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...
One of the bills which passed in the final hours of the MN legislative session was a bonding bill to which the LCCMR/ENRTF bill was amended. The bill includes a raid on funds in the Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund (ENRTF), which are constitutionally dedicated for environmental purposes. Here...
The MN Legislature session ends in one week. It has been a strange session with few bills passed and instead a monster “omnibus omnibus” bill which plods forward. It contains environmental policy provisions. Since the Senate and House versions of this bill differ, the bill is in a conference committee...
Policy decisions by the MN Legislature decide the health and persistence of coldwater fisheries around Minnesota and in Lake Superior. Speaking up for clean water and coldwater fisheries is vital to ensuing places for us, our children and our friends to enjoy quality trout, steelhead and salmon fishing in the...
We urgently need your calls to our U.S. Senators, Klobuchar and Smith, asking them to oppose the Coast Guard Authorization Act because it contains bad ballast water provisions that will increase the risk of new invasions of aquatic invasive species. The Senate will hold a vote on the Coast Guard...
On Monday afternoon April 16, both the Minnesota House and Senate will debate bills that limit the state's ability to protect our groundwater, which is both our drinking water and the lifeblood of trout streams. Existing Minnesota law gives the state authority to protect groundwater and drinking water. It is called...
March 15, 2018 Minnesota Trout Unlimited (MNTU) welcomes today’s announcement by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) that it will make long overdue changes in stocking practices in North Shore rivers in order to preserve and rebuild Minnesota’s unique wild steelhead fishery, while allowing time for full recovery of the...
