This proposal accelerates the strategic permanent protection of 611 acres (122 acres of wetlands and 489 acres of grassland habitat) of Waterfowl Production Areas (WPAs) open to public hunting in Minnesota. Pheasants Forever (PF) will strategically acquire parcels that are adjacent to existing public land or create corridors between complexes. All acquisitions will occur in the prairie, prairie/forest transition, or metro regions.
This is the twelfth phase to accelerate the protection and restoration of 540 acres of strategic prairie grasslands, associated wetlands and other wildlife habitats as State Wildlife Management Areas (WMA) open to public hunting. Pheasants Forever (PF) will be permanently protecting strategic parcels within the prairie, prairie/forest transition, and metro planning regions which will be restored and transferred to the MN Department of Natural Resources (MN DNR) to be included as a WMA.
The Native Prairie Bank Program perpetually protected via conservation easement 1,342 acres of native prairie from willing landowners. Â This exceeds the original outcome goal of 760 acres by 582 acres. Â Easement acquisition focused on Minnesota Prairie Plan identified landscapes and targeted high quality prairies that provide valuable wildlife habitat.
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 accelerates the permanent protection of 900 acres of wetlands (225 acres) and grasslands (675 acres) as Waterfowl Production Areas open to public hunting in Minnesota.
This proposal accelerates the protection of 900 acres of prairie grassland, wetland, and other wildlife habitat as State Wildlife Management Areas open to public hunting.
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
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.
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.
With the ML 2015 appropriation The Conservation Partners Legacy (CPL) Grant Program awarded 70 grants, 22 of these grants were the metropolitan area. Over 24,000 acres were enhanced, 2,500 acres were restored, and 386 acres protected through these 70 projects. Thirty-eight counties had CPL projects completed in them through 47 unique organizations. The average project for the ML 2015 grants was $96,000, with few exceptions most projects were completed on time and many were under budget.
Acquire 910 acres of high priority habitats for designation as Wildlife Management Areas or Scientific & Natural Areas emphasizing Prairie Conservation Plan implementation and coordinating with partners. All lands will be open for public hunting, fishing and trapping.
Diverse habitat is critical to sustaining quality fish populations in lakes and rivers. The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (MNDNR) will complete two fish passage projects to restore habitat connectivity for fish and other aquatic life, and restore reaches of two different rivers, creating 1.8 miles of diverse aquatic habitat. Though the actual footprint of fish passage projects is relatively small, these projects will reconnect over 600 acres of lake and river habitat.
Minnesota's iconic northern forest habitats, along with their interlaced wetlands and brushlands, are in need of management for the future due to stressors such as invasive species and climate change. This request will enhance and restore up to 3,250 acres of habitat in the Northern Forest Region on WMAs, AMAs, State Forests, and SNAs to increase forest health and resilience, and ultimately wildlife populations, through activities of a roving crew over three years.
Grasslands continue to be the most threatened habitat in the state. This programmatic request will build on the DNR's history of enhancing and restoring grasslands, embedded wetlands, and savannas to increase wildlife populations. The Prairie Plan, Pheasant Plan, and Wildlife Action Plan will guide our efforts and ensure we are operating in a strategic and targeted manner. This proposal will enhance and restore grasslands on parcels that are permanently protected and most open to public hunting.
6289 acres of grassland and wetland habitat will be enhanced through this proposal to increase the productivity of game and non-game upland species on Minnesota lands open to public hunting including Wildlife Management Areas (WMA), Waterfowl Production Areas (WPA), and National Wildlife Refuges (NWR). We will accomplish this by working with our partners to follow best practices to conduct wetland restorations, conservation grazing, invasive tree removal, prescribed fire, and diversity seeding in the prairie, forest/prairie transition, and metro regions.
This project had three components: 1) An arts club that meets weekly and provides arts education and peer mentoring; 2) A theater play that will showcase issues/challenges within the Somali community in the community. The workshops are designed to introduce youth to traditional Somali arts and encourage them to extend the tradition through their own artistic practice. 3) Showcasing Somali Art, presentation and intercultural community engagement at the Somali Independence day Festival in 2016.
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.
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.
Metro Big Rivers Phase 6 will protect 245 acres (145 acres fee title and 100 acres conservation easement), restore 81 acres and enhance 489 acres of priority habitat in the big rivers corridors in the Metropolitan Urbanizing Area.
Metro Big Rivers Phase 10 will protect 535 acres in fee title and 157 acres in permanent conservation easement, restore 123 acres and enhance 295 acres of priority habitat in the big rivers corridors in the Metropolitan Urbanizing Area (MUA). Metro Big Rivers partners will leverage the OHF funds at least 10% with partner funds, private funds, local government contributions, and landowner donations of easement value. In addition, significant volunteer engagement will be invested in habitat enhancement activities, although not technically counted as leverage.
Arts and Cultural Heritage funding will allow us to pursue three major initiatives between July 1, 2015 and June 30, 2016: 1) Offer special exhibits and programs promoting creative and critical thinking in our main museum in St. Paul; 2) A Pop-up satellite Museum at the Mall of America featuring four changing exhibits to attract thousands of new visitors; and 3) Changing exhibits and access at Minnesota Children’s Museum-Rochester to ensure inclusive family experiences for the Rochester community. Recipient:
The Nature Conservancy and US Fish and Wildlife Service will work together to permanently protect native prairie and associated complexes of wetlands and native habitats in western and central Minnesota by purchasing approximately 620 acres of fee title properties and/or permanent habitat easements. Approximately 333 acres will be native prairie. Work will be focused in areas identified as having significant biodiversity by the Minnesota Biological Survey and/or the US Fish and Wildlife Service and located in priority areas in the Minnesota Prairie Conservation Plan.
The project will advance the protection, restoration and enhancement goals for prairie and grassland habitat that are articulated in the 2018 update of the MN Prairie Conservation Plan. It builds upon the highly successful model established in Phases 1 - 9 and seeks to protect 300 acres in fee without PILT obligations to be held by The Nature Conservancy, enhance 14,000 acres of permanently protected grasslands, and restore 50 acres of prairie and wetland habitat.
This project contributes to the goals of the MN Prairie Conservation Plan by protecting 800 acres of prairie/wetland/savanna habitat; restoring 150 acres prairie/wetland; and enhancing 6,000 acres of prairies, wetlands, grasslands and savanna.
Minnesota Trout Unlimited, the Minnesota Land Trust, The Nature Conservancy, and Trust for Public Land will combine their expertise in six targeted watersheds to increase the resilience of remnant populations of brook trout unique to Southeast Minnesota. We will protect and enhance habitat in floodplains, along gullies, above steep slopes, and on bluffs to slow runoff, increase infiltration, and keep aquatic habitat productive.
This project restored fish passage from the Red River to 50 miles of quality upstream Lake Sturgeon and Walleye habitats in the Sand Hill River by modifying four structures and modifying the Sand Hill Lake Dam which currently block access. It also enhanced in stream habitat on the SH River.
Blufflands oak forest regeneration is threatened by invasive species, lack of fire, and subsequent succession to less desirable northern hardwood trees, such as maple and basswood. This proposal combines invasive species treatments, increased use of fire in fire-dependent forests, and mast tree planting on sites being converted from ag land to forest as well as existing stands identified for harvest by the Subsection Forest Resource Management Plan (SFRMP) and the Sustainable Timber Analysis.
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
In 2016, VocalEssence WITNESS welcomes artist Melanie DeMore to help us explore the Underground Railroad in Minnesota—specifically how our state has been a place of sanctuary for refugees from the time of slavery through today. As part of this project, Melanie will help record absent narratives of those who have found sanctuary in Minnesota, and these stories will be shared in video and written form to explore the concept of sanctuary as part of the WITNESS School Program.
Young Forest Conservation Phase III will continue American Bird Conservancy's successful, ongoing efforts to maintain, restore, and enhance Golden-winged Warbler, American Woodcock, and Ruffed Grouse breeding habitat on publicly protected lands in Minnesota. This work also benefits a suite of associated deciduous, mixed upland and lowland forest habitat species within a diverse, contiguous landscape-level forest matrix. Through Phases I and II, ABC completed 5,535 acres of high-quality early successional habitat projects.
