Provide contract management to ENRTF pass-through appropriation recipients for approximately 60 open grants. Ensure funds are expended in compliance with appropriation law, state statute, grants policies, and approved work plans.
Increase opportunity for 375 underserved, diverse teens, from urban and first-ring suburbs, to experience and connect to environmental sciences in the natural world through YMCA canoeing/learning expeditions with experienced
Reducing nitrate leaching on sandy soils of central Minnesota by developing water-efficient production methods, supply chains, and end-use markets for thee profitable perennial crops: Kernza, prairie, and alfalfa.
Overall Project Outcome and Results (includes Use and Dissemination)
Minnesota's native prairie covered about 18 million acres at the time of the public land surveys (1847-1908); currently less than one percent remains. This multi-faceted prairie project was designed to increase conservation of native prairie and provide tools for long-term management and assessment of this rare resource. Project results addressed:
Provide 4-8 accessible fishing piers and 1-2 developed shore fishing sites in locations that have a high potential to serve new angling communities, under-served populations and anglers with disabilities.
Provide 7-8 accessible fishing piers in locations that have a high potential to serve new angling communities, undeserved populations and anglers with physical disabilities.
A robot, powered by solar energy, will be developed to control weeds on agricultural lands. We envision significant reductions in fossil-fuel and herbicide use while increasing local energy production.
This project is a model for future drainage projects across the state and represents a fundamental shift in the way rural drainage systems interact with the landscape. This is a community-based water quality and treatment demonstration project in which landowners, local government, and state agencies have developed a watershed approach to improving water quality and replacing outdated drainage systems. The project will improve water quality, improve wildlife habitat, and develop a process for future projects by constructing water quality features within the 6,000 acre watershed.
The project team at the WCROC will model and evaluate alternative solar system designs that will maximize energy production as well as provide maximal benefits to cattle and farmers .
Through various means, human produced chemicals can make their way into surface waters where they can have adverse effects on the function of ecological communities. Of particular concern are antibiotics and other antimicrobial substances because they have the potential to create increased antibiotic resistance. While there is a background level of naturally occurring antibiotic resistance in the natural world, elevated or persistent levels caused by human activities have the potential to harm human, animal, and overall ecosystem health.
The occurrences of contaminants including antibiotics, other pharmaceuticals, and personal care products in the environment have gained increasing attention in recent years because of their potential health and ecological impacts. However, serious gaps remain in our understanding of these contaminants and the significance of the threats they may pose, such as to drinking water. Through this appropriation scientists at the University of St.
This project will quantify the ability of full-scale wastewater treatment plants to eliminate antibiotic resistance genes and the extent to which these genes are exchanged during the wastewater treatment process.
This project will enhance the current MN DNR Invasive Carp program by integrating new control and detection methods to manage invasive carp expansion in Minnesota waterways.
Aquatic invasive species pose critical ecological and economic challenges for the entire state and beyond. They can cause irreparable harm to fisheries and aquatic habitat as well as damage to infrastructure. The problems posed by aquatic invasive species continue to grow as existing infestations expand and new exotic species arrive, most of which are poorly understood. New ideas and approaches are needed to develop real solutions.
The legislature granted the University of Minnesota $2,000,000 from the LCCMR to start an Aquatic Invasive Species Cooperative Research Center to address and solve aquatic invasive species (AIS) problems in the state. The University will use this initial funding to establish the administrative structure for this center, establish and renovate its facilities, start studies of Asian carp biology designed to control this species, and develop work plans for the LCCMR to ensure continuing funding for the center.
To address the problems caused by invasive species, the 1991 Minnesota Legislature directed the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) to establish the Invasive Species Program. The program is designed to implement actions to prevent the spread of invasive species and manage invasive aquatic plants and wild animals (Minnesota Statutes 84D).
The three primary goals of the DNR Invasive Species Program are to:
1. Prevent the introduction of new invasive species into Minnesota.
2. Prevent the spread of invasive species within Minnesota.
There is a critical need to understand how our natural resources are already responding to climate change in order to develop tools for projecting natural resource responses into the future and to devise plans for actions that can be taken in reaction to observed and predicted changes. Phenology – the timing of seasonal biological events such as budburst, flowering, bird migration, and leaf coloring – provides a tested indicator of climate change response by plants and animals.
Over a three-month period in 2010, approximately five million barrels of oil was spilled into the Gulf of Mexico causing extensive damage to marine and wildlife habitats and resulting in significant losses in fish and wildlife populations. A number of Minnesota's migratory bird species spend parts of their lives in the areas impacted by the spill and impacts on their populations in the state could become evident over time.
The objective of the present proposal is to assess and provide remedy to the urgent problem of microscopic plastic particles polluting water bodies in Minnesota.
