It’s a sunny afternoon in mid-summer, and wildlife biologist Tex Hawkins is ecstatic over the “pepper-and-salt” pattern he’s seeing on a diverse farming operation in southeast Minnesota’s bluff country. (more…)

Conservation Minnesota this week launched the second season of Check My Lake, a one-stop shop for information on the health of Minnesota’s 11,842 inland lakes. The site assembles and makes easy to use state testing data on those lakes.
This year the site has new features, including links to lake-specific information on fish consumption advisories; whether a specific lake has been identified by the state as having aquatic invasive species, and the latest state database on the swimmability and fishability of lakes.

This week’s update from lobbyist John Tuma:

“Everything was running smoothly until 1-1/2 miles south of Spring Valley when suddenly there came a grinding noise, a lurch and a pitch, and over went a refrigerator car which is at the head of this accommodation train.”
- Austin Daily Herald, May 4, 1909

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In an analysis posted on the Conservation Minnesota website today, John Helland raises questions about proposed water planning provisions of the Legacy Amendment funding bill now rolling through the Minnesota House committee process. He notes much of the proposed “work requirements are already being done by state agencies as part of existing statutory mandates.” In a previous post he looked at a proposal to require 5% set-asides for conservation easement purchases of recreational land.

Want to meet some of the voices behind the vittles in the burgeoning local foods movement? LSP’s Community Food and Farm Fest, which is part of this weekend’s Living Green Expo, is a great way to do exactly that. Seventeen farmers producing everything from melons to meats will be on hand to answer your questions and hook you up with a season’s bounty. The fact that the CFFF is a major component of Living Green is a triumph in itself—it wasn’t long ago that the environmental community didn’t make the connection between how we spend our food dollar and the health of the land. Here’s to eating green.

This week’s update from lobbyist John Tuma:

“I love it, I love to sit across from them and go to it”
-Willard Munger, May 6, 1994*

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