FAIRMONT – Through the Legacy Amendment’s Outdoor Heritage Fund and Environmental and Natural Resources Trust Fund (ENRTF), over $300 million was sent out for projects throughout Minnesota on July 1, including millions toward projects with impacts in Martin County.

Driven by the Fox Lake Conservation League (FLCL), Ducks Unlimited (DU), The Conservation Fund (TCF) and written by local conservationist, outdoorsman and 2026 Minnesota Outdoor News Person of the Year Doug Hartke, $3 million from the Outdoor Heritage Fund has been secured for the 10th phase of acquiring Wildlife Management Areas (WMA) in Martin County.

“This program will continue our conservation partnership into Phase 10 to protect and restore diverse prairie and wetland habitat in areas that adjoin existing DNR WMA,” Hartke wrote for the project. “Wetland restoration and additional grasslands are needed to make our WMA habitats resilient and productive. We will optimize this process by utilizing real estate expertise of TCF, wetland restoration know-how of DU and the local conservation efforts of FLCL.”

This follows nine successful phases of funding, which have overall netted $23.5 million in funds to purchase over 2,000 acres, according to Hartke. This includes over four dozen restored wetland basins and 700 acres of restored grasslands.

On top of this, $8 million in projects are going toward statewide programs for private land conservation easements via the Minnesota Board of Water and Soil Resources and local Soil and Water Conservation District offices, and around $11.7 million for continued work on existing permanently protected wildlife habitats.

To see continued dedicated work in these realms, from local and statewide partners, Lessard-Sams Outdoor Heritage Council Executive Director Kristina Smitten, who oversees and looks through potential Outdoor Heritage Fund projects with the Council, said it is leaving a legacy everyone in Minnesota can be proud of.

“These projects individually are part of an overall mosaic of really enriching our wetlands, prairies, forests,” she said. “Thinking about throughout the state, the different complexes and connecting points that we have, I think, is really something that we have opportunity to be excited about.”

A new Community Grants program through the ENRTF will be giving out its first grants this year with the help of $28.18 million in funding received on July 1.

The grants will help cover five eligible uses, helping adversely impacted communities respond to environmental degradation, education and awareness related to stewardship of air, land, water, forests, fish, wildlife and other natural resources, preserving or enhancing air, land, water and other natural resources that otherwise may be substantially impaired or destroyed in any area of the state, trail maintenance and improvement on state, regional, or local trails and aquatic invasive species management.

Generally, funds from the ENRTF are awarded by the Legislative Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources (LCCMR) through an approval process and then passed into law by the legislature. DNR Agency Grants Manager Katherine Sherman-Hoehn said this new program will simplify things for political subdivisions like cities and counties, and non-governmental organizations, like non-profits.

“It was designed to be housed in a state agency who would run the request for proposal process, so that we’re able to reduce the length of time it takes,” she said. “We don’t have to wait for legislative sessions to come in and finish up before we can do grant programs. It was designed to fill some needs that they saw in the community around the state of Minnesota.”

The program was passed into law in 2023, but has had multiple years to be worked on. Funding was first accumulated for the project in 2025, so the Community Grants program has a total of $56 million combined ready.

Sherman-Hoehn said they are planning a staggered release, with requests for proposals now for smaller grants for organizations and communities with plans ready to go, and larger requests later this year and into the next calendar year.

“We are looking for applicants who have been working very closely with their communities on the design of the project,” she said. “Things that are really led by, informed by, and implemented by and with the communities the projects will be serving.”

The first requests for proposals will go out in September this year. Sherman-Hoehn said the final days have not been settled on yet, but the window will be open for at least 21 days.

For the standard ENRTF grants, which are selected by the LCCMR, a little over $102 million has been approved statewide. Only one project has been approved for strictly the southern MN area, the College-School Collaboration to Restore Campuses and Activate Stewardship project, for $199,000, and facilitated by MSU Mankato.

“They are looking to bring together natural resource professionals, college and K-12 partners to do restoration projects in their communities,” LCCMR Project Analyst and Communication Specialist Noah Fribley said. “To pair local natural resources professionals with educators and students, and give folks an understanding of what it means to work in that space.”

Most of the proposals are meant to be used statewide. One sure to have relevance in the Fairmont area is a Public Toolbox to Forecast Toxic Cyanobacteria Blooms. When curly leaf pondweed dies, it creates the phosphorus that feeds cyanobacteria and algae blooms. Fribley said responses to these blooms can be more reactive than proactive, which this toolbox can help with.

“It can be used on the ground and gives you a much more rapid and accurate test than you might get otherwise,” he said. “Oftentimes you have to send water in and get it tested to see prevalence of it. Local communities everywhere, from parks departments or something like this, could use it instead of having to send it off to a lab.”

This project is in progress and being worked on by the Natural Resources Research Institute in Duluth.

With the Minnesota Department of Health continuing to recommend no one eat Walleye caught from George Lake due to the presence of PFAS forever chemicals, and the chemical continuing to draw attention as a whole, $2.587 million in funding has been dedicated to PFAS projects. This includes a cheap portable sensor to detect PFAS in water, assessing PFAS in precipitation and mitigating forever chemicals to work toward a PFAS-free Minnesota.

“PFAS and microplastics are issues that are both very omnipresent across much of Minnesota, but also they’ve emerged very rapidly as issues we need to address,” Fribley said. “These projects approach the issue from different angles, but are all really important ones in that fight.”

These projects are all in progress, with some being multi-year endeavors and others starting now thanks to these funds.

For more information on conservation easements, visit bwsr.state.mn.us/conservation-easements. For the ENRTF Community Grant Program, visit dnr.state.mn.us/aboutdnr/enrtf-community-grant-program.html.