September 2016 CPL Grant Application

Lassard-Sams Outdoor Heritage Counsel DNR Conservation Partners Legacy Program Grant Program

The Lessard-Sams Outdoor Heritage Council (LSOHC) was established by the Minnesota legislature to provide annual recommendations on how the Outdoor Heritage Funds should be used. The council makes recommendations on appropriations of money from the Outdoor Heritage Fund that are consistent with the Constitution and state law and that take into consideration recommendations of the Minnesota Conservation and Preservation Plan that directly relate to the restoration, protection, and enhancement of wetlands, prairies, forests, and habitat for fish, game, and wildlife, and that prevent forest fragmentation, encourage forest consolidation, and expand restored native prairie.

Approximately $80 million is available for appropriation by the legislature annually.  A portion of the dollars appropriated from the Outdoor Heritage Fund are made available through a small grants program administered by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources through the Conservation Partners Legacy Grants program.

The BPLA Board is pleased to announce that the Minnesota Conservation Partners Legacy (CPL) Grant Application we have been helping write was submitted on September 9, by Beth Hippert, Crow Wing Soil and Water Conservation District Technician.  It will be evaluated by the Minnesota DNR, along with competing applications, for funding from the $3.9 Million grant pool available this year.  Applications accepted for funding will be announced on November, 23rd this year.  We are hopeful and optimistic that our application for a $400,000 grant will be accepted.

As introduced in our Spring Newsletter and explained in more detail at our Annual Meeting last month, the purpose of applying for a CPL Grant is to fund the major portion of a project to substantially modify our rock dam to provide excellent, year-around fish passage and also give us a much more durable and effective water control structure for handling our widely fluctuating inflows and lake elevations. 

We are very grateful that the Crow Wing Soil and Water Conservation District is sponsoring this project as the government entity making the application (organizations such as BPLA cannot apply for CPL grants). In addition to CW SWCD and the BPLA, other valuable partners in this project include MN DNR Fisheries, The Nature Conservancy and Crow Wing County.

 

A CPL Grant application must be accompanied by the commitment of a minimum of 10% non-state matching funds.  The BPLA Board and Subordinate Services District (SSD) Board have unanimously agreed to commit required matching funds from the accumulated balance in the SSD account in  2017.  At this time, we do not anticipate needing any additional contributions from lake property owners to fund this project.