Stage Play with Duluth Playhouse. A collaborative program where children with autism are able to enjoy theater arts while at the same time learning new communication and social interaction skills.
This project entailed the reconstruction and resurfacing of 5.3 miles of segments of the Paul Bunyan State Trail from Pine River to Merrifield to Brainerd.
Paul & Babe’s GeoHunt is a summer-long geocaching event that features unique sites along the 54-mile Paul Bunyan Scenic Byway driving route. The sport of geocaching involves hiding camouflage containers (which are called caches) so that people can look for and find the containers using GPS technology. Once they find the containers, participants collect special cards (found in the caches/containers). After collecting a series of 10 cards, participants can earn a GeoCoin.
Mille Lacs Lake is recognized as one of the premier walleye producing lakes in the world. The current water quality of the lake is good, however recent monitoring of the lake and its watershed indicates the potential to develop problems. Since 1997, the Mille Lacs Lake Watershed Management Group has worked to preserve the water quality of Mille Lacs Lake. Five priority projects were identified by the Group partners in an effort to preserve water quality. Support for these projects was provided by a grant from the Clean Water Fund.
The SWCD initiated Project Recharge to create and apply a protection strategy to address declining water quality trend reported in a 2008 large lakes analysis. The report contained watershed and trend analysis for lakes over 1,000 acres in size and led to targeting of lands located within lakesheds containing the highest ratio of impervious to pervious surfaces. These included the Cities of Breezy Point, Crosslake, and Fifty Lakes.
To preserve and make available the early issues of the Range Facts, a weekly newspaper that was published from 1934 to 1941 by W.A.Fisher and edited by George A. Perham, It covered the Mesabi and Vermilion range towns as well as adjacent rural areas and gave extensive coverage to state, county and local affairs, sports, social news, farming, obituaries and Depression programs. Copies were not sent to the Minnesota Historical Society until 1942 when the Virginia Daily Enterprise assumed ownership.
This project will develop an effective transferable model to engage and educate watershed residents, stakeholders and others to better understand and protect watershed ecostystems through environmental monitoring, training, and formal and informal education programs in their local watershed. The project will build on the foundation of the existing Red River Basin River Watch program by strengthening three main activity areas: 1) curriculum integration and teacher training, 2) youth leadership and civic engagement, and 3) applied research collaboration and watershed science skills building.
Inert museum storage was created for the ethnographically and historically significant Helbing Collection of American Indian Arts and Crafts as recommended in a museum assessment.
The RIM-WRP program will expand past efforts and provide important benefits to the citizens of Minnesota by restoring and permanently protecting priority wetlands and associated upland native grassland wildlife habitat via perpetual conservation easements. This funding will leverage $12.6 million of federal WRP funds for the State of Minnesota and is expected to create and sustain 343 jobs and income to local landowners, businesses and others in the state based on USDA economic estimates.
The Minnesota Soil Survey is an ongoing effort by the Board of Water and Soil Resources (BWSR) in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) that is systematically collecting and mapping data pertaining to soil types and other soil properties in each county of the state. Soils data is used by governments, farmers, and other businesses for a number of purposes from protection and restoration of soil, water, wetlands, and habitats to agricultural soil management to building construction.
Imminent Health Threat (IHT) systems are those that are discharging improperly treated human waste onto the ground surface or into surface waters. In addition to the potential water quality impacts, untreated sewage has the potential to introduce bacteria and viruses into the environment. When IHT systems are identified, county or city staff assist the homeowners through the process required to bring their systems into compliance with the septic ordinance.
Having current and accurate data on historic and archaeological sites is important to understanding our past and to preserving Minnesota’s history for future generations. In 2010-2011, the Minnesota Historical Society awarded contracts for these survey projects:
The St. Louis River Alliance will complete the data set for the water quality assessment of six target streams in the Lake Superior Basin. These streams are the Gooseberry River, Beaver River, Lester River, Big Sucker River, Split Rock River and Knife River. In addition, the St. Louis River Alliance will complete the data set for the water quality assessment of two non-target streams in the St. Louis River watershed. These two streams are Coffee Creek and Buckingham Creek. The St.
This assessment will be performed using scientific volunteers, will build capacity at a technical training program at Itasca Community College (ICC), and will provide MPCA with answers providing a reasonable expectation for water quality in this under-studied region of Minnesota.
This project involves monitoring three data deficient lakes in the Crow Wing River Watershed and one stream site at the inlet to White Earth Lake. The data deficient lakes were on the MPCA Targeted watershed list. After getting the required assessment dataset for these lakes, all targeted lakes in Becker County will be completed for this assessment cycle. The stream site is a site that the White Earth Lake Association and the Becker Coalition of Lake Associations (COLA) will monitor. It is the inlet to White Earth Lake.
This project will collect water quality data for 13 Hubbard County lakes located in the Crow Wing priority watershed and identified as priority lakes by the MPCA. Upon completion the project data set will include all of the necessary information for the lakes to be assessed for impairment due to nutrients. Volunteers will collect samples from 7 of the 13 lakes and paid SWCD staff will collect samples from 6 of the lakes that do not have public access or volunteers willing to sample. The water samples will be collected 5 times/year June-September in 2010 and 2011.
The purpose of the project is to create a fresh introduction to the museum. The five panels that previously lined the wall outside the museum doorway were put in place nearly thirty years ago in the1980s. These panels have faded over the years and were in need of replacement. In addtion there was a desire to expand the time line back to the Paleolithic peoples who first inhabited the region in about 10,000 years ago.
Upper Mississippi, North Fork Crow River Major Watershed TMDL Project led by CROW with assistance from local partners North Fork Crow River Watershed District (WD); Middle Fork Crow River WD; Wright Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD).
Minnesota’s Legacy Amendment raises revenue for Clean Water, Outdoor Heritage, Parks and Trails, and Arts and Cultural Heritage. Libraries are beneficiaries of a portion of the Arts and Cultural Heritage Funding.
Fourteen oral history interviews were conducted with people knowledgeable about the establishment of the Western Lake Superior Sanitary District (WLSSD), early conditions and relevant local environmental issues of the early 1970’s.
This project entailed reconstruction and resurfacing of 1.1 miles of the segment of the Willard Munger State Trail that spans the trail terminus to Grand Avenue in Duluth.
