The Minnesota Prairie Chicken Society in partnership with Pheasants Forever seek to protect and restore parcels within the Minnesota prairie chicken range. Focus will be on parcels that will specifically benefit prairie chickens, a species of special concern. Acquisitions will be located in the prairie or prairie/forest planning regions with an emphasis in the primary prairie chicken range. Parcels will be transferred to either the MN DNR as WMA's or the USFWS as WPA's and will be open to the public.
This project contributed to the goals of the MN Prairie Conservation Plan by protecting 539 acres of prairie/wetland/savanna habitat; restoring 151 acres prairie/grassland; and enhancing 24,604 acres grassland/savanna. We will continue to implement subsequent Phases toward meeting the conservation goals described in the MN Prairie Conservation Plan.
The project will advance the protection, restoration and enhancement goals for prairie, grassland and wetland habitats as described in the 2018 MN Prairie Conservation Plan. It builds upon the highly successful model previously established in prior Prairie Recovery Phases and seeks to protect 500 acres in Fee without PILT obligations to be held by The Nature Conservancy, enhance 18,000 acres of permanently protected grasslands, and restore 200 acres of prairie and wetland habitat.
This proposal protects and restores 760 acres of land in the Minnesota prairie-chicken range, that will be transferred to the MNDNR as a WMA or to the USFWS as a WPA. All land will be open to public hunting. MN Prairie Chicken Society and Pheasants Forever will be protecting parcels that focus specifically on prairie chicken benefits, which makes this proposal unique and highly focused. All acquisitions will occur within the prairie and prairie/forest planning regions with a focus in Clay, Norman, Mahnomen and Wilkin counties which is the primary range of prairie chickens in Minnesota.
We propose to integrate Minnesota Wildflowers Information, an online tool for plant identification, with the Minnesota Biodiversity Atlas, to preserve and extend this popular ENTRF-supported resource for future use.
This project helps Minnesota entities that directly or indirectly cause PFAS and microplastics contamination stop the flow of the contaminants by developing strategies to manage solid waste streams.
The Prioritization, Targeting, and Measuring Water Quality Improvement Application (PTMA) connects the general qualitative strategies in a Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) and Watershed Restoration and Protection (WRAP) and the identification of implementable on-the-ground Best Management Practices (BMPs). Leveraging geospatial data from the International Water Institute this application will be developed for two pilot areas within the Red River Basin.
Prior Lake, the second most visited lake in the metro, and Spring Lake are both impaired for excess nutrients. The Prior Lake Spring Lake FY 2025 request would seek to fund two projects to reduce nutrients in the upper watershed:
