On July 23, 2022, I helped report a massive fish kill on Rush Creek, one of my favorite local trout streams just three miles south of town. The massive die-off was the third one within a seven-year period, all within a 13-mile radius of my town. And it wasn’t just...
May 10, 2024 We're coming to the finish line for the Minnesota Legislative session and we need you to contact your Senator and Representative today to demand critical provisions that will prevent future fish kills remain in the final bills. The House and Senate versions of the Environment Omnibus bill differ, and many good...
Minnesota Trout Unlimited 4-30-2023 The Minnesota Senate passed a bill including a requirement that state agencies identify the statutes and rules that should be changed to prevent fish kills in Southeast MN. This provision was rolled into the large Environment Omnibus bill HF2310. However, the House version of the bill does not contain...
While differences between the House, Senate, and Governor over the state budget have increased thelikelihood of a special session, the Legacy bill relies on dedicated revenues and can still be passed by theend of the regular session on May 17—with or without a budget agreement. Dedicated funding toprotect and restore...
A Roadmap for Mining of Critical Minerals and Sulfide Ore Deposits For the past ten years the possibility of a new type of mining in northeast Minnesota has consumed the energies of environmentalists, conservationists, businesses, agencies, and politicians at all levels of government. The debate about whether, where and how to...
DNR to Cut 90% of AMAs on North Shore Under the DNR’s proposed “Sustainable Timber Harvest Analysis” plan, the DNR intends to harvest trees from 90% of the land the Fisheries Section owns along trout and steelhead rivers in Lake County. This includes riparian forests along premier rivers such as the...
What do the Whitewater, Vermillion, Straight and Sucker Rivers all have in common, besides being popular trout streams? They all suffer from one or more impairments caused by pollution or degradation. This week the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency released its Draft 2020 Impaired Waters List identifying more than 500 additional stream...
The Environment & Natural Resources omnibus bill, SF2314, contains several provisions which, if adopted in the final bill version, would undermine basic groundwater protections and allow destruction of trout fisheries. The Senate version of SF 2314 has provisions (Sections 81, 82, 84 and 85) undermining intelligent groundwater management, which will lead...
A key meeting to consider nitrate-contaminated groundwater and trout streams in the karst region of southeast Minnesota (MN’s portion of the Driftless area) will be held Monday March 25, 2019 in Red Wing, MN beginning at 5:30 p.m. The Minnesota Environmental Quality Board (EQB) will hold a public meeting that...
The MPCA has denied a general permit to the proposed feedlot near Newburg and Wisel Creeks in Fillmore County. This temporary reprieve for the groundwater and trout streams in the vicinity is welcome news. Below is the announcement from MPCA. While denial of the general permit is a big deal and...
