It’s that age-old struggle: accepting a little short-term disturbance in the name of long-term stability. Dave Trauba regularly faces the challenge of explaining that tradeoff to hunters who visit the… Read more »
Posts Categorized: Loon Commons blog
First Test of 2013 MN Frac Sand Law is Successful
By Johanna Rupprecht, Land Stewardship Project The owner of a controversial Houston County silica sand mine was notified Monday by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) that he must… Read more »
Grazing as a Public Good in Western Minnesota
As a Nature Conservancy scientist based in a Midwestern state, Steve Chaplin thinks a lot about the impact agriculture has on ecological treasures such as native tallgrass prairie. “Other than… Read more »
Soil Health: Numbers vs. Knowing
Sometimes it takes a bit of an evangelist to remind us that praying at the altar of facts and figures can blind one to how they all connect in the… Read more »
Is your swimming hole safe? Better check.
As Minnesotans, we have 10,000 lakes. And we have hot summers. That combination gives us the right as Minnesotans to be able to jump into a lake to cool off…. Read more »
Restoring Lake Superior, one Cook County stream at a time
Cook County residents have seen local rivers send ribbons of mud into Lake Superior every spring and after every major rainstorm. The clay banks are eroding and the brook trout… Read more »
Forever Green Receives $1 Million
The Minnesota Legislature took a major step last week toward supporting the kind of agriculture that can green up our landscape in a way that’s economically viable for farmers. Conference… Read more »
What is a watershed, anyway?
“Can I ask you a question? It’s probably really dumb, though. But, what exactly is a watershed?” That, my friend, professional acquaintance, or perfect stranger, is not a dumb question…. Read more »
A Graphic View of Diversity’s Power
A picture may be worth a thousand words, but a good infographic can be the equivalent of thousands of pounds of soil. That thought occurred to me recently while viewing… Read more »
Demand versus need in Minnesota’s oil pipelines
The Midwest and Great Lakes are quickly becoming a hub for transporting and refining one of the world’s dirtiest and most destructive fossil fuels on the planet: tar sands oil…. Read more »