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Years: 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007,

A Greener Celebration In Powderhorn Park National And Local Water Groups Will Help Teach About Clea

Star Tribune Last update: July 2, 2010 - 9:00 PM

Powderhorn Park is always a busy place on July 4, but this year features some new -- and green -- activities. A visiting national film crew will have its biodiesel bus parked in the south Minneapolis park, along with a "water village" and family-friendly activities.

WHO'S DOING THIS? The effort is called Expedition: Blue Planet, and it involves Alexandra Cousteau, granddaughter of the famous late ocean explorer Jacques Cousteau. The National Geographic Society is a partner.

WHAT'S THE LOCAL CONNECTION? Minneapolis is the first stop for the ...
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Part 3: Overwhelmed And Worried

Star Tribune Last update: June 25, 2010 - 7:33 AM

As he guided his boat across the surface of Cross Lake, state conservation officer Cary Shoutz studied the lakeshore house in front of him. It was 6,900 square feet of living space crammed on a 23,000-square-foot lot with a lawn sprawling downhill. "The elevation is going to drain all the runoff into this channel here," said Shoutz, a 22-year veteran of Minnesota's lakeside enforcement wars. "It's legal. But it would have been nice if they could have left natural growth near the water and built a catch basin for ...
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Part 2: A Stinking Mess

http://www.startribune.com/investigators/96767714.html?elr=KArks:DCiU1PciUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUU

Lake Independence was supposed to be Minnesota's first success in the Clean Water program. Instead, it was our first failure.

By TOM MEERSMAN, Star Tribune Last update: June 25, 2010 - 6:23 AM

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Graphic: How farms affect Minnesota waters

Graphic: Pollution hits critical levels in 1 of 10 minnesota lakes

Graphic: One lake gets cleanup money, but makes little progress Part 1: Rules skirted and lakes under attack More from Investigators

Lawyer disbarred for misuse ...
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Part 1: Rules Skirted And Lakes Under Attack

http://www.startribune.com/investigators/96725284.html?elr=KArksUUUoDEy3LGDi O7aiU

Dan and Janelle Tepper wanted to build a three-bedroom house on the shore of North Long Lake, but they couldn't squeeze in everything they wanted without breaking the rules. The lot in north-central Minnesota was just too narrow. They needed permission to build 20 feet closer to the lake.

Neighbors protested. They said allowing the Minneapolis buyers to build so close to the lake and a nearby road would pollute the water and flood the road. If the county was going to allow that, two neighbors argued, rules aimed at protecting the lake were not worth ...
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Metro Storm-Water Ponds Are Chemical Soups

White Bear Lake's proposed ban on some driveway sealants is a first step in keeping contaminants out of storm-water ponds.

The local neighborhood pond fringed with spring green looks attractive, but its muddy bottom is loaded with contaminants.

Metro communities from White Bear Lake and Maplewood to South St. Paul are discovering that their storm-water ponds are chemical soups of pesticides, fertilizers, pet wastes, oil, grease and other contaminants.

With an estimated 20,000 public storm-water ponds in the metro area, and thousands more privately owned by industries and homeowner associations, state pollution officials say they expect the ...
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Collecting Rain, Cleaning Up Lakes

Raingardens have critical function and can be pleasing to the eye by Nicholas Backus Staff Writer Published: Monday, April 26, 2010 5:41 PM CDT CIRCLE PINES — Matt Percy’s neighbors often ask him when the koi fish are going in.

It’s a question repeatedly answered with “never.” Percy’s expansive front-yard raingarden wasn’t built to keep ornamental fish, although it may look like it. Besides, the sandy soil would make it hard to maintain standing water even if he tried.

“Many people ask me what it’s here for,” Percy said about his lawn depression filled with rocks and mulch. ...
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The Business Case For Greening Your Grounds

MinnPost.com

With the 40th anniversary of Earth Day upon us, I'd like to take a moment to reflect on what many businesses do when they decide to "go green."

Most of the time, business leaders focus on the inside of their facilities, from upgrading lighting and HVAC systems to initiating recycling programs. Some businesses take things one step further and complete LEED certification. (In the interest of full disclosure, our company, Murphy Warehouse Co., has undertaken many of these initiatives as well.)

Yet many of these companies' facilities are still surrounded by traditional lawns that not only ...
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Gardening For The General Good

A nationally known entomologist has become a vocal advocate for using our gardens as places to preserve biodiversity.

By CONNIE NELSON, Star Tribune Last update: February 16, 2010 - 3:53 PM

Douglas Tallamy might just turn your idea of gardening on its ear. That's because Tallamy judges plants not by how they look, but by how they function in the environment.

Tallamy, a professor of entomology and wildlife ecology at the University of Delaware, has studied the link between native plants and native wildlife. What he's learned is that the loss of native plants results in loss ...
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Water Mining

Stillwater, MN - December 17, 2009

Palm Springs, California is a land of contrasts. In a place that seldom sees more than two inches of rain per year, the streets are lined with bougainvillea and golf courses glisten with lush green grass. Wealthy retirees live in gated communities, while outside the gates a younger, increasingly Latino population is steadily growing. You can hit a local taqueria for lunch, spend less than $5 for one tamale and three tacos, and then throw down more than $100 for dinner at a swanky supper club later that evening. I arrived in Palm ...
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Flutter By, Butterfly

Stillwater, MN - October 29, 2009

It seems almost obscene to talk about butterflies at a time of year when, short of a winter vacation in the tropics, most of us have no hope of seeing one of these fluttering beauties for the next six months. If you’ve been out walking or biking though, on one of the rare days this fall when it wasn’t raining, sleeting, snowing or just plain freezing, you may have noticed a tiny parade of furry, orange and black caterpillars moving slowly across local roads and trails. As strange as it may seem for ...
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Specially Designed Gardens Treat Parking Lot Runoff

Stillwater, MN - October 15, 2009

It’s a good thing I don’t melt in the rain like the bad witch from the Wizard of Oz. This October has been rough on all of us Minnesotan’s, but especially so for whiny people like myself. I’ve got a month to go in training for a triathlon that takes place next month in Arizona and biking outside is quickly progressing from unpleasant to miserable.

Two weeks ago, a torrential downpour overtook me out in the country, ten miles away from my office in Stillwater. (Apparently the hour-by-hour weather forecast is not ...
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She’S Got It Made In The Shade

Stillwater, MN - October 9, 2009

Local watershed educator Dawn Pape speaks to hundreds of people each year about landscaping for clean water. The mastermind behind the Blue Thumb program and a Master Gardener herself, one of Pape’s biggest pet peeves is when people complain that nothing will grow in their shady yards. “Here!” she’ll say, thrusting a colorful brochure into their hands, “This is a list of 40 plants, all native to Minnesota and half of which grow perfectly in the shade.”

As Pape and many other gardeners have discovered, the trick to landscaping a shady yard ...
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Three West-Metro Lakes Are Targeted For Cleanup To Reduce Their Pollution

To meet federal clean water standards state officials are considering ways to keep runoff and the pollutants it carries out of the lakes.

By LAURIE BLAKE, Star Tribune Last update: October 7, 2009 - 12:05 AM

Storm water carries so much phosphorus into a chain of lakes in Maple Grove and Plymouth that it may take 20 years to get the three lakes off the state's impaired waters list.

That's the finding of a new report to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency which describes the extent of the pollution in each lake and what can be done ...
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Nature Shapes The Course Of Storm Drainage

Even now, with fall rushing toward winter, the handsome gardens along Rushmore Drive in Burnsville draw the eye with their maroon sedums, purple asters and waving ornamental grasses.

All the gardens are near the curb, and all drop a foot or two below street level at their lowest point.

They're rain gardens.

Since they were planted in 2003, they've attracted national attention for their success in diverting storm water that would have gone directly into a local lake. About 90 percent of the water that flows off Rushmore Drive now filters into the ground instead, trapping debris ...
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Don't Have A Green Thumb? Try Blue On For Size

Free workshops throughout the south metro teach residents how to prevent pollution and fight mosquitoes with rain gardens.

http://www.startribune.com/local/south/37748854.html?elr=KArksUUUU


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