Audubon Minnesota and Minnesota Land Trust are requesting funds to protect 560 acres through conservation easement and to enhance 500 acres of significant wildlife habitat on protected private and public lands. Our project and parcel prioritization criteria places an emphasis on Important Bird Areas and priority areas identified in the Minnesota Prairie Conservation Plan, prioritizing the 6 northwestern Minnesota counties associated with the Tallgrass Aspen Parklands region.
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.
Turbidity and E.coli impairments characterize the Clearwater River Watershed and its sub-watersheds. Focused protective efforts in this watershed have helped, but more work is vitally needed to further improve the quality of water. Several recent studies on the Clearwater River watershed and its sub-watersheds, Lost River and Silver Creek will be used to direct the work.
Del Clark Lake is a regionally unique resource in the Lac qui Parle Watershed. This grant contains both restoration and protection strategies aiming to maintain the quality of this rare and valuable resource in addition to restoring the recently impaired Canby Creek, which feeds into Del Clark Lake. Three grade control structures will be implemented just upstream of Del Clark to protect against sediment and aid in regulating flows. An estimate 240 pounds of phosphorous and 2,700 tons of sediment will be reduced annually.
Two permanent RIM Easements on 494 acres of high quality, riparian habitat in the Little Nokasippi WMA area of influence have been recorded and will provide lasting wildlife habitat.
This project has protected forest wildlife habitat in central Minnesota through fee title acquisition of key forest tracts. Title of lands acquired is held by Cass County in Fee.
Funding was used to design, install and evaluate deterrent barrier options in Minnesota and to cost share a barrier in northwest Iowa to limit or slow the movement of Invasive carp.
This will fund a competitive grant program for sewer projects that will help protect or restore the water quality of waters in national parks located within Minnesota.
Create a semi-automated system to acquire, process, and deliver new satellite derived water quality data (water clarity, algae, turbidity and color) for all Minnesota lakes ~biweekly and in near real-time
Public engagement, provide venues for cultural activities& training for participation in natural resource-based activities for the portion of the Great River Passage within Battle Creek=Indian Mounds Regional Park, Lilydale-Harriet Island PR, Hidden Falls/Crosby PR, Mississippi Gorge RP, Cherokee Heights RP, Sam Morgan & Robert Piram RT's (year 1 of 2)
Develop second swimming quarry to relieve pressure on existing swimming quarry. Construct T-dock access platform, a cantilevered access platform, informational and safety signage, restroom, picnic shelter and landscaping.
In 2007, the City of Lakeland and the Middle St. Croix Watershed Management Organization identified water quality issues related to the existing drainage on Quixote Avenue, a paved north/south roadway directly adjacent to the St. Croix River bluffline. Currently, Quixote Avenue collects and drains stormwater runoff from residential lots and roadways before it concentrates at the end of the roadway and discharges over the bluffline directly into Lake St. Croix.
There are seven major watersheds Koochiching County, this project will work in five of them: Big Fork, Little Fork, Rapid River, Lower Rainy River, and Rainy River Headwaters watersheds. The local Koochiching County Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD) is positioned to assist in several elements of the Watershed Restoration and Protection Strategy (WRAPS) process. This includes gap monitoring for water chemistry, sediment work, TMDL (Total Maximum Daily Load) development, modeling scenarios, and WRAPS development.
The purpose of this project is to establish an International Watershed Coordinator for the Lake of the Woods and Rainy River (LOW/RR) watershed, to assist the MPCA in facilitating and enhancing civic engagement through collaboration and integration of the efforts of groups working on watershed activities at local, state/provincial and bi-national levels of organization.
The Rainy River Basin WPLMN Sampling Program will focus on watershed load monitoring in the Big Fork River, Little Fork River, Rainy River-Rainy Lake, and Vermilion River watersheds. Four total staff will work on various portions of this agreement. The main objective is for one lead sampler and one backup sampler to collect water chemistry and field parameters for eight (8) sites, annually at various flows, especially peak flows, and utilize that data to determine the amount of pollutant load into each stream system.
