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.
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.
We will compile all available data for Minnesota Trumpeter Swans and use these sources to model historical population abundance and predict future population dynamics.
The Minnesota River Basin Hydrological Simulation Program FORTRAN (HSPF) models, which simulate flow and pollutant transport, need to be refined to be consistent with the most recent external sources of land use, hydrologic response, and surface flow attributions. The primary goal of this work is to refine the hydrologic calibration in the Minnesota River basin.
The Works Museum will design, fabricate, and install a new exhibit with partners from Minnesota's East African, Hmong, and Latinx communities that forwards elementary education goals and celebrates Minnesota's rich cultural diversity.
The Lac qui Parle-Yellow Bank Watershed District will contract with the Water Resource Center at the Minnesota State University in Mankato to complete a Geographic Information System (GIS) terrain analysis for the watershed. It will concentrate on the impaired reaches of the Lac qui Parle and Yellow Bank Rivers and tributaries. This inventory will utilize LiDAR elevation datasets to create many GIS datasets by spatially analyzing the elevation data.
Lac qui Parle-Yellow Bank Watershed District will collect water chemistry samples from the three lakes and twenty-nine stream sites in the Lac qui Parle and Minnesota Headwaters watersheds following the MPCA’s Intensive Watershed Monitoring (IWM) plan for lakes and streams. Eleven samples will be collected at each lake from May through September during 2015 and 2016. Eleven samples will be collected at each of the twenty-nine stream sites in 2015. In addition, sixteen samples at each stream site will be collected in 2015 and 2016 following the E.
The primary goal of this project is to partner with stakeholders in the development of a comprehensive Watershed Restoration and Protection Strategies (WRAPS) report to be used on the local level. Achieving this goal will require sound working relationships between local government units (LGUs), watershed citizens, and state and federal government. Gathering input from these groups will be critical when the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) drafts a WRAPS Report that can be utilized by local decision-makers.
The goal of this project is to establish load reduction requirements for impaired waters and to develop restoration strategies to improve water quality for impaired waters and protection strategies to maintain the quality of water for water bodies meeting standards.
The goal of this project is to finalize the Lake Pepin Watershed phosphorus total maximum daily load (TMDL) report by using the existing information and documentation prepared under previous contracts to prepare one TMDL report that addresses the impairments on the mainstem of the Mississippi River. Information developed to date for draft TMDLs on the Minnesota River mainstem will be documented for later use by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency.
The goal of this project is to support the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) in responding to public comments on the Lake Pepin Watershed Phosphorus Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs), which were prepared by LimnoTech under previous phases of the project.
Minnesota Departments of Information Technology Services (MNIT) and Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) are partnering with the United States Geological Survey (USGS) to acquire high-resolution digital elevation data developed from airborne lidar (Light Detection and Ranging) for the Minnesota River East and West regions. The data will be used to generate Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) for use in engineering design and design reviews, conservation planning, research, delivery, floodplain mapping, and hydrologic modeling utilizing lidar technology.
This Phase 6 request for Ducks Unlimited’s Living Lakes program will enhance 1,000 acres of shallow lakes and restore 50 acres of small wetlands by engineering and installing water control structures for Minnesota DNR and U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service on public lands and wetlands under easement. Structures will be used by DNR and Service partners to restore wetland hydrology and actively manage shallow lake water levels to enhance their ecology for ducks, other birds, and hunters in the Prairie Region of Minnesota.
Ducks Unlimited successfully enhanced 3,437 wetland acres and restored 83 wetland acres through this grant, which significantly exceeds our grant acre goals of 2,000 acres of wetland enhancement and 50 acres of wetlands restored for this 2017 OHF appropriation.
