MINNESOTA, CHOICE — We, the people, may feel that change is out of our hands and that nothing we do at the voting booth will make a difference, but sometimes we as citizens step forward and make a difference. Sometimes you do the right thing.
The results of two huge polls, one in 1988 and one in 2008, were revealed last month in the valley of Little Vesta Creek, a small brook trout stream in the Selective Wildlife Management Area between Rushford and Spring Grove. The Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund, which was approved in 1988 to use funds from the Minnesota Lottery and the Legacy Amendment, and which voters approved in 2008 for a state sales tax surcharge, operates there, and the It was supporting grasslands. Thrive.
However, we need your vote this year to ensure we get more Vestas in the future. This trust fund will be updated this fall, so please vote yes. Ignoring it will count as a no. All you need to do is write “Yes”.
The need to renew the trust fund convinced approximately 125 groups to join Minnesotans for Our Great Outdoors in promoting a yes vote this fall. Some groups within the coalition are obvious, such as TNC and Trout Unlimited. But interestingly, some groups are not normally thought of as supporters of the environment and natural resources, such as the Minnesota Association of Metropolitan Cities and the Fairmont Economic Development Authority.
The Trust Fund and Legacy deliver a great one-two punch, with the Trust Fund funding more research, outreach, and education, and Legacy being very hands-on by purchasing and improving land and water resources. I am.
Since 1991, the trust fund has provided more than $1 billion. Since fiscal year 2010, Legacy has provided $2 billion, 40 percent of which has gone to natural resources.
Vesta is a great example of that one-two punch.
Using legacy funds, 1,082 acres of scenic bottomland along and near the Root River, along and above the forest, and grasslands were purchased for the state’s WMA. The river itself is very clear and mostly filled with brook trout. But this is a problem we see across the region. Poor land use has messed up the riverbanks, making them too steep and high for Vesta to easily evacuate during floods.
This is where the Vesta agreement and legacy and trust funds come into play. Chris Lenhart, a research professor in the University of Minnesota’s Department of Biological Products and Biosystems Engineering, said he used the trust fund money to design the project without using rock for much of the project (some of which include steep banks). Because it’s back at the very end, there’s more room for nature to meander. Other projects are limited by land scarcity, but Vesta, which is on public land, is different. If it works, this is the theory. It could potentially serve as a model for future projects that should be self-sustaining.
The plan calls for reshaping approximately 350 feet of the trout stream and stabilizing approximately 150 feet of the valley that follows it.
It’s a fairly short stretch of land for a good test, but it’s a first step and he hopes for bigger tests. I heard the DNR is considering such a large-scale test at another WMA. I hope so, and I think legacy and trust fund money might help there.
Excavators move or level soil along the banks of Vesta Creek.
John Weiss / Contributor
Legacy funds paid about $150,000 to rebuild Vesta’s levee and plant shrubs. The study received approximately $243,000 from a trust fund.
Just above the river is an old goat prairie that Ellen Titus is monitoring to find ways to restore the old prairie using trust fund money.
Goat Prairie is another gem of nature from the Southeast’s troubled past. Once the dominant land use was along south- and west-facing escarpments. The trees were protected by fire and lightning thrown by Native Americans. When Europeans arrived in the mid-1850s, they stopped fires and overgrazed the slopes, after which trees re-grew.
Grasslands are home to a wide variety of plants and animals, some of which are in dire straits. Using $483,000 in trust fund funds, Titus is using real goats to cut down vesta and other unwanted plants on several grasslands in the area. Again, it’s land-based research.
“I work as part of a science team to really look at what’s going on with these bluffs,” she said. For now, she said, the project is in its “awkward teenage phase,” so it’s unclear how well it will do over the years.
“The goal is to create resilient grasslands here,” she said. “If we have more diverse plants, we will be able to withstand dry years and wet years,” she said.
Vesta is just one part of a much larger southeastern Minnesota conservation and restoration project that began 11 years ago and receives state funding each year to do more work in the region, Nature reported. said Chris Anderson, senior media relations manager for the Great Plains division. Conservation organizations are deeply involved in this activity.
“We have a comprehensive program that looks at sites that need to be protected,” Anderson said.
John Weiss has written and reported on outdoor topics for the Post Bulletin for more than 45 years. He is the author of the book Backroads: The Best of the Best by Post-Bulletin Columnist John Weiss.
Vesta Goat Goat nibbling on plants in the meadow.
John Weiss / Contributor
Ellen Titus holds a cicada she found on the prairie.
John Weiss / Contributor
Bees eat crown vetch.
John Weiss / Contributor
