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| Home > Natural Resources |
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| News & Notes |
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News You Can Use for Conservation, Issue #87
April 11, 2008
The Watershed Assessment tool is now available on the MN DNR Website
http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/watershed_tool/promo.html
This interactive tool is designed to improve access to information about Minnesota's natural resources and the ecological health of our watersheds.
LOOK FOR THESE SPECIAL FEATURES:
- Text describing the 5 components of watershed health.
- On-line interactive map that displays 40 GIS data layers and summarizes information for each major watershed.
- Information and metadata about each of these data layers
- Downloadable pdf MapBooks for each major watershed and each component Used together, the map and the text will lead to a better understanding of the components, their connection to each other and the complexity of interactions between them.
Beth Knudsen Research Analyst, MN DNR Ecological Resources, 1801 South Oak Street, Lake City, MN 55041, Phone - 651/345-3332 ext 228
Brainerd Area Environmental Learning Network (BAELN)
2007-2008 Season
BAELN is a collaborative effort of the following organizations: 1000 Friends of Minnesota, Central Lakes College, Crow Wing County Soil and Water Conservation District, Initiative Foundation, MN Department of Natural Resources, MN Department of Transportation, MN Pollution Control Agency, The Nature Conservancy, Paul Bunyan Trail Association, and University of Minnesota Extension.
For information on BAELN, please contact Stephen Mikkelson at (218) 855-5001, or toll free at 1-800-657-3864.
Upcoming events:
June 19: BAELN’s Celebration of Living Lightly. The season’s final event will celebrate, through music, food, displays and lively conversation, five years of BAELN and all our efforts to live lightly in our communities.
The trouble with road salt
Our waters are being contaminated, sometimes long after the snow has melted.
By LAWRENCE BAKER, Minneapolis Star Tribune
The salt-strewn streets that have become a common winter sight in Minnesota now cause salt pollution severe enough that the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) has started to classify some Twin Cities streams as legally "impaired" from chloride contamination.
The use of road salt (mostly sodium chloride) in the United States, uncommon a generation ago, has increased eightfold since 1960. A University of Minnesota study showed that the Twin Cities metropolitan region now uses an astounding 260 pounds of road salt per person every winter.
During snow melt, peak chloride concentrations in some urban streams can approach half that of ocean water, far higher than many freshwater organisms can tolerate even for a short period. Chloride levels high enough to impair aquatic plants and animals may persist through the summer. This happens because some dissolved road salt infiltrates into groundwater, which then seeps slowly into streams, contaminating them long after the snow has melted.
http://www.startribune.com/opinion/commentary/16912511.html
Environmental Toolkit for Congregations
http://www.greenguardian.com/grants/educational-tool-kit
Created during 2007, this free 66-page resource will help those in/working with faith communities to educate and actively engage members in reducing waste, changing purchasing practices, rethinking reuse and recycling, and properly disposing of hazardous items. A 12-page Supplement goes into more depth on the theological basis for people of faith taking environmental actions, and provides scripture references, sermon and hymn ideas, and national web sites for the Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Baha'i, and Unitarian Universalist faiths. An Appendix B lists specific fact sheets and handouts, some free for download and some available by calling to order copies. The Toolkit is divided into these sections:
- Overview and Getting Started
- Calendar of Activity Ideas
- Activity Ideas for Congregations, Adults, Teens and Children
- Special Event Ideas
- Tracking and Evaluation Tools
- Waste Reduction for Internal Operations
- Additional Educational Resources (includes Appendix B)
The Twin Cities-based non-profit organizations Congregations Caring for Creation (C3: http://www.ccc.nonprofitoffice.com/) and the Alliance for Sustainability (http://www.afors.org) produced this graphically attractive guide, and used information regarding waste and toxicity reduction provided by Hennepin County Environmental Services.
This is the eighty-fifth edition of what is a “twice-monthly or so” News You Can Use newsletter for participants in one of the Initiative Foundation’s Planning and Preservation programs. This newsletter is sent to everyone that has provided an e-mail at one of our Conservation-based training events. If you wish to be removed or if you have other names/e-mails to add please contact Don Hickman (dhickman@ifound.org) or Leah Posterick (lposterick@ifound.org). The goal of this publication is to share funding opportunities, new resources, and pending hearing or training events of common interest.
Archived Issues:
#69, #70, #71, #72, #73, #74, #75, #76, #77, #78, #79, #80, #81, #82, #83, #84, #85, #86, #87
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