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local government, and state agencies have developed a watershed approach to improving water quality and replacing outdated drainage systems.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 Alexander Ramsey House is an 11,000-square-foot mansion that was home to Minnesota's first territorial governor. The mansion contains approximately 14,000 original furnishings and has one of the most intact collections of Victorian-era artifacts in the Midwest.
Despite these assets and a sound public educational program, the site has experienced a steady decline in attendance. Arts and Cultural Heritage funding is supporting a project to understand the reasons for this decline.
Recognizing the importance of hands-on learning, the Minnesota Historical Society developed new curriculum with a particular emphasis on American Indian history in Minnesota.
One activity from this curriculum allows students to create an Ojibwe shoulder bag. In another activity, students create a winter count, a tool used by the Dakota to record key historical events.
A series of eight oral histories were collected from landscape architects. These interviews document the story of landscape design in 20th Century Minnesota. The participants were asked to reflect on what personal experiences influenced their professions and how Minnesota spaces have been enhanced by landscape architecture over the past century.
As preparation for nomination to the National Register of Historic Places, MHM gathered data (drawings, photographs and measurements) of the dry nautical portion (approximately 25%) of the sternwheel steamer, The Andy Gibson. A trench was dug alongside of the steamer to expose the condition of the portion of the steamer covered by 3-4 feet of soil. Triangulation and measured drawings were used to document the ships construction attributes. A NR nomination was prepared incorporating this new information with older information that was gathered from previ
Conservation treatment, including beadwork restoration, repairs, cleaning and the creation of storage mounts was completed as proposed for three Anishinabeg (Ojibway) bandolier bags.
This project will be a complete TMDL report for the Biota and Bacteria (E. coli) impairments for the Ann River Watershed. The water bodies associated with these impairments will then be removed from the MPCA’s impaired waters list, and implementation activities to restore the water bodies will begin.
A direct appropriation of $400,000 in FY 2010 and $600,000 in FY2011 for the Anoka Conservation District (ACD) is for the metropolitan landscape restoration program for water quality and improvement projects in the seven-county metro area.
This program will harness the expertise, resources, and connections of a broad community of committed conservation stakeholders to significantly elevate restoration and enhancement of oak savannas (Minnesota's most critically imperiled habitat), woodlands and forests on public lands across the region.
The DNR is working with local communities and an interagency team to define, prioritize, and establish groundwater management areas in Minnesota. Groundwater management areas will have increased data collection and monitoring that allow the state and local communities to understand water supplies, uses, limitations, and threats to natural resources that depend on groundwater. This information will support detailed aquifer protection plans that ensure equitable and sustainable groundwater and drinking water use for the future.
As preparation to additional historic preservation work on the Odeon Theatre, listed in the national Register of Historic Places, a qualified historical architect was hired to inspect and evaluate the building. Issues of safety/building codes, accessibility concerns, weather-tightness and future functional improvements were addressed. The final report included a mechanical/electrical evaluation of the building and its proposed future addition. Improvements will include accessible restrooms, a second accessible exit, expanded storage space and the repair of the stage floor.
A total of 961 linear feet of archival quality shelving was purchased and installed in the "vault" area and the College Archives storage room at Gustavus Adolphus College. Old, used shelving was re-purposed for use in other areas of the college. The installation of this shelving has alleviated overcrowding, provided a safer more secure storage environment and consolidated the collections to one location.
To make the Cathedral of St. Paul archives more accessible to the public, the Cathedral heritage foundation undertook a two-step project to sort, organize, inventory and file their collections. The first step involved general cleaning and the reorganization of materials. All materials were re-housed in archival storage units. Inventory information was entered into PastPerfect. The second step of the project focused on the recruitment and training of volunteers folow up on and continue the new preservation/storage best practices.
The Washington Conservation District (WCD), Washington County, and South Washington Watershed District (SWWD) are partnering to retrofit water quality improvement practices at the Oakdale Library. The goal is clean water and the project will work toward the 101 pound phosphorus load reduction target for Armstrong Lake identified in the SWWD Watershed Plan. The project will also benefit Wilmes Lake, which is downstream from Armstrong and is impaired by excess nutrients.
Minnesota’s Legacy Amendment raises revenue for Clean Water, Outdoor Heritage, Parks and Trails, and Arts and Cultural Heritage. Libraries are beneficiaries of a portion of the Arts and Cultural Heritage Funding.
