The funds requested will provide Big Lake Township with the technical and financial assistance necessary to retrofit up to six locations for stormwater treatment practices within the direct drainage area of Birch Lake, an impaired water body which is very close to meeting state standards. The projects have been identified as high priority in several water quality plans including a TMDL, a subwatershed assessment, the County Water Plan and the Mississippi River (St. Cloud) WRAPS.
This project will focus, on a sub-regional scale, on water quality improvements targeted at concentrated runoff flows generated from upstream, developed portions of the City of Forest Lake. This project will work to modify an existing wetland complex located in publicly owned Bixby Park of Forest Lake to increase water quality treatment potential and storage capacity. The project will also incorporate an innovative iron-enhanced sand filter which will remove dissolved phosphorus, resulting in a 206 pound/year reduction of phosphorous and a 27 tons/year removal of sediment.
With limited funds and limited staff time available for targeting critical service areas and implementing Best Management Practices (BMPs), Geographic Information System (GIS)-based tools that pinpoint locations where BMPs will have the highest effectiveness are increasingly important. The Blue Earth County/SWCD Watershed Implementation Targeting project will utilize LiDAR topographic data to determine areas of high importance for BMP implementation. The county is located in the Blue Earth, LeSueur, Watonwan and Middle Minnesota watersheds where there is a high density of impaired waters.
In 2002 and 2004, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency listed Bluff Creek for turbidity and biological integrity. A Total Maximum Daily Load report and implementation plan were finalized and approved in 2013. This project was identified as a high priority site for culvert restoration and bank repairs.
In recent years, nutrient enrichment has occurred in Lake St. Croix due to increasing amounts of phosphorus entering the lake from the watershed. According to the TMDL, approximately half of the phosphorus-loading to Lake St. Croix is in the soluble form, and agriculture has been identified as one of the largest contributors of that phosphorus. In addition to the TMDL, subwatershed analyses were completed to identify, assess, and prioritize phosphorus-reducing practices in rural areas draining to Lake St. Croix in Washington County. This project will reduce phosphorus discharges to the St.
To increase the Ojibwe language fluency, proficiency and literacy fo the Bois Forte Indian Community through partnerships with existing language perservation programs to develop a curriculum for pre-K learners, and K-6th grade.
The Crow Wing Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD) will engage citizen and nonprofit groups to enhance, improve, and protect Crow Wing County (CWC) lakes and rivers. To do this, the SWCD will partner with the University of Minnesota Extension, MN DNR, CWC, nonprofits, and lake associations to implement a mini grant program and provide grant funds to 20 community groups.
The Briggs Lake Chain Association (BLCA) is one of Sherburne County's most proactive lake associations. This sub-grant will provide for approximately 20-30 stormwater reduction best management practices on strategically targeted parcels previously identified as contributing to degraded water quality through Total Maximum Daily Loads, aerial lakeshore analysis and site-reviews conducted by the BLCA.
The Equity Alliance MN will bring to life absent narratives of Latino, Hmong, Native, Asian, African American, and women of the Civil Rights Era in a collaboration among youth, social studies teachers, Full Circle Theater (FCT), and St. Paul Neighborhood Network. The narratives, researched by youth, will be transformed by FCT into a six person play that will be presented, video recorded, and distributed with accompanying curriculum written by social studies teachers for teachers across the Equity Alliance MN and the state.
Brown's Creek is one of the few remaining cold water fisheries in the Metropolitan Area; however, it is impaired due to high suspended solids and high water temperatures. To understand the extensive and complex in-stream temperature and local climate data already collected by the Brown's Creek Watershed District, this grant will facilitate the development of a thermal model to determine thermal sources and cost-effective management projects and practices to reduce thermal loading to Brown's Creek.
The goal of this project is to address public comments on the public noticed draft Watershed Restoration & Protection Strategy (WRAPS) study and Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) report for the watershed, and to produce a final draft WRAPS study and TMDL report ready for final approval by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) and Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA).
Governor Mark Dayton's landmark buffer initiative was signed into law in 2015. The law establishes new perennial vegetation buffers of up to 50 feet along rivers, streams, and ditches that will help filter out phosphorus, nitrogen, and sediment. The new law provides flexibility and financial support for landowners to install and maintain buffers. The DNR's role in Minnesota's new buffer law is to produce a statewide map of public waters and public ditches that require permanent vegetation buffers. The DNR is scheduled to produce these maps by July 2016.
Through the construction of new interactive exhibits and the creation of educational programming, the Duluth Children's Museum will highlight the community and culture of Duluth and the surrounding region. A climbable, playable model of Duluth's iconic canal lighthouses and an educational Ojibwe waaginogaan are among the planned new elements being added to the museum experience.
Partner: Minnesota Alliance of Local History Museums (MALHM)
MALHM fosters collaborative local history projects, communicates curatorial and educational information and encourages professionalism among local and specialized historical organizations in Minnesota. This partnership provides a means to evaluate MALHM's mission, vision and goals for continued relevancy, to implement a secure means of communication for member history enterprises and to develop a two-day intensive annual training.
MN Alliance of Local History Museums (MALHM) collaborates with MNHS to develop the capacity of history professionals across the state to serve local communities. This partnership will distribute best practices to all corners of the state through a conference to be held in April 2016 in Willmar. The partnership also will begin to operate with a paid coordinator to assure efficiency in serving a greater number of Minnesotans and their organizations that save and share history.
The Burandt Lake Stormwater Reuse System (BLSRS) project will install a water reuse system to capture untreated storm water and reduce pollutants entering Burandt Lake. This collaborative project with Carver County, Carver County Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD), City of Waconia and Independent School District 110 will retain and reuse an estimated 48% of the annual storm water runoff (1.25 million gallons) currently generated from eight acres of adjacent residential neighborhoods.
This project saw the electrification of campsites in Camden State Park. In all there are 12 new electric sites (20/30/50 amp) and 29 upgraded sites (20/30amp to 20/30/50amp).
The project protect approximately 1090 acres of habitat for fish, game and wildlife with easements along the Mississippi and Crow Wing Rivers and tributaries. Protection will reduce infringement and development and improve watershed function.
Once thought to have an essentially inexhaustible groundwater supply, Minnesotans are now realizing our rates of use are regionally unsustainable. Recent advanced modeling by the MN DNR and Metropolitan Council of aquifer supplies, in conjunction with predicted demand, indicate the major metropolitan area aquifers are currently subject to extraction rates that exceed recharge. Simply stated, we are mining our groundwater.
The goal of this project is to apply the Hydrological Simulation Program FORTRAN (HSPF) model to evaluate scenarios to support potential management actions and implementation in the watershed, construct Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) studies, and to develop a conceptual site model of the lakes for understanding phosphorus release.
Permanently protected 496 acres (142% of our protect goal) within the Cannon River watershed; areas include wetlands, prairies, Big Woods forest, and shallow lake shoreline. This has reversed habitat loss, improved watershed function, and increased access to public lands.
Through fee-title acquisition, the Trust for Public Land permanently protected 242 acres (88% of our goal) in the Cannon River Watershed. This resulted in one new Wildlife Management Areas (WMA) and four additions to existing WMAs. Now publicly accessible, these protected areas include wetland, prairie, and "Big Woods" forest habitat. The permanent preservation of these places has reversed habitat loss, allowed for habitat restoration, and increased access to public lands for hunting, fishing, hiking, and other outdoor recreation opportunities.
