NMF Awards Grant

By -

NORTHWEST MINNESOTA FOUNDATION AWARDS $25,000 GRANT TO
NW Regional Sustainable Development Partnership


NMF Board Member, Jon Quistgaard & Linda Kingery, executive director of NRSDP


The Northwest Minnesota Foundation (NMF) recently awarded the Northwest Regional Sustainable Development Partnership (NRSDP) a $25,000 grant to assess land owners’ attitudes toward water management and conservation practices in the Red River Valley.
“The goals are to determine why land owners are not readily adopting best practices, and how local agencies can help farmers overcome those barriers,” said Linda Kingery, executive director of NRSDP. The primary concern is related to water resource management.  Along the Red River Valley, seasonal flooding is a major issue year after year. Recent dike improvements and water storage projects remain part of the solution, but water management on privately held lands is the real issue, according to NRSDP.
A sizeable portion of land will be freed from the USDA Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) as contracts expire this year and next year. Many farmers in the region are installing drain tile to boost crop yields on these newly released crop lands. Drain tile removes excess water from fields and improves yields, but also accelerates water flowing into water retention structures and rivers.
The issue of drain tiling can create an “us versus them” scenario.  Proponents of drain tiling say frozen soils in the spring time will not allow water to flow through the tile, and subsequently will have very little impact on spring flooding. However, drain tiling installed below the frost layer would still let water flow even though soils and water on the surface are frozen. There are many opinions in the Red River Basin around water management issues, tiling, and what is best for the greater good.
This project timeline has three phases. The first phase will build local collaboration through a project advisory team, coordinated by NRSDP staff and a consultant. The second phase will develop two watershed cases studies within the Red River Basin by engaging the landowners and pre-testing the survey tool. The third phase will actually implement the full survey to agricultural producers. They hope to sample about 3,000 farmers in the region, with an estimated 1,000 completed questionnaires.  Project outputs will include a technical report of the findings, a decision making tool with recommendations, and presentations to stakeholders.
“The agencies and partners involved with this project are all very capable of completing the project and implementing results,” said Nate Dorr, NMF program officer for grants. “This project is a great fit for our natural resources conservation and community planning programs.”
Evaluation of the project is tied to three outcomes: increased understanding of farmer values, beliefs, and decision making processes associated with farm management; identification of drivers and constraints influencing conservation practices among farmers; and delivery of strategies for enhanced communication, education, and outreach in the Red River Basin.
The Northwest Minnesota Foundation is a public, charitable foundation serving 12 counties of Northwest Minnesota by investing resources, creating opportunities and promoting philanthropy.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Frank and Marg Marvin

By -
Image
In honor of NMF's upcoming 30th anniversary and National Philanthropy Month, we want to celebrate the contributions of our donors! We will be highlighting a donor a day for the month of November. Please be sure to check the blog often to read about the wonderful stories of giving back to the northwest region.  If you are interested in making a difference through the services of our community foundation, our development officers would be happy to assist you. Please contact Caryl Turnow or Lisa Peterson at 218-759-2057 to learn more. Frank and Marg Marvin, Warroad The year is 1931 and a frustrated Dorrance Johnston has a degree in Engineering with no jobs to be found. Persistent and not willing to give up, he offered to work for a year without pay just to get a foot in the door. This is a mere glimpse at who Margaret “Marg” (Johnston) Marvin’s father was. Marg was born and raised in Warroad, and then met her husband Frank Marvin in their shared hometown. Both of their f
Read more

NMF Working to Address the Region's Child Care Needs

By -
Image
Ensuring families have access to quality child care is a high priority task for NMF. Our region has the third largest deficit for child care needs in the state. We are faced with 41% of families not having access to child care spots for their children. This means 41% of families are struggling to find safe and affordable child care for their children so they can go to work. The Center for Rural Policy and Development recently published a fact sheet that provides insight on this issue. The main barriers that they pointed out were the following: Until more can be done to increase wages and/or profits for both center and family providers, the child care shortage will continue Low pay for workforce makes recruitment and retention a major hurdle. Providers feel they can't raise rates because parents can't afford to pay more. Under this scenario, providers can't make a profit or be sustainable. The high startup costs make for very high barriers to entry for the av
Read more

Peacemaker Resources Paves the Way for Lifelong Learning in the Classroom

By -
Image
(Left to right) Caige Jambor, Sharleen Zeman-Sperle, and Stacy Bender-Fayette, SEL Specialists at Peacemaker Resources, work together to plan the upcoming school year. The mission of  Peacemaker Resources  is to "foster communication, compassion and connection leading to respectful relationships and healthier individuals and communities" and they achieve this by bringing their  social emotional learning  curriculum to elementary and middle schools around the state. They were also a recipient of the  NMF Quality of Place award in 2016 .  What makes their curriculum distinctive?   Barb   Houg, Executive Director, says,  " Its preventative approach, its relevance for children of all ages, and its lifelong impact." The curriculum that Peacemaker Resources is bringing into schools includes a number of programs -  STAR (Students Teaching Attitudes of Respect) ,  Girls Lead ,  Cultural Responsiveness ,  SEL (Social Emotional Learning) ,  Mindfulness , and  Tr
Read more