This proposal will address a backlog of shallow lake and wetland habitat work that will otherwise go unfunded. These projects will address work called for in the Minnesota Prairie Conservation Plan, Long Range Duck Recovery Plan, and Shallow Lakes plan.
We propose restoration and enhancement of prairie and savanna on WMA’s, SNA’s, and Native Prairie Banks in Minnesota and restoration and enhancement of bluff prairies on State Forest Land in southeast Minnesota.
This proposal will accomplish shallow lake and wetland habitat work that will otherwise go unfunded. This work is called for in the Minnesota Prairie Conservation Plan, Long Range Duck Recovery Plan, and Shallow Lakes plan.
CMSM opened its new permanent site with increased capacity to serve as an informal learning center that playfully engages children, families, and school groups in interactive experiences with the art and cultural heritage of southern Minnesota. With its current appropriation, CMSM is poised to strengthen its core as an institution that promotes arts and cultural heritage learning through continued
CMSM will build upon the work that began with its 2015-16 appropriation by (1) Remediation and further development of exhibit areas that promote Arts & Cultural Heritage (ACH) learning (2) Expanding ACH learning opportunities for new audiences at off-site locations; (3) Engaging an outside Evaluation Consultant to help plan/implement strategies that meaningfully assess ACH learning outcomes and impacts; (4) Boosting the Museum’s capacity to serve more school/early learning groups.
Great River Greening (GRG), Anoka Conservation District (ACD), Isanti County Parks (ICP) and National Wild Turkey Federation (NWTF) completed restoration and enhancement (R/E) activities on 1,896, equal to 147% of the planned 1,286 acres, and on 1.2 miles of shoreland, over 17 parcels.
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.
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.
Protect and restore approximately 80 acres in and near the Cannon River watershed, including wetlands, prairies, Big Woods forest, and river and shallow lake shoreline to reverse habitat loss, improve watershed function and provide access.
The Children's Discovery Museum in Grand Rapids, Minnesota aims to strengthen its highly successful School Service Program by retaining a Program development coordinator, changing core interactive exhibits and creating new curriculum for pre-school and K - 5 students in ten northern Minnesota counties.
The Children's Discovery Museum in Grand Rapids, Minnesota will strengthen its acclaimed school service program by: (1) continued leadership of a new Program Director retained on January 1, 2016 (2) creating a new (Minnesota built) core interactive exhibit; (3) developing new curriculum for pre-school through 3rd grade students in ten northern Minnesota counties.
The Conservation Partners Legacy Grant Program will be managed by the Department of Natural Resources to provide competitive matching grants of up to $400,000 to local, regional, state, and national non-profit organizations and government entities.
We will use a programmatic approach to achieve prioritized aquatic habitat protection, restoration, and enhancement of lakes and streams across all the LSOHC planning regions of Minnesota.
We restored 2,081 acres of grassland and enhanced 42,425 acres of grassland for a total of 44,506 acres of wildlife habitat across 329 sites with these funds.
This project will utilize a combination of wetland restoration, invasive tree removal, seeding, and prescribed fire, to improve habitat quality, diversity, and productivity on Wildlife Management Areas and Waterfowl Production Areas within the prairie and metro regions of Minnesota.
The Minnesota DNR and the Minnesota Forest Resources Council work with forest landowners, managers and loggers to implement a set of voluntary sustainable forest management guidelines that include water quality best management practices (BMPs) to ensure sustainable habitat, clean water, and productive forest soils, all contributing to healthy watersheds. This project will monitor the implementation of these forest management guidelines and BMPs on forested watersheds in MN.
Minnesota’s use of groundwater has increased over the last two decades. An increasing reliance on groundwater may not be a sustainable path for continued economic growth and development. The DNR is establishing three pilot groundwater management areas (GWMA) to help improve groundwater appropriation decisions and help groundwater users better understand and plan for future groundwater needs associated with economic development.
Minnesota, home to the largest Somali population in the United States, lacks resources for students to access knowledge and representations of Somalia. The Somali Museum of Minnesota will offer students immersive field trips illuminating the history and arts of traditional Somali society by subsidizing admission fees, integrating elders as immersive guides on tours, and developing take-home curriculum materials.
The Metro Big Rivers (MBR) partners successfully completed their work with the Phase 7 / ML2016 OHF appropriation. MBR exceeded original acreage goals by 14% and completed work on a total of 1,199 acres. Partners protected 145 acres through fee title acquisition and 194 acres through permanent conservation easement, restored 241 acres and enhanced 619 acres.
MBR 7 expended 99% of the OHF funds granted and leveraged the grant by 49% with almost $2 million in other funds.
This project will establish a groundwater monitoring network in the 11 county metropolitan area. The network will provide information about aquifer characteristics and natural water trends by monitoring healthy aquifers (non-stressed systems). The project will also develop an automated system that captures groundwater level and water use data. This system will enhance evaluation of changes in aquifers that are stressed by pumping from existing wells.
White Earth has acquired all 2,034 acres and transferred them into fee title status. Initial assessment/inventory of habitat conditions and needs were conducted in summer of 2017. Most illegal dump sites were removed in summer of 2017. The parcel located east of Lower Rice lake adjacent to HWY 92, which contained remnants of ~ 5 acres of food plots, were planted into a pollinator prairie mix. This prairie planting makes the property compliant with the MN Buffer Law. This east parcel is in the planning stages of an early succession forest manage plan.
Ducks Unlimited successfully completed this Phase 4 our land acquisition/restoration program to protect shallow lakes and restore wetlands by purchasing and restoring 1,004 acres of land with drained wetlands and land on shallow lakes as additions to state Wildlife Management Areas (WMA) for the MNDNR throughout southern Minnesota.
With roughly 70,000 residents, Minnesota is home to the largest Hmong population in the United States. The top spinning game of Tuj Lub (pronounced - too loo) has its roots in Southeast Asia and holds cultural significance to the Hmong community. Formal Tuj Lub courts, constructed near a multi-shelter picnic area at Keller Regional Park, seek
