This project restored and enhanced 165 acres of prairie & woodland habitat along the Mississippi and Rum Rivers. Outcomes include increased plant diversity and habitat for game and non-game species and is beneficial to migratory waterfowl on the Mississippi River flyway as well as to pollinators and resident wildlife.
Healthy prairies contribute numerous benefits, such as providing habitat for wildlife and pollinators, maintaining and improving water quality, stabilizing roadsides, and providing a sustainable source of materials for bioenergy production and other products. Since European settlement the once vast expanses of Minnesota prairie covering 18 million acres have been reduced to small remnants totaling about 235,000 acres. With this decline has also come a drastic reduction in the genetic diversity of the various species typical of Minnesota prairies.
Though many parts of the Twin Cities metropolitan area are urbanized, there are also has large areas of natural lands that continue to serve as important habitat for fish, wildlife, and plant communities. However, pressure on these remaining lands continues to intensify as population and development pressures increase.
This program will protect 900 acres of priority prairie grassland, wetland habitat, and native remnant prairie (if available) as state wildlife management areas (WMA). In addition, acquired lands will be restored and/or enhanced to prairie and/or wetland habitat. Once complete, these WMAs will provide quality grassland/wetland habitat complexes that will benefit a myriad of game and non-game species and will provide public recreational opportunities for the citizens of Minnesota.
This project contributed to the goals of the MN Prairie Conservation Plan by protecting 698 acres of native prairie/wetland/savanna; restoring 698 acres prairie/wetland; and enhancing 18,839 acres grassland/savanna. When combined with Phases 1-4 of the Prairie Recovery Program we have cumulatively protected 6,475 acres, enhanced 114,595 acres and restored 1,452 acres using Outdoor Heritage Fund dollars. We will continue to implement subsequent Phases toward meeting the conservation goals described in the MN Prairie Conservation Plan.
This program is to increase prescribed burning on Division of Parks and Trails (PAT) lands in order to meet shortfalls in achieving PAT restoration and management objectives.
Indigenous people have always used stories to preserve and teach culture to each succeeding generation. Through this project, the Minnesota Historical Society will collect, record and interpret stories specific to the Jeffers Petroglyphs site.
The stories from tribal elders will be recorded and transcribed in their native language as well as in English, culminating in written interpretations that will be made available to a wide audience of scholars, students and the general public.
The art works on paper in the Sax Brothers Collection Study Room at the Tweed Museum of Art were assessed by conservator, Sherelyn Ogden, who provided recommendations for preferred methods of paper preservation. A broad report was prepared that presents the long-range plan for implementing improvements to the preservation requirements of paper artworks at the Museum. A short-term plan for organizing the collection by size and re-housing the smaller works on paper has been implemented.
To hire a qualified consultant to develop planning documents that will help preserve the Bethlehem Lutheran Church Hall, now Sons of Norway Heimbygda Lodge, listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
This project prevented forest fragmentation and protected lake and stream habitat in the St. Louis River watershed through the fee acquisition of 2555 acres.
This project is a cooperative initiative between the Prior Lake Spring Lake Watershed District, the City of Prior Lake, and the Scott Soil and Water Conservation District to implement on-the-ground Best Management Practices (BMPs) that will protect and improve water quality in Spring, Upper Prior and Lower Prior Lakes, water resources of local, regional, and state significance. Spring and Upper Prior Lakes are both impaired and have a completed Total Maximum Daily Load and Implementation Plan.
Regional public projects that are the focus of the proposed project include: Infiltration areas and a sedimentation pond enhancement in subwatersheds N3/N4; Parking lot storm drain rain gardens and a sedimentation pond enlargement in subwatersheds N5/N6; An infiltration area and a sedimentation pond enhancement in subwatersheds S9/S11; Ditch checks along Highway 13 in subwatershed 10.
