Pheasants Forever and partners are celebrating one of the most successful natural resources efforts in Minnesota history. The Habitat Conservation Partnership, a 15-year, 15-partner coordinated venture to enhance, restore, and protect critical fragmented landscapes, has now concluded, with projects that will endure. Since 2001, the Habitat Conservation Partnership expended $33.4 million in Environment and Natural Resources Trust (ENRTF) funds to complete 1,450 projects that have improved habitat for wildlife on 179,000-plus acres.
Initially funded by the 2001 Minnesota Legislature as recommended by the
Legislative-Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources (LCCMR), the Habitat Conservation Partnership worked to restore fragmented landscapes and connect high quality habitat. These areas, collectively known as “fish and wildlife habitat corridors,” were areas of greatest need and opportunity for conservation efforts. Through a targeted approach, deliberation amongst the partners and in collaboration with LCCMR members and staff, more than $100 million in matching financial resources were leveraged by partners and landowners to improve natural resources in Minnesota.
“The fact that this partnership worked together for 15 years and brought so many non-state funds to bear on our natural resources is a real tribute to our stakeholders, the citizens of Minnesota,” says Nancy Gibson, LCCMR Co-Chair. “Our habitats are in better shape and the Minnesota outdoor experience has been enhanced because of this collaboration and the funding the ENRTF provided.”
The Habitat Conservation Partnership received appropriations from the
Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund, a permanent fund in the state treasury that was established in the Minnesota Constitution through voter approval (until 2025). Participating partners matched ENRTF dollars at a ratio of 3:1 to leverage a total of $104 million to restore, enhance and protect Minnesota’s grasslands, forests, lakes and streams. All told, 104,000-acres were restored or enhanced, more than 60,000-acres were enrolled in voluntary conservation easements, and more than 14,000-acres of habitat were permanently protected and are now open to public access. With the advent of Minnesota’s Legacy Amendment, and the ongoing collaboration efforts like the Minnesota Prairie Conservation Plan, partners decided to sunset this ENRTF-funded effort in 2014.
Partner organizations included: Pheasants Forever, Ducks Unlimited, Fond du Lac Reservation, Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe, Minnesota Board of Water and Soil Resources, Minnesota Deer Hunters Association Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, Minnesota Land Trust, Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge Trust, Inc., National Wild Turkey Federation, Friends of the Detroit Lakes Wetland Management District, The Nature Conservancy, Trust for Public Land, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the U.S. Natural Resources Conservation Service.
About the Legislative-Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources
The LCCMR is made up of 17 members: 5 Senators, 5 Representatives, 5 citizens appointed by the governor, 1 citizen appointed by the Senate, and 1 citizen appointed by the House. The function of the LCCMR is to make funding recommendations to the legislature for special environment and natural resource projects, primarily from the Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund (ENRTF). These projects help maintain and enhance Minnesota's environment and natural resources. The LCCMR developed from a program initiated in 1963. Since 1963, over $800 million has been appropriated to more than 1,800 projects recommended to the legislature by the Commission to protect and enhance Minnesota's environment and natural resources.
About Pheasants Forever
Pheasants Forever is the nation's largest nonprofit organization dedicated to upland habitat conservation. Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever have more than 140,000 members and 700 local chapters across the United States and Canada. Chapters are empowered to determine how 100 percent of their locally raised conservation funds are spent; the only national conservation organization that operates through this truly grassroots structure. Since creation in 1982, Pheasants Forever has spent $508 million on 475,000 habitat projects benefiting 10 million acres nationwide.
Photo Credit: Jeff Vanuga, NRCS
Media Contact
Jared Wiklund
(651) 209-4953
jwiklund@pheasantsforever.org