Voyageurs Park Association wins service award

The Voyageurs National Park Association was just given The President's Volunteer Service Award. a national award recognizing volunteer service by groups, families, and individuals in their communities across the country.

VNPA has been the leading nonprofit support group for Voyageurs National Park since 1965, working to protect and promote the Park’s resources, and is well deserving of this honor. More on the VNPA website.

Congratulations!

St. Paul does solar big!

Check out this blog entry on Fresh Energy by Michael Noble - turns out the new solar power plant on the roof of River Centre nearly doubles the solar capacity of the entire state, and is the "largest solar thermal system in the Upper Midwest."

Kudos to the City, St. Paul District Energy, and State Office of Energy Security and River Centre.

Minnesota's Greenhouse Gas Emissions

This chart was compiled by Minnesota Compass - for more info, visit their blog entry:

New Parks and Trails Plan submitted

It's a framework (not a plan) for spending the portion of the lottery that goes to parks and trails. I didn't see anything earthshaking in it, but it does set broad priorities for both maintaining existing "assets" and acquiring new lands. Acquisition is focused on the central regions (Twin Cities and burbs), naturally, since it will be a race against development.

The framework was developed by the UofM's Center for Changing Landscapes, which has the document in user-friendly form here: [CLICK]

You can download the Executive Summary here: [CLICK]

Local Environmental News

There were two hopeful stories in the local press this morning - both from the Star Tribune:
1. Following up on last summer's blockbuster acquisition of a conservation easement on 187,000 acres in Itasca County last summer, the state has completed another tremendous easement deal - this time for 76,000 acres in Koochiching County. Full story is here
2. Doctor Gary Konkol decided to see "how green" he could go, and ended up with an energy-positive home in North Hudson. Energy positive means he produces more energy than he uses - unusual for being in a cold climate like ours. Full story is here.

Intro to how to save Minnesota's rivers

Here's a nice video introduction to a river restoration project on a tributary to the Minnesota. What I like is:

a. The number of agencies that cooperated;

b. The fact that it seems to have been started by one concerned individual

c. The Minnesota spirit of cooperation and "can-do"ism involved.


Check it out: MinnPost - Ron Schara and Raven on restoring the Minnesota River