Per Minnesota Laws, 2009, Chapter 172, Article 4, Section 2, Subd. 5, "Funds in this subdivision are appropriated to the commissioner of the Department of Administration for grants to the named organizations for the purposes specified in this subdivision. Up to one percent of funds may be used by the Department of Administration for grants administration. Grants made to public television or radio organizations are subject to Minnesota Statutes, sections 129D.18 and 129D.19."
The Conservation Fund and Minnesota Land Trust will protect 380 acres of high-priority grassland, prairie, and wetland wildlife habitat with working lands conservation easements in western, central, and southeastern Minnesota. Grasslands represent one of Minnesota’s most threatened habitat types. Privately-held and well-managed grasslands in strategic habitat complexes have provided lasting benefits for Minnesota’s wildlife. This project will permanently prevent the conversion of grasslands to row crops.
This program helped to create a legacy of habitat connectivity, public access, and economic vitality based on increased outdoor recreational opportunities in the mid-Minnesota River Watershed.
Design and construct fencing and handling facility needed to reintroduce bison to Camden State Park as part of preserving and interpreting the population and genome of American Plains bison.
This project proposes to increase the adoption of cover cropping in southwest Minnesota to address issues of loss of diversity and environmental degradation. By generating important information on cover crops,
The Hawk Creek Watershed Runoff and Sedimentation Reduction Project will improve and protect water quality through implementation of small-scale conservation practices within the watershed to reduce runoff and decrease movement of sediment and nutrients. Practices include streambank stabilizations, water and sediment control basins, grade/gully stabilizations, side inlets, alternative intakes, and buffer incentives.
This project will gather watershed data necessary for the development of a Watershed Restoration and Protection Strategy (WRAPS) report to maintain and improve water quality for the Hawk Creek Watershed.
This project will monitor four stream sites within the Hawk Creek Watershed to collect surface water quality data to determine the health of the potential for delisting impaired waters for Total Suspended Solids (TSS) and additional data for River Eutrophication Standard (RES) evaluation. The sites will be monitored according to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency's Water Monitoring Standard Operating Procedures.
This project will monitor seven lakes and 15 stream sites within the Hawk Creek Watershed to collect surface water quality data to determine the health of the watershed's streams and lakes and if they are in need of restoration or protection strategies. The sites will be monitored according to Minnesota Pollution Control Agency's Water Monitoring Standard Operating Procedures. The goal of this project will be to accurately gather water quality samples and data as part of an organized effort to determine surface water quality conditions within the Hawk Creek Watershed.
This project will monitor six sites within the Minnesota River Basin: Hawk Creek near Maynard, Hawk Creek near Granite Falls, Beaver Creek near Beaver Falls, Yellow Medicine River near Granite Falls, Yellow Medicine River near Hanley Falls, and Spring Creek near Hanley Falls. The sites will be monitored according to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) Watershed Pollutant Load Monitoring Network (WPLMN) Standard Operating Procedure, which is the procedure being followed for sites currently monitored by the Hawk Creek Watershed Project.
This project will assess 4 lakes and 17 stream sites. The four lakes will be assessed for total phosphorus, chlorophyll-a, and secchi data by the HCWP staff. Staff will monitor East Twin, West Twin, West Solomon, and St. John’s Lakes for total phosphorus, chlorophyll-a, and Secchi disk readings. In order to obtain a sufficient dataset. Ten samples will be collected over 2 years. Water samples at 17 stream locations for chemical analyses, including intensive watershed monitoring sites and “non-target” sites.
This project will monitor a total of eight sites (six through the Watershed Pollutant Load Monitoring Network and two through the Intensive Watershed Monitoring). Through the Watershed Pollutant Load Monitoring Network, six sites will be monitored within the Minnesota River - Granite Falls Watershed: Hawk Creek near Maynard, Hawk Creek near Granite Falls, Beaver Creek near Beaver Falls, Yellow Medicine River near Granite Falls, Yellow Medicine River near Hanley Falls, and Spring Creek near Hanley Falls.
Evaluation of Minnesota raptors, in rehabilitation and free ranging settings, for current or previous exposure to highly pathogenic avian influenza virus to better understand outbreak impacts to raptor populations.
To strengthen a large partnership, including American Indian partners, as they improve and make available more historic information about the Minnesota River Valley.
To contract with qualified professionals to prepare construction documents for the preservation of the Historic Canby Theatre, listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
This project will support construction of three watershed framework models built using the Hydrologic Simulation Program FORTRAN (HSPF). These executable models will simulate hydrology at the subbasin scale. An HSPF model will be built for each of three major watersheds: the Crow River/North Fork Crow River, the South Fork Crow River, and the Sauk River.
This project will finalize HSPF watershed model construction and complete the calibration/validation process for the following three watersheds: North Fork Crow River, South Fork Crow River, and Sauk River.
The goal of this project is to continue and finalize Hydrological Simulation Program FORTRAN (HSPF) watershed model construction and complete the calibration/validation process for the Minnesota River–Headwaters and Lac qui Parle watersheds that can readily be used to provide information to support conventional parameter Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) reports.
This project will complete spatial and temporal revisions of 6 Hydrologic Simulation Program FORTRAN (HSPF) models, the recalibration and validation of 7 watershed HSPF models, and the revision of the drainage network and point source representation of the Pomme de Terre HSPF model.
The goal of this project is to extend the existing HSPF models through 2012 in the Chippewa Watershed (07020005) and Hawk-Yellow Medicine Watershed (07020004) to incorporate recent monitoring data to support current MPCA business needs and sediment source investigations.
With only 1% of Minnesota’s native prairie remaining, many prairie plant and animal species have dramatically declined. Of the 12 butterfly species native to Minnesota prairies, two species, the Poweshiek skipperling and the Dakota skipper, have already largely disappeared from the state and are proposed for listing under the U.S. Endangered Species Act despite being historically among the most common prairie butterflies and having their historic ranges concentrated in Minnesota.
With only 1% of Minnesota’s native prairie remaining, many prairie plant and animal species have dramatically declined. Of the 12 butterfly species native to Minnesota prairies, two species, the Poweshiek skipperling and the Dakota skipper, have already largely disappeared from the state and are proposed for listing under the U.S. Endangered Species Act despite being historically among the most common prairie butterflies and having their historic ranges concentrated in Minnesota.
This project will enhance the current program, integrating new invasive carp control and detection methods to monitor and remove invasive carp to avoid establishment in Minnesota.
Agricultural drain tiles with surface intakes are considered a significant delivery mechanism of nutrients to Minnesota River. Protecting those surface water inlets can reduce the direct path those nutrients have to the river. In addition, in agricultural fields with subsurface drainage, leached nitrate creates elevated nitrate levels in tile drainage water. These high nitrate concentrations can cause algae blooms that remove oxygen. To help remove nitrates leached into tile drains, wood chip bioreactors can be installed to remove nitrate from the tile water before it enters surface water.
Autonomous robots, powered by green hydrogen and solar power, designed to remove weeds in row crop fields can improve agricultural ecosystems with reduced herbicide application and fossil fuel use.
The proposed project will be in conjunction with an improvement project to the 103E County Ditch 63 Lateral N (CD 63) system. The project will accomplish the construction of five water and sediment control basins (WASCOB) and five alternate intakes to replace open intakes within the CD63 system, which is the headwaters of Beaver Creek East Fork. The construction and installation of the conservation practices will achieve a reduction of sediment, provide temporary water storage, and reduce peak flows that allow sediment and phosphorus to directly enter impaired Beaver Creek East Fork.
