Environment

Freeborn-Mower Cooperative Services Sponsors Essay Competition

Submitted by Phenda Varnie on Friday, February 10th, 10:25 am

Freeborn-Mower Cooperative Services’ (FMCS) Fifth Annual Youth Tour Competition is in full swing, attracting participation from 11th graders living in the FMCS service territory.

Eligible students from area schools lying within the FMCS service territory are invited to write a 500 word essay on this topic. Freeborn-Mower Cooperative Services is celebrating 75 years in business. If you could go back in time, describe the role you would have liked to play in our cooperative’s history and why. Also, provide an example of what you would do to shape our energy future. A panel of outside judges has been selected and will review the essays and completed application forms.

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Boat Checkpoints for Invasive Species

Submitted by Chris Kuball, Storm Tracker 6 Meteorologist

Monday, February 6th, 2012, 7:41am

If you own a boat... be prepared to be pulled over along the road if you're towing one and face a quick inspection from the state.

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Less Deer Hunted in '11

Submitted by Dan Jones on Thursday, January 19th, 8:38 pm

Windy weather is part of the reason for a drop in the number of deer bagged in 2011

The Department of Natural Resources says there was a 7% drop in the deer harvest during the 2011 firearms season.

Hunters killed around 192,000 deer this season.

That is down about 15,000 from 2010.

They say the harsh winter of 2010 caused a deer population decline this year.

Windy weather has also made it harder for hunters to track the deer.

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MN DNR proposing higher fishing, hunting fees

Submitted by Ben Bicknese on Monday, January 16th, 5:41 pm

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - Minnesota's Department of Natural Resources and sportsmen's groups are planning a new push to get the Legislature to raise hunting and fishing license fees, alarmed that a key fund is headed for insolvency sooner than expected.

The Game and Fish Fund, which supports programs important to hundreds of thousands of Minnesotans, is due to go into the red in mid-2013. That's about a year earlier than expected when DNR officials first proposed higher license fees a year ago.

The fees haven't changed since 2001.

"Let us pay more. We're volunteering," said Mark Johnson, executive director of the Minnesota Deer Hunters Association.

Ed Boggess, the DNR's fish and wildlife division director, said revenue will be down $7.6 million from what was forecast a year ago for three reasons.

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MN adds 500 lakes and stretches of river to it's list of impaired waters

Submitted by Ben Bicknese on Friday, January 13th, 1:37 pm

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) - Minnesota has added another 500 lakes and stretches of river to its list of impaired waters, raising the state's total to more than 3,600.

Impaired waters are defined as having excess nitrogen, phosphorus, mercury, bacteria or other pollutants, hurting their ability to support swimming or fishing, or to provide healthy habitats for fish and wildlife.

The federal Clean Water Act requires states to update their list of impaired waters every two years. Minnesota is one-fifth of the way through surveying its nearly 12,000 lakes and nearly 70,000 miles of rivers and streams. So far, researchers say, about 40 percent of Minnesota's waters are impaired.

While the survey is a first step in addressing problems, some critics say the state isn't doing enough to reduce the pollution because it relies on voluntary measures that haven't proven effective and isn't strict enough with the state's farm sector.

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DNR, "No New CWD Cases"

Submitted by Betsy Singer, ABC 6 News Anchor

Tuesday, January 10th, 2012, 9:22pm

(AP) -- Minnesota has received encouraging news in the fight to keep chronic wasting disease out of its deer herd.

The Department of Natural Resources says tests on more than 2,300 deer taken by hunters this fall and winter turned up no new cases.

CWD was discovered last fall in a deer shot near Pine Island in southeastern Minnesota. In response, the state started requiring hunters to submit tissue samples from deer taken in a designated zone in that area.

DNR wildlife research manager Lou Cornicelli says not a single nnew case of chronic wasting was detected in the zone, nor in areas surrounding it.

As a precaution, the DNR will keep taking samples in future seasons, and a deer feeding ban remains in effect in Dodge, Goodhue, Olmsted, and Wabasha counties.

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Green Jobs Report

Submitted by Mike Schram on Thursday, January 5th, 1:19 pm

Information from Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development:

"Minnesota's Emerging Green Economy: Green Jobs Report 2011," a comprehensive study of the state's green job vacancies and potential for growth, is now available, the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) announced.

"Identifying green jobs and the skills that people will need to work in them will help Minnesota identify economic development strategies, as well as strategies for workforce training and education," said DEED Commissioner Mark Phillips. "With the support of the Workforce Investment Boards, the Governor's Workforce Development Council, and Minnesota State Colleges and Universities, we are pleased to release this important research."

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