To complete the interior display areas of the historically accurate Forestry Ranger Station. Exhibits will feature the early history of forest fire fighting, an account of forestry activity on the Red Lake Indian Reservation, draft horse logging equipment, lumberjack tools, and a tribute to Paul Bunyon. Additionally, funds will be used for a stage where speakers can tell stories and teach about forestry stewardship.
to acquire 12.65 miles of abandoned rail line for trail development with connection to existing biking lane and trail head of the Blazing Star State Trail located in Albert Lea
To acquire professional services in conducting a Phase I archaeological investigation preparatory to further historic preservation work on the Berg Hotel, listed in the National Register of Historic Places
To hire a qualified professional to prepare a Historic Structures Report for the John Bergquist House, listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
Acquire 124-acre addition to existing 496-acre Bertram Chain of Lakes Regional Park. This property consists of 1,200 acres, including four undeveloped lakes (5.75 miles of lake shore and 1.5 miles of streams), in Wright County.
This project will complete a Total Maximum Daily Load Implementation Plan for the watersheds of Big Sandy and Minnewawa Lakes. This restoration plan will provide pollution reduction and watershed management strategies that are developed with input from stakeholders in the watersheds.
To offer live performances to enhance the education, preservation, and promotion of Minnesota history and cultural heritage. Live performances at Big Stone County Fair will include a Bluegrass Band, a percussion group showcasing music from around the globe, a magician highlighting the history and heritage of magic, a caricature artist, and a vaudeville-style comedy troupe.
The goal of this project is to develop statewide biological criteria for managing the state’s water resources, in keeping with the federal Clean Water Act. The MPCA is using the Biological Condition Gradient (BCG) for this development. The BCG is a conceptual model that describes changes in aquatic ecosystems on a gradient of increasing anthropogenic stress.
The Birdie Lane East Ravine Improvement project consists of eliminating ravine erosion and treatment of an 8.24-acre watershed to reduce total phosphorus reaching Lake Hazeltine by 98 pounds per year. The eroding ravine will be replaced with a linear treatment feature to provide treatment of a watershed that has land uses that include roads, single-family residential, and a golf course. The project will involve development of a cascade, pool, and riffle channel system.
The Council on Black Minnesotans and the Humanities Center will coordinate a Cultural Relations Summit for Minnesotans of Africans descent. The summit will celebrate culture traditions through instructional demonstrations, guided tours, and visual arts; plan for cultural institutions’ sustainability; and strengthen cultural connections through DNA technology. A web-based cultural portal and a video documentary on the contributions of Minnesotans of African will discover and preserve cultural traditions and enhance relations in Minnesota.
This project will reduce sediment to the Minnesota River, and protect private land and public infrastructure. Blakeley Trail (County Rd 60) in southwest Scott County is surrounded by deep ravines. As these ravines incise, they cause road shoulder landslides, which cut into private property, threaten the road at the head-cuts and generate sediment which creates maintenance and flooding issues downstream. The Scott Watershed Management Organization and the Scott County Highway Department have partnered on this project because of the multiple benefits.
The goal of this project is to reduce the number of vulnerable unused wells located within sensitive areas and to prevent potential groundwater contamination. Most Minnesotans rely on groundwater as their primary source of drinking water. Unused and improperly sealed wells can serve as an open conduit to groundwater aquifers, allowing surface water runoff, contaminated water or improperly disposed waste to reach an uncontaminated aquifer. Properly sealing unused and improperly sealed wells is a preventive practice that protects groundwater aquifers from contamination.
To gain intellectual and physical control over a significant historical architectural drawing collection documenting the built environment of Rochester
Seminary Fen, a 600-acre complex in Carver County, supports one of only 500 calcareous fens in the world and is one of the highest quality calcareous fens in southern Minnesota. The Fen feeds Assumption Creek; one of the metro area's last known trout streams that supports naturally reproducing native brook trout. Assumption Creek then discharges to the nearby Minnesota River. The Fen's unique hydrology, soils, plants, and habitats are highly sensitive to water quality and sedimentation stress.
Healthy communities and healthy water is a priority in Crow Wing County (CWC). The County and the Crow Wing Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD) propose to enhance and improve the water quality of Little Buffalo Creek, a tributary to the Mississippi River. The SWCD will partner with CWC, the City of Brainerd, citizens, Central Lakes Community College, and the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources to complete raingardens, shoreline stabilizations, and bioretention areas within the Little Buffalo Creek subwatershed.
Brown's Creek Watershed District, the MN DNR Trails and Countryside Auto Repair will partner to achieve significant thermal and sediment reductions in the biologically impaired Brown's Creek by installing one large scale rain garden with infiltration, one pretreatment chamber for sediment capture off of parking and drive lanes, and a two cell bio-filtration garden. The entire project site is intensely utilized, drains untreated water to Brown's Creek, and is located on the developing Brown's Creek State Trail.
Brown's Creek Watershed District (BCWD) has identified this project as a part of the Brown's Creek TMDL Implementation. The identified untreated residential development in Stillwater directly contributes stormwater to Brown's Creek, a DNR designated trout stream currently impaired for turbidity and lack of cold water assemblage. The main stressors for Brown's Creek are total suspended solids and thermal loading.
During the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency's 2011 lake assessment process nine shallow lakes located in the Buffalo-Red River Watershed in western Becker County were determined to be impaired for excessive nutrients primarily from agricultural runoff. Located in a heavy agricultural production area, this project will address agricultural stormwater runoff by installing 50 water and sediment control basins and 20 acres of vegetative buffer strips adjacent to the lakes. Fifteen landowners with a potential for 26 water and sediment control basin sites have already been identified.
To restore several Dakota City building exteriors on the fairgrounds, in collaboration with Dakota City Heritage Village. These local structures that portray a 1900 era rural village include the 1867 Vermillion Presbyterian Church, the belfry of the District 96 one room school, and the 1861 frame structure that was originally built as a school and most recently used as the millinery and dressmaker’s shop.
The Chicano Latino Affairs Council and the Humanities Center will build on the grant received last year, which was intended to identify the elements of success in programs for Latino high school students and ways to replicate them. Applying the findings of CLAC's and HACER's research, CLAC will integrate its biennium goal of improving levels of educational achievement for Latino youth with the Legacy goal of enriching Minnesota’s cultural legacy by piloting the program in two Minnesota schools.
The Red Lake River is impaired for turbidity. It is also the drinking water source for residents living in East Grand Forks. Burnham Creek is a tributary to the Red Lake River and its watershed is well known for its intensive agriculture, flat topography and frequent flooding. Over the last 20 years, head cutting of the bottom of the channel has led to bank failures, flow restrictions, sedimentation and constriction of fish passage. Soil loss from this is approximately 117 tons per year.
Funds are to be used to protect, enhance and restore water quality in lakes, rivers and streams and to protect groundwater and drinking water. Activities include structural and vegetative practices to reduce runoff and retain water on the land, feedlot water quality projects, SSTS abatement grants for low income individuals, and stream bank, stream channel and shoreline protection projects. For the fiscal year 2012, BWSR awarded 12 local governments with funds.
The goal of this project is to use a science-based and participatory approach to understanding and promoting conservation practices in the agricultural community.
Protect +/- 428 and restore +/- 175 acres near Cannon River Headwaters including wetlands, Big Woods forest, and river & shallow lake shoreline to reverse habitat loss, improve watershed function, and provide access.
The goal of this project is to develop and complete the Watershed Restoration and Protection (WRAP) process and report, while also enlarging and sustaining a public participation process that encourages local ownership of water quality problems and solutions (civic engagement).
To document and display past and current county history through photographs at the Carver County Fair. Selected photographs will represent a cross-section of topics, people, and places in Carver County.
