In the design phase, this new 5,000-square-foot exhibition will focus on the history of the explosive growth of the Twin Cities suburbs, particularly in the years after WW II, and the aspirations driving the suburban dream. This exhibit will open October 10, 2015, and run through March 20, 2016.
The Le Sueur Watershed Technician will provide highly focused targeting of conservation programs and practices in this key watershed. The technician will enhance current staff capabilities in the Le Sueur watershed by collecting landowner contact information, producing landowner mailings about funding opportunities, and meeting one-on-one with landowners to discuss conservation concerns they may have. This has been a highly successful method for targeting projects, project identification, landowner contact, and project follow through.
The Le Sueur Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD), who acts as County Ditch Inspectors, will partner with the Le Sueur County GIS Coordinator to accomplish the inventory and inspection of drainage ditches. A database will be established for all 250 miles of Le Sueur County Drainage Authority ditches. The inventory will be conducted using Lidar, 2010 and 2013 Pictometry and onsite technical review. Sites that have potential water quality issues will be identified from worst to most stable for side inlets, buffers and retention storage.
This project will complete a Acetochlor Impairment Response Report. This report will combine and coordinate information relating to actions being done in direct response to the acetochlor water quality impairments with those being done and support MDA’s on-going responsibility to assure pesticides are used in a manner that does not cause unreasonable adverse effects on the environment.
This project will provide additional monitoring data to be utilized in the watershed assessment process for the Le Sueur River Watershed Project. Monitoring will take place for an additional year at two sites along the Maple River.
This project will identify priority management zones (PMZ), for the purposes of water quality restoration and protection, within the LeSueur River major watershed. This project is only one component of a larger effort in the LeSueur watershed to complete Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) studies while engaging citizens and landowners in land management planning.
The Lower Minnesota River Watershed is on schedule for monitoring in 2014 and 2015. The requested sample sites that are listed in the RFP for Le Sueur County are Le Sueur Creek, Forest Prairie, a joint drainage tributary in the NW part of the county and Lake Sanborn. The project goal is to obtain useful water quality data in the Lower Minnesota River Watershed. Project objectives are: 1. Complete project planning by April 15 2014. 2.
The Sunrise Watershed is a high priority subwatershed of the St. Croix River. Chisago County, the United States Army Corps of Engineers (ACOE), the MPCA and several additional cooperators will complete a study of the Sunrise River Watershed. The goal of the study is to develop a watershed-based plan and strategies for water quality and aquatic ecosystem management, restoration and protection. Once completed, the study will provide input to the development of the TMDL and Watershed Restoration and Protection Plan for the Sunrise Watershed.
This project will apply the Sunrise River watershed computer model generated under previous projects to selected scenarios of land-cover and land-management changes. The watershed model calibrated to conditions in the late 1990s will form the initial baseline against which all other model runs will be contrasted. Scenarios to be run will include changes in future land cover, agricultural practices, urban practices, and natural resource management.
The Society sought out potential grant applicants, led grant-writing workshops, presented at 43 public meetings statewide and conducted onsite visits in approximately 40 communities.
This project will provide complementary (same year) physical and chemical data sets for three MPCA prioritized lakes in NE Minnesota to incorporate into the overall State database for MPCA assessment purposes as well as research purposes.
This project will develop a surficial geology shapefile (map) for part of the State of Minnesota, by modifying and joining smaller existing, but separate, surficial geology maps. The resulting internally consistent geographic information system (GIS) layer will be used to support the hydrologic parameterization of Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) watershed models.
Minnesota’s environment is changing in response to a variety of stressors – including population growth, residential development, industry, agriculture, invasive species, and climate change – and the state’s iconic lakes, and the goods and services they provide (e.g., fishing and water recreation), are an important part of what’s being impacted. To manage effectively for these changes it is important to understand how the state’s many lakes respond to these stressors.
The Minnesota Historical Society recognizes the natural relationship between sustainability and historic preservation and the importance of environmental stewardship as we preserve our cultural heritage for future generations. For this reason, the Society is studying its level of sustainability, including levels of energy consumption, water usage, waste and resource use.
The Minnesota Historical Society continues to strive for environmental, economic and social sustainability with its third year of the sustainability program. Continued focus is being placed on educating staff and visitors about sustainability through the project's "More for the Mission" campaign. Sustainability campaigns include a staff alternative commuting event and an upcoming staff stair campaign. The goal of these projects is to engage staff in the significance of sustainability in their daily lives.
The Upper Minnesota River Water Quality Assessment Project will complete water chemistry assessments of the upper reaches of the Minnesota River Headwaters, which includes the main stem of the river, five main tributaries (Meadowbrook Creek, Salmonsen Creek, Fish Creek, Hoss Creek, Little Minnesota River and Stoney Run Creek), and one flowage lake (Long Tom).
This project will complete the dataset required for assessment of Aquatic Recreation Use at 8 stream sites and 11 lake sites in the Sand Hill Watershed.
The Pine County SWCD project will collect complete sets of water quality data for the Kettle River and some of its tributaries and also collect complete sets of water quality data for six area lakes (Oak, Dago, Rhine, Elbow, Rock, and Lake Eleven).
This monitoring project will complete assessments of 41 lakes found throughout Beltrami COunty and acquire sufficient data for state/local assessments and also assist with county water planning.
This project will complete the dataset necessary for assessment of water quality on Brooks Creek, Black River, Lost River, Poplar River, and Hill River. By monitoring these five sites, Red Lake County SWCD will have collected baseline information on all of the Streams/Creeks in Red Lake County.
