Enhance Your Property's Ecological Value
Minnesota is rich in wetlands that provide numerous benefits to humans and wildlife; however, many exist in a deteriorated state due to historic and present-day impacts. Restoring wetlands on your property improves the quality and quantity of your local natural resources, and there is an abundance of technical and financial resources available to support these restoration efforts.
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Attracting Wildlife to your Property
Backyard conservation - involves the installation of practices in small urban and suburban lots that can improve water quality, reduce flooding, enhance soils, attract wildlife, and maximize natural aesthetics.
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Treating Runoff at the Source
Rain gardens are beautiful landscape features, but also help keep our lakes and streams clean. A rain garden's job is to filter and soak in storm water runoff that would otherwise go into nearby waterbodies, usually through the curb and gutter system. Storm water from roofs, driveways, streets, and other hard surfaces is directed into the rain garden, which is in a depression. The garden is planted with plants that can tolerate periodic flooding. Standing water exists for only 2-3 days, eliminating mosquito breeding.
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Understanding Flow & Managing Erosion
Riverbank stabilization projects restore native vegetation and other habitat components to river banks and often include measures to correct or prevent erosion.
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Conserving Water at Home
"Water-Smart" means using water resouces efficiently and improving water quality by reducing flooding and stormwater runoff.
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Unlock the Secrets in the Soil
Soil is more than just dirt. The creatures living in the soil are critcal to soil health and soil is the key to feeding billions of people.
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Benefiting Wildlife and People
Once considered wasteland, wetlands provide valuable function in the landscape.
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Improving Water Quality and Reducing Runoff
Cities and neighborhoods have a lot of rooftops, concrete, and asphalt that prevent stormwater from soaking into the ground, contributing to flooding and erosion. Stormwater that runs off of these areas picks up pollutants such as chemicals, grass clippings, and pet waste as it flows toward storm drains. Stormwater often drains directly to waterbodies without adequate treatment, leading to water quality degradation.
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Threats to Our Natural Resources
Over 75% of Minnesota is privately owned, so it's up to us all to help manage our natural resources. By working together, we can reverse the trends that threaten our clean lakes and rivers, abundant fish and wildlife, and sustainable ground water.
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Combating a Threat to Native Ecosystems
Preventing the introduction of invasive species is much easier than removing them after they arrive.
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Improving Landscapes by Increasing Diversity
Ecological diversity in our yard, garden, or farm helps support healthy, vibrant communities in our backyards, wildlands, and waters!
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Restoring Habitat in Anoka County
The landscape around us once hosted a mosaic of plant communities: oak savannas, tallgrass prairies, wetland maple-basswood forests, etc. The occurrence of a particular plant community depends on topography, geology, and disturbances, such as fire. Extensive land development and introduced invasive species have led to the destruction of a majority of these native plant communities and fragmentation of a few plant communities that remain. Efforts should focus on restoring areas that reconnect and protect the remaining native plan communities.
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Protecting Drinking Water for Generations to Come
Groundwater protection is critical for plentiful, safe drinking water, full lakes, and flowing rivers.
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Establishing and Enduring Legacy
Permanent protection of open space is the best way to ensure preservation of our ecological heritage, but not all land is a priority to prrotect for wildlife. People need places to live, work, and grow food.
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Bringing Water Quality & Wildlife to Your Shore
Shoreline habitat and stability are critical for a healthy lake. Lakeshore buffers reduce erosion and enhance habitat and water quality.
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Enabling our farms, prairies, forests, and gardens to be fruitful.
To thrive, bees, butterflies, and other pollinators depend on clean water and diverse habitats free of insecticides.
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