The Minnesota Legislature's original environment bill was one of the most sweeping anti-environmental bills to advance at the Capitol in many years. Luckily, it was vetoed by Gov. Mark Dayton on May 12. So what made it into the final bill that the governor signed on May 30? Some rollbacks, no water quality progress, but not the worst provisions were removed during final negotiations with the Dayton administration.
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We're pretty sure that when Minnesotans passed the Legacy Amendment, this isn't what they — what we — had in mind. Just signed by Gov. Mark Dayton, the environment bill shifts voter-mandated conservation funds to administrative costs. Thank you to all the River Guardians who tried to prevent this, we look forward to inviting you to happy hour soon to recap the session.
June 2017
We received several correct responses to last month's photo, taken from the banks of one of Minnesota's nicest small towns on the river.
May 2017
Friday, May 12, Gov. Mark Dayton vetoed a historically bad omnibus environment bill. It sought to give polluters the right to write their own environmental impact statements, slashed funding for environmental agencies and even prevented cities from banning plastic bags. In short, it threatened to undermine Minnesota’s long tradition of protecting the water we drink and the air we breathe.
May 2017
Tell Minnesota companies to #KeepMNClean and #ProtectOurWater.
The Minnesota Chamber of Commerce has led many of this legislative session's attacks on our environment. Do the heads of Target, Best Buy, 3M, Medtronic, U.S. Bank, General Mills, Ecolab, Xcel Energy, Hormel and Delta Air Lines know what's being done in their name?
May 2017
The adults of the sumac flea beetle emerge in spring to feed on young sumac leaves.
Found on sumac, these beetles have an especially interesting way of protecting their young.
May 2017
More than 1,000 Minnesotans joined us at the Capitol to urge legislators and Gov. Mark Dayton to invest in clean water and protect Minnesota's great outdoors. Now we're keeping up the momentum with the River Guardians and Water Action Daily.
May 2017
Development Officer John Briel is on his way to the Windy City.
FMR is bidding a bittersweet farewell to our longtime and beloved development officer, John Briel.
May 2017
Over 60 Northsiders joined us to learn about and discuss ways to reconnect North Minneapolis and the Mighty Mississippi in March 2017.
The FMR advocacy crew is switching gears. After spending 2016 researching how to better connect North Minneapolis with the Mississippi River we're shifting to advocating for those community-identified changes. We marked this transition with a final presentation by FMR's CURA research assistant Eric King and a panel discussion with attendees, covering everything from potential gentrification to a possible land-bridge over Interstate 94.
April 2017
Seldom venturing above ground, the beady eyes and small ears of the plains pocket gopher are reflective of their underground lifestyle.
Fans of The Lord of the Rings will recognize this query of Gollum, the odd underworld creature, as he pondered the riddle of Bilbo’s pocket contents. The star character of this month’s Nature Notes is also a creature of the underworld, seldom seen above ground. And like Gollum, these animals have a lead role in the world they inhabit.
April 2017