Northern Tallgrass Prairie National Wildlife Refuge Protection, Phase 1
This program will protect, in perpetuity, native prairie tracts in western Minnesota. Fee title tracts will be the top priority for the funding. Funding will be used for the purchase of habitat easements if the funding cannot be used entirely on fee title tracts. The funding will purchase approximately 525 acres of native prairie in fee title, 1,583 acres of habitat easements, or a combination of the two. Lands protected will be within the Northern Tallgrass Prairie Habitat Preservation Area (HPA) in western Minnesota and will become units of the Northern Tallgrass Prairie National Wildlife Refuge.
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Accomplishment Plan: http://www.lsohc.leg.mn/FY2010/accomp_plan/2e.pdf
$1,583,000 in fiscal year 2010 is to the commissioner of natural resources for an agreement with the United States Fish and Wildlife Service to acquire land or permanent easements within the Northern Tall Grass Prairie Habitat Preservation Area in western Minnesota. The commissioner may advance funds to the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. A list of proposed fee title and permanent easement acquisitions must be provided as part of the required accomplishment plan. Land removed from this program shall transfer to the state.