Tuesday’s Boundary Waters Connect speaker was Amy Yoelin, Grant Program Administrator for the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. Yoelin presented on the Conservation Partners Legacy Program, which funds conservation projects that restore, enhance, or protect forests, wetlands, prairies, and habitat for fish, game, and wildlife in Minnesota.
Applicants for these projects must be affiliated with a non-profit or a government agency, and the project must take place on permanently protected land. There are two grant cycles, one capped at $500,000 and one capped at $75,000.
The larger grants, “tend to be a bit more open-ended in habitat projects, so they could include a trout stream restoration, planting, they’re a bit more multi-faceted because there’s more funding,” says Yoelin. These grants can take up to 4-6 months for a final award decision.
The smaller grants, known as Expedited Conservation Projects, are focused specifically on restoration and enhancement. Yoelin says, “These go through a very quick evaluation and turnaround time…first it goes through our internal experts on prairies, forests, wetlands, and then ultimately our directors of fish and wildlife are making the funding decision.”
ECP eligible projects include forest habitat with thermal cover, tree planting, and promotion of natural regeneration; prairie habitat with prescribed burns and interseeding; wetland or water habitat with water level control structures; and wildlife habitat with brushland shearing, and trout stream restoration.
Applicants are required to provide a 10% match of the grant amount awarded, but, “the match could be anything from volunteer hours… renting or using your own equipment, personnel costs, we try to keep it pretty broad and inclusive to encourage folks to apply and not have that match be a barrier,” said Yoelin. Projects are also subject to one-time or annual site monitoring, depending on the amount of funding.
The Ely area has been the recipient of two of these grants. St Louis County Water and Soil Conservation District has been restoring the Trezona Trail. SWCD was awarded $20,000 to remove invasives and reseed two acres off of Miner’s Drive. The project will be monitored, and will need volunteer hours to maintain the site once reseeded. If interested in volunteering, please reach out to Lucy Soderstrom of the Ely Folk School at 218-235-0138, or Corey Denning, Resource Conservationist of SWCD at 218-288-6143.
Teresa Floberg, Ely Fireshed Coordinator, spoke about another project led by Dovetail Partners as part of an Ely fuels reduction and forest restoration project. Over $500,000 was awarded to restore 600 acres of the North Arm, on the south and north ends of Slim Lake. “The objective is the create more opportunities for the Forest Service to go in with low-intensity fires, reset these stands with better forest conditions for regeneration, and recreation opportunities, says Floberg.
Please feel free to reach out to Yoelin with any questions on how to apply at 651259-5536 or LSCPLGrants. [email protected].
