HCP VI - Wildlife Areas Management (2g)
Overall Project Outcome and Results
Through this project DNR-Wildlife provides oversight for infrastructure management and habitat restoration on lands acquired by Habitat Conservation Partners (HCP). Partners acquire priority land and transfer it to the DNR for long term management as Wildlife Management Areas. This funding source ensures DNR will not incur a significant short-term liability for initial site development from these acquired lands. Temporary project staff or intermittent labor is hired as needed to implement development on lands acquired. Infrastructure management may include but is not limited to boundary surveys, boundary signing, professional services, public access, parking lots and user facilities, and clean up of old buildings or wells. Habitat restoration may include but is not limited to grassland development or improvement, wetland restoration or impoundment development, forest or woody cover development or improvement, brush land management, professional services, and food plot development. Digital boundary, habitat inventory and facilities files will be developed as part of the management plans. DNR cannot start work until the Partners have completed acquisition on each parcel. Once the new acquisitions are transferred to the DNR site development and habitat restoration work can occur.
Specifically in this phase, $6,128 was expended on habitat and development work at Benderberg WMA, including thirty acres of former cropland that were site prepped, seeded, and mowed. $43,872 went unspent due to when acquisitions were transferred to DNR, season for habitat work, and field staff availability.
Citizens of the state of Minnesota benefit from this project by having more public hunting and recreation land available in high priority landscapes throughout the state. These new public lands are managed as State Wildlife Management Areas (WMAs) by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) - Section of Wildlife for wildlife habitat.
Project Results Use and Dissemination
Information on HCP project results have been shared and disseminated through all partner organizations. Signs are posted on completed project sites identifying the ENRTF funding source. These signs provide information to the general public on how the lottery funds are spent for natural resource activities.
$3,375,000 is from the trust fund to the commissioner of natural resources for the sixth appropriation for acceleration of agency programs and cooperative agreements. Of this appropriation, $770,000 is for the Department of Natural Resources agency programs and $2,605,000 is for agreements as follows: $450,000 with Pheasants Forever; $50,000 with Minnesota Deer Hunters Association; $895,000 with Ducks Unlimited, Inc.; $85,000 with National Wild Turkey Federation; $365,000 with the Nature Conservancy; $210,000 with Minnesota Land Trust; $350,000 with the Trust for Public Land; $100,000 with Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge Trust, Inc.; $50,000 with the United States Fish and Wildlife Service; and $50,000 with Friends of Detroit Lakes Watershed Management District to plan, restore, and acquire fragmented landscape corridors that connect areas of quality habitat to sustain fish, wildlife, and plants. The United States Department of Agriculture-Natural Resources Conservation Service is a cooperating partner in the appropriation. Expenditures are limited to the project corridor areas as defined in the work program. Land acquired with this appropriation must be sufficiently improved to meet at least minimum habitat and facility management standards as determined by the commissioner of natural resources. This appropriation may not be used for the purchase of residential structures, unless expressly approved in the work program. All conservation easements must be perpetual and have a natural resource management plan. Any land acquired in fee title by the commissioner of natural resources with money from this appropriation must be designated as an outdoor recreation unit under Minnesota Statutes, section 86A.07. The commissioner may similarly designate any lands acquired in less than fee title. A list of proposed restorations and fee title and easement acquisitions must be provided as part of the required work program. All funding for conservation easements must include a long-term stewardship plan and funding for monitoring and enforcing the agreement. To the maximum extent practical, consistent with contractual easement or fee acquisition obligations, the recipients shall utilize staff resources to identify future projects and shall maximize the implementation of biodiverse, quality restoration projects in the project proposal into the first half of the 2010 fiscal year.
Click on "Final Report" under "Project Details".
Click on "Final Report" under "Project Details".