Environment

Meaning for Minnesota of the federal fracking ruling in California

By Greg Laden, Minnesota Progressive Project

On Monday, a federal judge ruled that a pair of fracking projects in California had to stall while stakeholders re-examined potential environmental effects. The judge determined that insufficient attention had been given to the negative impacts of these projects which would include fracking and horizontal drilling. US District Court Judge Paul Grewal said that the Bureau of Land Management, from which the leases were sought…

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Minnesota Progressive Project

The Dust Bowl's legacy in CSAs

By Amy Doeun, Crazy Boy Farm

I love it when I get the Land Stewardship Projects newsletter in the mail. It encourages me to slow down, relax and remind myself why I am farming. This issue had a very interesting article about the Dust Bowl of the 1930s. Few people are alive who remember living through it, most were children at the time and hopefully shielded by the adults in their life of the worst horrors. Dana Jackson said in the article that the Dust Bowl which resulted from extensive tilling of native shortgrass prairie and natural drought caused the worst, "man made environmental disaster in history."Just to give you a hint of how bad it was here are some pictures courtesy of a PBS documentary and Farm Service Agency workers.

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Crazy Boy Farm

Representative Hansen discusses silica sand mining in Save the Bluffs video update

By Sally Jo Sorensen, Bluestem Prairie

One of the best-known (and liked) lobbyists at the Minnesota State capitol is John Kaul, whose candid photos capture the essence, drama and frequent exhaustion of the legislative process. He's also a pretty decent documentary filmmaker who explored the life of Minnesota's first woman state supreme court justice.

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Bluestem Prairie

As water levels drop, fees may rise

By Jonathan Mohr, Session Weekly/Session Daily

Ask your average Minnesotan the price for a gallon of milk and most could likely offer an accurate estimate. But how many of those same people know what a gallon of water costs them?

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Twin Cities car sharing grows, driven by concern for finances, environment

By Anna Burnstein, TC Daily Planet

All photos by HOURCAR.

Early in 2012, following the breakdown of their car, North Loop residents Joe Laha and his girlfriend Bridget Kromhout made the decision to give car sharing a try. Laha has used his bike to commute to work in downtown Minneapolis for years, and Kromhout has relied on public transit for her daily commute.

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Baseball and farming: This is the year

By Lee Egerstrom, Minnesota 2020

It's not an ideal day for baseball, but that won't stop the Minnesota Twins from opening their 2013 season today at Target Field, which also means the planting season is fast approaching for Minnesota farmers. An uncertain weather forecasts also looms over the farming season's open, with prospects for both spring flooding and summer drought.

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Minnesota 2020

BUILDing on brownfields: Federal bill seeks improvements to EPA redevelopment program

By Riordan Frost, Minnesota 2020

New development is always exciting, but seeing an old site brought back to life is especially rewarding—not to mention economically and environmentally beneficial. It happened with the polluted former brewery and railway site that is now the Bruce Vento Nature Conservancy, it might happen with the old Ford plant, it happened with a luxury apartment building in Uptown that used to be the Acme Tag & Label printing plant, and it is under consideration at the former potential site for the Vikings stadium.

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Minnesota 2020

Minnesota Farmers: Conservation Stewardship Program is on for 2013

By Adam Warthesen, Loon Commons

One of the nation’s most innovative working lands farm conservation initiatives has received a financial reprieve, thanks to the continuing resolution signed by President Barack Obama on Tuesday.

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Loon Commons

The question behind Minnesota Food Council legislation: Why import when we can grow local?

By Lee Egerstrom, Minnesota 2020

A lot of different small-scale growers, academics and communities are tossing ideas into the collective pot, hoping to come up with a cost and fuel efficient model for creating local food systems in Minnesota. "It’s like the childhood story of making stone soup," said Clarence Bischoff, a farmer near Red Wing who is among people pushing for a Minnesota Food Council.

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All St. Anthony Park Transition Festival will showcase Transition Town effort

By Kristal Leebrick, Park Bugle

If the words “smaller footprint” and “stronger community” sing to you, mark April 20 on your calendar for the All St. Anthony Park Transition Festival. That’s when Transition Town ASAP (an effort initiated by the District 12 Energy Resilience Group) will showcase an ambitious community venture that organizers hope will start moving the neighborhood toward less dependence on fossil fuel.

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