There has been a sharp decline in participation in outdoor recreation and education amongst youth, particularly in urban areas. Some argue that youth who have meaningful outdoor education experiences are more likely to become engaged in environmental stewardship and invested in outdoor resources as adults.
MNHS partners with diverse organizations to create in-depth, meaningful learning experiences for young people that help them develop career and life skills. The Mazinaakizige: American Indian Teen Photography Program welcomed six American Indian high school students who investigated historic and contemporary images of American Indians, learned digital photography, and created a gallery show to interpret the theme "Powerful." The opening was held at the Two Rivers Gallery on Dec. 9, 2016, with the gallery donating the space, announcement postcards and frames for the prints.
MNHS partners with diverse organizations to create in-depth, meaningful learning experiences for young people that help them develop career and life skills.
One example is the Mazinaakizige: American Indian Teen Photography Program.
Trained staff will help assure the water chemistry data that is collected is of good quality. After the 1 day training events participants will be able to calibrate sonde water quality monitoring sensors in a lab or field setting, deploy the calibrated sonde to collect water chemistry, store sondes properly during non-field season and perform preventative maintenance or simple troubleshooting actions with the help of tech support. This will be satisfied by two different training events held in 2017.
Zebra mussels are an aquatic species that are invasive in Minnesota and severely threaten native fish and other aquatic species by disrupting food webs and damaging spawning habitat. Their range continues to expand within Minnesota lakes and rivers, where they are spread through the transporting of water, vegetation, or equipment from an infested water body. Once established zebra mussels are very difficult to control and there is an immediate need for safe and effective control measures to reduce their impacts in the state.
The Minnesota Zoo’s site – 485 acres of land in Dakota county – is a state treasure that includes a diverse array of habitants including vernal pools, sedge meadows, oak woodlands, and northern rich fens. More than half of this is undeveloped wildlife habitat which, thanks to Legacy funding, is now being explored by zoo staff and guests in order to educate citizens about the wild animals and wild places native to our state and the importance of caring for and conserving these resources.
In previous phases of work, a Hydrologic Simulation Program FORTRAN (HSPF) model of the Zumbro River Watershed was developed to simulate hydrology and water quality for the 1995-2009 simulation period (Phase I), applied to evaluate various management scenarios for reducing sediment and nutrient loading (Phase II), and used to develop Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs) for impaired stream segments and inform development of a nutrient TMDL for Rice Lake (Phase III).
2019: The Olmsted County Soil and Water Conservation District will assist the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) with water quality monitoring and pollutant load calculations at four sub-watershed sites in the Zumbro River Watershed. Approximately 25 grab samples per site between ice-out and October 31 of 2019 will be collected along with field measurements and observations.
To contract with qualified professionals to prepare planning documents that will help preserve the Zumbro Parkway Bridge (Bridge No. 3219), listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
The goal of this project is to test the sensitivity of the Zumbro River Watershed Hydrological Simulation Program FORTRAN (HSPF) model management scenario results. Additional goals are to develop Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs) for impaired stream reaches and Rice Lake, which will be documented in a TMDL Report. The consultant will apply the existing calibrated and validated Zumbro River Watershed HSPF model to construct load duration curves to develop TMDLs.
The Zumbro River watershed HSPF model will be refined to include recent data and information as well as evaluate various management scenarios to inform the most effective actions for reducing sediment and nutrient loading and improving water quality. Specifically, to provide the foundation for the Lake Zumbro Phosphorus Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL).
