenance shop and administrative office, replacing an existing inadequate facility. Project activities include demolition, design, engineering, construction, construction administration and other related construction costs
