January 10, 2003 - Land may be forever but what grows on the land isn't. Thousands of acres of Minnesota farmland each year are being converted back to a natural state. Private land owners, non-profit groups and government are all part of the effort. Hunting organizations are especially active. One group, "Pheasants Forever", which started in Minnesota, has bought 85-thousand acres nationwide. Mainstreet Radio's Mark Steil reports. { Minnesota's best pheasant range is along its western flank. When settlers arrived more than a century ago this part of the state was treeless prairie. Most of the land now is farmed. But in Lincoln County on the South Dakota border one field is being returned to the wild.
January 10, 2003 - Pheasants Forever is celebrating its 20th anniversary with a meeting this weekend in the Twin Cities. Star Tribune outdoors writer Dennis Anderson launched the organization with a column he wrote in March, 1982 on the decline of the state's upland bird population. At the time, he was writing for the St. Paul Pioneer Press. The organization now has over one hundred thousand members in 28 states and Canada. Anderson says it's difficult to assess the impact Pheasants Forever has had over the last two decades:
January 20, 2003 - MPR’s Annie Feidt reports on new technology that is helping resorts produce even better snow…and removing humans from the equation. Trollhaugen ski area is testing out an automated snow gun for the first time this year in efforts in working towards full automation.
January 24, 2003 - Talk about cold......windchill readings around Minnesota reached the -35 to -45 F mark on Thursday morning, the coldest readings since the new formula was initiated by the National Weather Service in November of 2001. But these pale in comparison to the values reported from the Mt. Washington Observatory elevation 6288 ft in New Hampshire on Wednesday this week.....they reported a 6 am EST temperature of -34 F with winds of 117 mph and gusts to 142 mph, giving a windchill of -93 degrees F.....not only far colder than us...but colder than any report from the South Pole as well
January 27, 2003 - Officials say it will probably take weeks to clean up 100-thousand gallons of crude oil that spilled from a pipeline Friday night in Superior, Wisconsin. Most of the oil was captured by the ditches and retention ponds at the Enbridge Energy Terminal, but 19,000 gallons made its way onto the frozen Nemadji River. Steve Lee supervises the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency's Emergency Response Team. Lee says transporting oil by pipeline is much safer than moving it on trucks or barges. But, he says, when a pipeline has a problem, the repercussions are large. Lee says that, luckily, a two-foot sheet of ice over the river stopped the oil from getting into the water.
January 31, 2003 - This week we've heard about the struggles of people trying to work their way out of poverty. One of the obstacles people with low incomes often face, is isolation. There's a deep divide between the haves and the have-nots. Last month, people in Duluth tried to bridge that gap. Ten low-income families were paired with school board members, city councilors -- people who make policies that affect families. For a month, they "walked a mile in each others' shoes." Mainstreet Radio's Stephanie Hemphill came along. She has the final story in our series "Falling Behind."
February 4, 2003 - MPR’s Steven John interviews R.T. Rybak, mayor of Minneapolis, on changing snow plowing plans within the city. The cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul declared snow emergencies in wake of the winter's biggest snowstorm. In St. Paul when crews finish plowing east-west residential today the parking restrictions will end. But in Minneapolis the snow emergency will not end until 8:00 p.m. on Wednesday. When R.T. Rybak campaigned for mayor of Minneapolis he pledged to change the city to a 24-hour plowing schedule.
February 5, 2003 - Minnesota corn growers are waiting to find out whether they can use a new herbicide this spring. "Balance Pro" is used in 17 states. But not in Minnesota, Michigan, or Wisconsin. Critics say Balance gets into rivers and lakes too easily, and it could harm wildlife or even humans. Minnesota Public Radio's Stephanie Hemphill reports.
February 7, 2003 - The 3.8 inches of snow that fell on Groundhog Day Sunday, Feb 2 was the 3rd highest total historically for that date in the Twin Cities area. The 6.0 inch storm total snowfall, occurring over the 2nd and 3rd of the month was the second highest storm total historically, surpassed only by the 6.5 inches that fell in 1983. The Twin Cities now reports 8.0 inches of snowfall for February which is above normal.
February 21, 2003 - The Climate Prediction Center releases the new seasonal outlook on Thursday Feb 20 this week. This will look ahead to the period from March through May. I will have some comments. This weekend, I will be attending the Annual Lake Superior Design Retreat of the American Institute of Architects in Duluth. The topic I am covering concerns "Weather Myth and Little Known Weather Facts"......I have some examples...