Many of the most experienced conservation practitioners at local soil and water conservation districts throughout the state are nearing retirement, and with their departure will go much of their practical, on-the-ground knowledge, experience, and skills. Meanwhile, college students seeking to be the next generation of conservation practitioners have knowledge of emerging technologies and other innovations that can improve and contribute to current conservation efforts.
There are 67 Minnesota State Parks and 7 Minnesota State Recreation areas that each have facilities to serve outdoor recreation users. Funds in this category are used for developing new facilities and include visitor centers, trail centers, roads, parking lots, bridges, campgrounds, and so on.
The Arts and Access Programs included two major new initiatives: 1. New arts and access programming at Minnesota Children’s Museum-Rochester; and 2. Creativity Jam Exhibit, which engaged Minnesota children and families in a changing line-up of large-scale creative arts projects and loose parts play at the Minnesota Children's Museum's flagship downtown Saint Paul site.
The objective of this project is to build on previous efforts aimed at determining the public health risk due to virus contamination in Minnesota groundwater. The Minnesota Department of Health will examine the occurrence of viruses in non-disinfecting groundwater sources in Minnesota as well as evaluate the association between source water virus occurrence and community acute gastrointestinal illness.
This project will develop a reasonable statewide estimate of recharge using the Soil-Water-Balance (SWB) Code (Westenbroek and others, 2010), validate the simulation results, and conduct a parameter sensitivity analysis to identify the most sensitive model parameters. For the purposes of this application of the SWB application, comparing the simulation results will be conducted on selected watershed basins in the state against previously established recharge estimates.
Minnesota History Magazine celebrates its 100th anniversary with a new digital version. Beginning in April 2015, the quarterly magazine will be available as an app for both iPad and Android. The app version allows innovative additional content and also offers audiences an up-to-date channel for accessing, engaging with, and experiencing Minnesota's history.
The Minnesota History Center offered numerous programs and events to commemorate the 150th anniversary of Minnesota's role in the Civil War, including a sold-out lecture by Richard Moe, author of "Last Full Measure: The Life and Death of the First Minnesota Volunteers;" a "Nine Nights of Music" tribute to the Civil War and a remembrance of fallen soldiers; a Gettysburg/Vicksburg Anniversary Family Day; and a new "Saint Paul after the Civil War" trolley tour. Other programs include dance and music performances from the Rose Ensemble and other partner organizations, lectures, and more.
Partner: The Minnesota State Fair Foundation
The Minnesota Historical Society and the Minnesota State Fair Foundation are increasing awareness and knowledge of Minnesota history by providing quality programming for visitors to the Great Minnesota Get Together. In 2013, the partners added new visual and written content for the Minnesota State Fair History Walking Tour brochure, new audio and visual content to the smartphone tour component, and presented audio/visual content via social media throughout the fair.
The Minnesota Historical Society receives funds that it passes to Minitex to support the operation of the Minnesota Digital Library (MDL). MDL supports the digitization efforts of more than 150 participating historical organizations across the states and maintains the technical infrastructure for providing access to those collections on the web. MDL also advances educational and scholarly uses of the collections and is a data partner with the Digital Public Library of America.
Partner: Preservation Alliance of Minnesota
The Minnesota Main Street Program is a proven, comprehensive strategy that helps communities create new jobs and businesses while preserving their historic downtowns. Additional partners include: GreenStep Cities, Minnesota Design Team, University of Minnesota Extension Center for Community Vitality, and University of Minnesota Tourism Center. The program provides tools, training, information and networking that communities need to revitalize their business districts.
Minnesota's Legacy Website is a site that follows the progress of all projects and programs receiving constitutionally dedicated funding from the Clean Water, Land and Legacy Amendment as well as the Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund.
Minnesota's Legacy Website is a site that follows the progress of all projects and programs receiving constitutionally dedicated funding from the Clean Water, Land and Legacy Amendment as well as the Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund.
Minnesota's Legacy Website is a site that follows the progress of all projects and programs receiving constitutionally dedicated funding from the Clean Water, Land and Legacy Amendment as well as the Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund.
This website enables citizens to view how Legacy and Trust Fund dollars are being utilized in their community. Additionally, the website contains links to all the project proposals received by the Legislative Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources and the Lessard-Sams Outdoor Heritage Council; frameworks and plans that have been developed for each fund; and information on how members of the public can apply for funding.
The Minnesota Ag Water Quality Certification Program (MAWQCP) is a voluntary opportunity for farmers and agricultural landowners to take the lead on implementing conservation practices that protect water quality. Those who implement and maintain approved conservation practices will be certified and in turn obtain regulatory certainty for a period of ten years. This program will help address concerns about changing regulatory requirements from multiple state and federal agencies.
The Minnesota Water Research Digital Library (MnWRL) is a user-friendly, searchable inventory of water research relevant to Minnesota. It includes both peer-reviewed articles as well as white papers and reports. The Library provides 'one-stop' access to all types of water research.
MNopedia (www.mnopedia.org) is a free, reliable, award-winning online encyclopedia of Minnesota, created and managed by the Minnesota Historical Society. MNopedia authors, many of whom are volunteer specialists, create rich entry packages, including text, multimedia and bibliographic resources that tell the stories of their communities and our state. New articles are published weekly. This unique resource, written and designed for use by general audiences as well as teachers and students, provides easy access to the shared history of all Minnesotans.
The first comprehensive retrospective of a key American Indian modernist from Grand Portage, MN, this exhibit includes drawings, paintings, prints, and sculpture that bring together concepts of abstraction, landscape, and spiritual reflection in the mind and eye of this important 20th-century artist.
The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) uses a watershed-oriented approach to assess surface water quality and define restoration and protection measures. Each of Minnesota's 81 major watersheds is assessed intensively every 10 years, based on a staggered schedule that addresses, on average, eight watersheds per year. To increase the amount of data directly available to the public online, and to make internal operations more efficient, the MPCA started a multi-year Watershed Data Integration Project (WDIP).
The goal of this project is to support the Stressor Identification portion of the Minnesota Watershed approach by designing a template used to develop Stressor Identification Reports for watersheds across the State of Minnesota.
The MPCA will administer grants to local units of government to study and implement solutions that protect basins and watersheds of Minnesota before water quality standards are exceeded.
Staffing support to evaluate the performance of existing stormwater infiltration sites, as identified in the Minimal Impact Design Standards (MIDS) project. Monitor the range of existing infiltration devices in Minnesota and compare to design criteria, maintenance records, and quantify year-round infiltration rates. Develop and refine pretreatment options and standards for municipal stormwater treatment.
This project supports activities by Minnesota Pollution Control (MPCA) Watershed Division staff that provide technical assistance, project oversight, coordination, outreach and other agency activities associated with assessing, listing and conducting Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) studies throughout the State of Minnesota. Project also includes lab analysis, equipment, and fieldwork expenses associated with TMDL work at the MPCA.
Staffing support for the development of permits that provide for implementation of Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) requirements at wastewater facilities and stormwater permittees.
The Clean Water Council was created through the Clean Water Legacy Act (Minn. Stat. Ch 114D) which was signed into law June 2, 2006. The council’s role is to advise on the administration and implementation of the Clean Water Legacy Act. See the Council’s FY18-19 Clean Water Fund and Policy Recommendations Report (December 1, 2016). The 28-member Clean Water Council (Council) represents organizations with a major role in achieving clean water, enabling consensus building and coordination on a wide array of issues critical to the people of Minnesota.
The goal of this project is to analyze and document database architecture, platform, table structures, systems and data fields at six Minnesota agencies (Board of Soil and Water Resources, Department of Natural Resources, MN Department of Agriculture, MN Department of Health, Metropolitan Council, and MN Pollution Control Agency) for 30+ databases related to water.
A multimedia group has been created to support the development of educational and informational video productions including online curriculum for 6th grade history, the commemoration of the Civil War, and more.
Partner: The Amherst H. Wilder Foundation
The Minnesota Historical Society and the Wilder Foundation worked with two new groups of existing and emerging community leaders in FYs14 and 15 to enhance their ability to act on important community issues.
During each six-month program, 25 participants explored neighborhood involvement and developed leadership skills to take effective community action.
New State Trail development to complete key missing trail segments or to fulfill funding gaps in trail development projects. Potetial development to include multi-use trail, trail parking areas, trail waysides, or trail bridges. New trail development includes all associated engineering, design and construction, and is to incorporate current Best Management Practices.
DNR regional clean water specialists and area hydrologists work with local partners to provide technical assistance on implementation projects and related outreach, resulting in cleaner water through healthier watersheds, shorelands and floodplains. We help partners identify, develop, target, design and/or implement on-the-ground projects that improve water quality, enhance habitat and protect infrastructure. We help design restorations that provide lasting benefits by mimicking features of healthy ecosystems.
Partners: City of Minneapolis, Hennepin County Library and Minneapolis Public Schools
In November and December 2013, Minnesota residents had a unique opportunity to view a collection of photos by Gordon Parks and participate in a community conversation around his book "A Choice of Weapons," the 2013 One Minneapolis One Read selection. The exhibit, which was on display at Mill City Museum, also featured approximately 30 photographs created by Minneapolis high school students alongside images by Parks, on loan from The Gordon Parks Foundation.
This project will establish a web-based permitting system to capture essential water appropriation information. The system will include an online permit application process for water use and other permits. The online system will streamline the permitting process for applicants and significantly reduce staff time correcting and managing permit applications and water use reports that are incomplete or have incorrectly calculated permit fees. The use of technology in the application and reporting process will also eliminate staff time needed to enter data and scan and route documents.
The Division of Parks and Trails is engaged in critical work to connect people to the outdoors. As part of the work in this project area, the new touch-screen kiosk project will increase awareness about outdoor recreation opportunities at Minnesota state parks and trails among underrepresented groups by creating and installing accessible, touch-screen kiosks with information in multiple languages, in high-traffic, family-oriented locations. Connection plans deliver Minnesota State Parks and Trails' messages to new audiences.
The 17 member Park and Trail Legacy Advisory Committee is appointed by the Commissioner of the Department of Natural Resources, the Chair of the Metropolitan Council and the Chair of the Greater Minnesota Regional Parks and Trails Commission. The mission of the committee is to champion the 25 year "Parks and Trails Legacy Plan" by providing recommendations to enhance promotion, coordination, and accountability throughout implementation of the plan.
To provide grants to local units of government to support parks and trails of regional or statewide significance outside of the seven county metropolitan area. Funding for this grant program is from the Parks and Trails Fund created by the Minnesota Legislature from the Clean Water, Land and Legacy Amendment passed by the voters in 2008.
The purpose of the Minnesota Department of Agriculture's monitoring activities is to determine the presence and concentration of pesticides in Minnesota's groundwater and surface water. Monitoring information is used to characterize and assess the extent of pesticide impacts to Minnesota's water resources.
