Walz backs 'Sodsaver' crop insurance limit
U.S. Rep. Tim Walz of Minnesota has introduced a “Sodsaver” bill that would reduce the federal subsidy for crop insurance on land converted from native grasslands to row crops. The … Read more
Freshwater Society
No Raids, No Shifts, No Gimmicks
Conservation Minnesota, which has been publishing detailed analyses of state spending on conservation and the environment since 2002, has issued its latest report. It is an accounting of how the … Read more
Ikes set Summit on water Feb. 23
This year’s Summit, sponsored by the Minnesota Division of the Izaak Walton League, will be Saturday, Feb. 23, at Normandale Community College in Bloomington. The theme is Watershed-Water Management Solutions: … Read more
A moderating view on global temperature rise
So…are some reputable scientists starting to say that climate change is real, it’s human caused and its consequences will be severe, but that the global temperature increase from accumulating greenhouse … Read more
Minnesota moose herd down by a third
Minnesota’s slumping moose population has fallen further, and the Department of Natural Resources responded by suspending next fall’s moose hunting season. The moose population in Northeastern Minnesota dropped 35 percent … Read more
PFOS levels decline in the Mississippi
Levels of a chemical once manufactured by the 3M company — perfluorooctane sulfate, or PFOS — are declining in the Mississippi River fish below the Twin Cities, but the levels … Read more
Thoreau, Leopold and climate change
Old journals that recorded events in phenology — the first spring blooms on flowers, the migrations of waterfowl, when lakes freeze up in the winter and when the ice goes … Read more
Read and comment on climate change forecast
A draft National Climate Assessment that predicts the impact of global warming in the U.S. by 2050 was released last week by a huge team of scientists. A Pioneer Press … Read more
Take this bark and call me in the morning
A factory in Two Harbors, Minn., is using a process developed at the University of Minnesota’s Natural Resources Research Institute in Duluth to extract chemicals from birch bark. The bark … Read more