to construct 30 miles of beginner/intermediate natural surface singletrack trail purpose built for mountain biking at Lester Park, Mission Creek, Piedmont, and Brewer Park areas of Duluth
The goal of the American Indian Family Center is to create an Early Childhood Montessori Language Immersion Program to offer to American Indian Families living in Saint Paul and the east metro area. This grant will recruit and select candidates for each training opportunity (both the Montessori Teacher and Assistant), train the candidates in both models (Montessori and language immersion), and ultimately place the candidates in programs that are committed to offering the model for early learners.
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.
Many of the aquifers that are located under Otter Tail County are susceptible to contamination from nitrates and other water soluble contaminants due to the coarse grained soils of the area. These aquifers are used by municipalities and rural residents. One of the common agricultural practices in the area that can have an effect on these aquifers is agricultural irrigation. Over application of irrigation can directly lead to leaching of nutrients that can contaminate our groundwater resources.
The Minnesota Historical Society Press(MHS Press) converted more than 125 MHS Press/Borealis Books titles to digital formats for multiple e-book readers, including the Kindle, the Nook, the Sony E-reader and the Apple iPad, allowing us to meet the needs of not only young, tech-savvy readers, but also users in the over-50 age bracket who have been among the first adopters of e-reader technologies.
The Emerald Ash Borer (EAB) has been decimating ash throughout the Great Lake States and is currently advancing into Minnesota, threatening the future of the ash forests that occur across much of the state. Of particular concern is the impact EAB will have on the ecology and functioning of black ash swamps, which cover over one million acres in Minnesota and represent the state’s most common ash forest type. Black ash trees grow and thrive in swamps and occupy a unique wet niche where few other tree species grow.
The Parks and Trails Division is creating innovative programs to attract new audiences to Minnesota state parks and trails. Skill-building programs, such as "I Can Camp!," provide a trial opportunity by eliminating the barriers of needing to have pre-existing knowledge or gear for the activity.
The Elk River Watershed Association (ERWSA) was formed to enable Sherburne and Benton Counties to work together to implement Local Water Management Plans. Since its formation in 1994, the ERWSA has primarily focused on working with land owners to reduce non-point sources of pollution within the watershed. Sherburne and Benton SWCD staff have extensive experience installing conservation practices. The ERWSA draws support from Sherburne County, Benton County, and local lake associations.
The goal of this project is to develop a watershed-wide, multi-parameter Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) and Implementation Plan that will collectively address all water quality impairments throughout the Elm Creek watershed.
Technical equipment was purchased that digitized historical images from the Society's photograph collections. The ELMHS Digital Image Viewing Project included the digitization, cataloging and web publishing of 525 images. A PastPerfect add on software program, called Virtual Exhibit, was used for the web publishing. Digitization will continue until the full 1500+ photograph collection has been reproduced. The photographs are now more accessible to researchers while the actual images can be better preserved through lack of physical contact.
US Geological Survey-MN Water Science Center will complete laboratory analysis of groundwater samples for endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs) and other emerging contaminants of interest, including organic waste water compounds, pharmaceuticals, and endrocrine active compounds, and report results. MPCA staff will complete sample collection tasks. The USGS National Water Quality Laboratory and the Kansas Water Science Center Laboratory will perform the laboratory analyses.
The Division of Parks and Trails is providing expanded cross-country ski, snowshoe and other winter activities in Minnesota state parks and recreation areas; Minnesota state trails; and Minnesota state forests. The division is re-establishing trails that had been closed due to a lack of funding; enhanced a number of existing facilities by brushing, mowing or improving trail condition prior to snowfall. The division has also enhanced existing facilities by maintaining additional parking lots or staging areas and, in the case of trails, by providing winter grooming.
Through this partnership, students from Macalester College are conducting a study to identify, select and assess historic content related to Minnesota's environmental history, using archival, archaeological and geospatial data at the Minnesota Historical Society.
The restoration of the Episcopal Church of the Transfiguration restored the building to a condition that is suitable for occupancy and prevented the building from becoming unsafe thus requiring it to be demolished. The largest portion of the restoration involved repairs to the foundation. The Episocopal Church of the Transfiguration, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and located in a city park.
Gullies are a fixture of the landscape. Except for avoiding them during field work they can be ignored for years and the benefits to the landowner of fixing them never seem to outweigh the costs for doing so. It is only when viewed over time that the true impact becomes apparent. Red Lake County SWCD identified these two project locations as high priority due to the large amount of sediment these projects have contributed to the Red Lake River. Those impacts will continue as the erosion accelerates and they become deeper and wider over time.
A comprehensive report, including three options for new service, was developed by a consortium of professionals for a new HVAC system for the Plummer House of the Arts. This group of professionals consisted of an AIA/LEED certified architect, an HVAC engineer, an historical consultant and a forester. The Henry S. Plummer House is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and contains pieces of art and furnishings requiring museum quality climate control.
The Pope County Historical Society hired experienced an HVAC engineer, to conduct an evaluation of their mechanical system. This included three site visits to document current conditions through interviews, photos and temperature/humidity dataloggers placed throughout the museum. With this information, they prepared a written analysis including recommendations to improve the HVAC system toward current museum standards.
Partner Organization: Science Museum of Minnesota.
The Science Museum of Minnesota and the Minnesota Historical Society each maintain important historical collections of American Indian cultural objects assembled by Bishop Henry Benjamin Whipple. The objects document the changes experienced by the Dakota and Ojibwe in Minnesota in the 19th century.
History Player in the Classroom is a popular program in which actors portraying historical figures come to Minnesota classrooms to give students "real life" lessons in history.
The final edit, of a manuscript describing the work of women of the Eastern bands of the Dakota Nation, was prepared by the author/project director for submission to the Minnesota Historical Society Press for publication.
The story of how contact and conflict with Europeans and European Americans, war and forced relocation changed how these women retained the knowledge and traditions of their grandmothers is tied to the U.S. - Dakota War of 1862 and carries forward to today.
to construct a trail from the North Alexander Park on the East at Two Rivers Park and on the West at the railroad tracks, including an underpass connection under Second Avenue
Currently, there are approximately 5,050 feedlots with fewer than 300 animal units that need to come into compliance with State feedlot rules. Clean Water Feedlot Water Quality Management Grant funds are being used to provide financial assistance to landowners with feedlot operations less than 300 animal units in size and located in a riparian area or impaired watershed.
Local television station (KTTC) donated 485 BETA videos and 557 16mm films to the History Center of Olmsted County. New storage methods and materials were implemented to preserve and stabilize these donations. The historic collection was sorted, organized and rehoused into archival containers which were then labeled, cataloged and entered into a Past Perfect database.
This valuable resource, now stored in the HCOC research library, has been made more accessible to the public.
Fish Lake is a headwater of the Watonwan River. The lake is a regionally known fishery due to its unusual depth >20', lack of a mud bottom, and a naturally reproducing smallmouth bass fishery. The watershed has many tile drainage systems that are a source of nutrients to the lake. Woodchip bioreactors will be installed to reduce nitrogen from all tile outlets entering Fish Lake. This will help achieve the goal of a 40% reduction in Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD) in the Minnesota River.
The number of people from other cultures and languages is increasing in Minnesota. It is important that they learn the behaviors that will help Minnesota preserve and enhance its natural resources. Yet, communicating and effectively interacting with people across cultures to change behaviors on natural resources, conservation, pollution prevention and stewardship is challenging. Most environmental information is designed for reaching native English readers. Translating and printing information often does not reach the intended audiences, who are often part of an oral culture.
