Producer driven inquiries and significant land conversion pressure away from grazing lands has developed growing interest from SWCD's and conservation partners to develop a program that keeps cattle on the landscape while maintaining and improving wildlife habitat and protecting and improving water quality. RIM easements that allow long-term grazing coupled with approved grazing plans that take wildlife and water quality into consideration will be utilized to protect approximately 716 acres.
The Center for Leadership and Neighborhood Engagement works to organize and mobilize the faith community to affect positive systems change. Our intercultural work aims at communicating culture across racial divides. Through this project we will celebrate and honor creative cultural communication with youth through counter-storytelling, educating joint learning communities, and training cultural heritage organizers to educate and rejuvenate cultural identity in the community.
Minnesota's twelve regional library systems, which encompass more than 350 public libraries in all areas of the state, can benefit from a portion of the Legacy Amendment's Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund. Through State Library Services, a division of the Minnesota Department of Education, each regional library system is eligible to receive a formula-driven allocation from the annual $2.5 million Minnesota Regional Library System Legacy Grant. Plum Creek Library System (PCLS) is a federated regional public library system with central services located in southwestern Minnesota.
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.
