BRD Activities in Minnesota
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BRD Activities in Minnesota |
- A major initiative will provide decision makers in Minnesota with a well-organized information base that can be used to
help restore the natural functions and economic values of the Upper Mississippi River. A BRD contribution to this effort
is development of a geographic information systems database that incorporates human use and environmentally sensitive
areas along the Upper Mississippi. This database will also be used to predict habitat changes for migratory birds. The
Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and the University of Minnesota are joining the BRD in this effort, along
with other Federal agencies and concerned partners. The Upper Mississippi River Initiative is one of a series of BRD
regional science initiatives that demonstrates the importance of bringing together biological data from a variety of
sources to support public and private decision making.
- BRD scientists are beginning a study of the St. Croix River watershed to integrate social and natural sciences in a
complex analysis of development and land use change in the St. Croix basin.
- Remote sensing is an effective tool for obtaining data about wildlife habitats rapidly and at low cost. The BRD is
evaluating new remote sensing technologies for surveying potential waterfowl habitat from the air. Evaluations of
management activities to increase the number of mallards that survive their first year are taking place in Minnesota in
selected wetland management districts. This work is important to Canadian cooperators as well as to the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service and Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.
- Research on the gray wolf, conducted with the assistance of the U.S. Forest Service and the National Park Service,
includes studies of human-wolf interactions and the role of disease in limiting wolf numbers. Other long-term work in
Minnesota includes an ongoing survey of migrating hawks and other birds of prey at Hawk Cliff outside Duluth.
- The BRD administers the Upper Mississippi River System Long Term Resource Monitoring Program (LTRMP) in
cooperation with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the States of Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, and
Wisconsin. State-operated LTRMP field stations collect inventory and monitoring data on vegetation, water quality,
fishes, and invertebrates to support development of integrated resource management options.
- The BRD is working in cooperation with The Nature Conservancy and the National Park Service to map vegetation for
Voyageurs National Park from aerial photography using the standards and protocols developed for the USGS-NPS
Vegetation Mapping Program.
- As part of the Inland Waterways Spill Response Mapping Project, the BRD is working in cooperation with the
Environmental Protection Agency and the Upper Mississippi River Basin Association to map inland waterways for
sensitivity to oil or other hazardous chemical spills for spill preparedness under the guidelines of the Oil Pollution Act of
1990.
- In collaboration with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and others, the BRD is coordinating a regional
effort to map current vegetation and terrestrial vertebrate distribution in support of the Upper Midwest Gap Analysis
Program to identify significant ecological areas and gaps in biodiversity conservation.
- BRD scientists at International Falls are studying aquatic habitats and organisms in National Parks in the Great Lakes
and Rainy Lake watersheds in cooperation with the Environmental Protection Agency and the University of Minnesota.
Results of these studies can be used by Park management to develop harvest regulations, protect native communities,
and, where feasible, develop possible control mechanisms.
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Last Updated: Wednesday, 09-Apr-2003 07:22:53 MDT
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