Pollinator Education in the Science Classroom will provide professional development for 58 science teachers to use pollinator education curriculum and outreach materials, ultimately reaching >6000 students annually.
This research will test whether plantings for pollinators can remediate soils impacted by metals (like lead) and emerging contaminants (like microplastics) through the redistribution of toxins to safer areas.
Create the maximum acres of pollinator habitat at five Closed Landfill Program sites. These sites will act as pilot projects to inform future pollinator habitat reconstruction projects in the program.
Healthy prairies contribute numerous benefits, such as providing habitat for wildlife and pollinators, maintaining and improving water quality, stabilizing roadsides, and providing a sustainable source of materials for bioenergy production and other products. Since European settlement the once vast expanses of Minnesota prairie covering 18 million acres have been reduced to small remnants totaling about 235,000 acres. With this decline has also come a drastic reduction in the genetic diversity of the various species typical of Minnesota prairies.
Though many parts of the Twin Cities metropolitan area are urbanized, there are also has large areas of natural lands that continue to serve as important habitat for fish, wildlife, and plant communities. However, pressure on these remaining lands continues to intensify as population and development pressures increase.
Produce, broadcast and share 26 science-based environmental programs, 26 call to action and 27 outdoor lifestyle videos that inspire and demonstrate how to protect and engage with Minnesota's natural resources.
This proposal is for acquisition and restoration of a 36-acre key parcel that will reduce flooding while providing water storage, groundwater recharge, nutrient reduction, pollinator and wildlife habitat.
We will predict the ranges of native aquatic species in Minnesota using recently available high quality datasets and information on past and present ranges coupled with powerful statistical techniques.
Brushlands provide critical habitat for >250 wildlife species. We compare effects of spring, summer and fall burns on birds and vegetation, providing much needed management guidelines for this key habitat.
This project will continue to protect biodiversity and enhance pollinator habitat on roadsides by helping to create a self-sufficient prescribed fire program at the Minnesota Department of Transportation
Minnesota's 48 native orchids are at risk. The Minnesota Landscape Arboretum will expand conservation of species through propagation and banking and begin restoration planting research in the program's second phase.
The Avon Hills area is a unique 65,000-acre glacial moraine landscape located in Stearns County just west of St. Cloud. It has been identified as having statewide ecological significance and includes the highest concentration of native plant communities in the county – including oak and maple-basswood forests, tamarack and mixed-hardwood swamps, and wet meadows – and several rare plants and animal species, including American ginseng, cerulean warbler, red-shouldered hawk, and Blanding’s turtle. This appropriation is being used by the St. John’s Arboretum at St.
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.
Utilize proven cost-saving MMAPLE reverse-bid conservation easement ranking system to permanently protect 650 acres and restore/enhance 400 acres of priority private lands already protected in the Avon Hills.
Overall Project Outcome and Results
The Avon Hills Initiative is a group of local citizens interested in preserving the rural nature of the 50,000 acre Avon Hills 15 miles west of St. Cloud. The group helped steer this project made possible with Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund support. Saint John's provided the staff and fiscal support. This project had three goals:
Minnesota's only population of ball cactus is threatened as a significant proportion of the population is on private, unprotected lands. Moving plants to protected land will better protect this species.
Earthworms are common throughout much of Minnesota, but few realize that they are not native to the state and were in fact introduced from Europe and Asia. Earthworms are invasive in Minnesota and have been shown to have large and potentially irreversible impacts on hardwood forest biodiversity and regeneration. As dispersal by human actions is the primary means of introduction and spread of invasive earthworms, there exists great potential to arrest the current spread of earthworms already present and prevent the introduction of additional species.
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.
Use existing tools and partnerships to meet protection goals and transition to long-term community driven, coordinated management for multiple benefits, including: habitat, water, forest health, local economy and climate resiliency.
Native Prairie Bank (NPB) will help landowners conserve native prairie though multiple outreach methods, restoration and enhancement of 700 acres, and protection of 130 acres through conservation easements.
Because Minnesota is at the juncture of three distinct types of ecosystems - western prairie, northern coniferous forest, and eastern deciduous forest - the region is particularly sensitive to changes in climate conditions. Understanding how the plants, animals, and waterways of Minnesota might respond to these changes will help the state plan for and manage the potential impacts. The University of Minnesota's Department of Forestry is using this appropriation to analyze past climate conditions in Minnesota and make estimates pertaining to changes expected in the foreseeable future.
Oak savanna is imperiled and threatened ecosystem with only 0.2% remaining of historically 5.5 million acres in Minnesota. This project will demonstrate the use of silvopasture to restore this ecosystem.
The groundwater contained in confined glacial aquifers provides clean drinking water to many Minnesota residents. An important factor affecting the long-term sustainability of these aquifers is how water infiltrates through clayey deposits of overlying glacial till, which act as barriers to contaminants but also limit water flow and aquifer recharge. Very little is actually known about the properties and infiltration of water through till, which hinders the ability to accurately define the sustainability of these aquifers.
Urban stormwaters contain biologically harmful contaminants of emerging concern whose abatement through best management practice ponds requires evaluation to safeguard habitats for aquatic species from mussels to birds.
A partnership among the City of Baxter, Brainerd Public Schools, Camp Ripley Sentinel Landscape program and The Conservation Fund will acquire 200 acres of riparian forest on the upper Mississippi River Headwaters.
This project will complete 18 permanent conservation easements, 30 forest management plans, and 20 best management practices (BMP) around Aitkin and Crow Wing Counties highest quality lakes.
Granite rock outcrops along the Upper Minnesota River are among the oldest exposed rock in North America, dating back approximately 3.6 billion years. These outcrops are also home to rare and specialized plant and animal communities rarely found elsewhere in Minnesota, including several types of cactus and one of Minnesota's only three lizard species, the five-lined skink. However, these rock outcrops are increasingly threatened by mining, overgrazing, and development.
