This project will create a high accuracy elevation dataset - critical for effectively planning and implementing water quality projects - for the state of Minnesota using LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) and geospatial mapping technologies. Although some areas of the state have been mapped previously, many counties remain unmapped or have insufficient or inadequate data. This multi-year project, to be completed in 2012, is a collaborative effort of Minnesota's Digital Elevation Committee and partners with county surveyors to ensure accuracy with ground-truthing.
The Minnesota County Biological Survey (MCBS) is an ongoing effort begun in 1987 by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) that is systematically surveying, county-by-county, the state's natural habitats. The effort identifies significant natural areas and collects and interprets data on the status, distribution, and ecology of plants, animals, and native plant communities throughout the state. Through 2009 surveys have been completed in 74 of Minnesota's 87 counties and have added nearly 17,000 new records of rare features to the DNR's information systems.
Minnesota Public Radio is the state's largest cultural organization, providing 96 percent of the population with free access to some of the best broadcast cultural programming in the world. Minnesota Public Radio is using a grant from the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund to implement projects around the following four goals:
This funding is for arts, arts education, and arts access, and to preserve Minnesota's history and cultural heritage.
The Minnesota Children's Museum will develop a literacy focused exhibit to catalyze community engagement around early childhood learning and education.
We Are Water MN is a traveling exhibition and community engagement initiative that emerged from the Smithsonian Institution’s Museum on Main Street project. Continued by MHC and several state partners, six greater Minnesota communities (Spicer, St. Peter, Red Wing, Sandstone, Lanesboro, and Detroit Lakes) hosted the exhibit in 2016-2017, and eight communities hosted the exhibit in 2018-2019 (Saint Paul, Bemidji, Crookston, Cloquet, Austin, Northfield, Grand Rapids, and Onamia).
This initiative will share the stories of important historical cases and engage communities with the court system. Members of the Hispanic Bar Association will conduct oral interviews with select members, which will become part of a traveling exhibit in partnership with MNHS. Through this project, MNHS will assist the Minnesota Hispanic Bar Association in advancing the goals of the Minnesota Legal Experience.
The Minnesota's Heritage Forest - Transition to Public Ownership Program is focused on the protection of forest lands in northern Minnesota by purchasing land from The Conservation Fund (TCF) for permanent conservation, management and protection by MN DNR and northern MN Counties. In 2020 TCF purchased more than 72,000 acres of forest land Minnesota from the PotlatchDeltic Corp., securing these lands to provide time for conservation partners to permanently conserve these forest lands.
The Minnesota State Band is a 45-piece concert band that performs a wide variety of music throughout the year. This year, the band celebrates 125 years as an arts organization. We are a part of Minnesota's rich history.
When we receive legacy funding, our goals are to increase the number of concert tours, continuing to reach out to smaller communities around Minnesota, sharing our love of music with residents, and planning joint events with school and community music and arts groups throughout our state.
The Library needed to build a more robust collection of Minnesota history books throughout all nine branches that would support it's programs. There are several specific content areas for programs including the Civil War, diversifying populations, environmental heritage and cultural heroes and institutions. 227 items were purchased and made available at all nine branches of the Washington County Library System either directly in the collection or by delivery to the branch.
This project is a documentary and includes working in partnership with East Side Freedom Library (ESFL) and Vietnamese Social Services (VSS) and with Cambodian American Partnership (CAP) as a program partner with the collaborative aim to provide a platform for Southeast Asian women to share their experiences preserving history, honoring more inclusively the lives impacted, and building awareness of these stories in Minnesota, of particular relevance for our state where Cambodian, Hmong, Laotian, and Vietnamese American communities established post-Vietnam War and continue to grow.
