January 5, 2000 - Intro: The cost of fishing and hunting may go up in 2000. The Department of Natural Resources wants to raise license fees, a crucial revenue source in its budget; the DNR says if the legislature doesn't do so, Minnesota's outdoors will suffer. Mainstreet Radio's Leif Enger reports. In 1949, Minnesota had 147 game wardens. And says Brainerd enforcement supervisor Tom Provost -- that's actually what they were. Provost: "Ninety percent of what we did then we strictly game and fish enforcement. We were the game warden. We were checking fishermen and trappers, hunters, that was what we did."
January 6, 2000 - A new study shows frogs and toads can be killed by very low levels of nitrogen fertilizer in the water where they live and breed. Run-off from fertilizer is a problem worldwide, so the findings could help explain the mysterious decline of amphibians across the globe. Minnesota Public Radio's Mary Losure reports. Oregon State University zoologist Andrew Blaustein
February 28, 2000 - MPR’s John Rabe talks with Ralph Nader, Green Party presidential candidate. Nader discusses the issues in the campaign, including wealth discrepancy in country, labor laws, gun control, and environment. Nader also answers listener questions.
March 14, 2000 - Mike Don Carlos, of the DNR; Dale Lueck, of the National Cattlemen's Association; and Karlyn Berg, member of HOWL, a wolf advocacy group and wolf consultant for the Humane Society of the United States discuss the Wolf Management Plan and legislation for protection and killing of wolves.
April 21, 2000 - A Twin Cities speech by the organizer of the original "Earth Day," Denis Hayes. His Hamline University speech was titled, "Clean Energy Now."
May 12, 2000 - First there was the fish-cam, then the bear-cam…now visitors to the World Wide Web can see "Lake Superior Cam." A team of inventors have dropped a gadget into 30-feet of Lake Superior water just off Duluth. It will show anyone who's interested what's happening down there, 24 hours a day.
May 24, 2000 - Mainstreet Radio's Leif Enger reports that on the Rainy River, the border between Minnesota and Canada, lake sturgeon is rising. Surviving near obliteration by commercial fishing and polluting paper mills, the sturgeon has resurfaced as a gamefish of almost mythical power. With the coming of summer, anglers by the hundreds of thousands are stalking Minnesota's lakes and rivers. Their objective, almost always, are walleye, northern pike, panfish and trout. Yet for a few anglers, a walleye holds no attraction; a twenty-pound northern, no allure; a rainbow trout, no romance…but lake sturgeon is a different matter.
June 26, 2000 - A common fertilizer is a new target for drug manufacturers in rural counties. Small amounts of anhydrous (ann HIGH druss) ammonia are used to make methamphetamine. The powerful central nervous stimulant with a high potential for abuse and dependence is becoming more available in rural areas. Authorities say they're telling farmers to lock up a chemical that's typically left in the middle of the field over night. Minnesota Public Radio's Cara Hetland reports:
June 26, 2000 -
June 27, 2000 - For the 23 years that he's been head of non-game wildlife for Minnesota's Department of Natural Resources, Carol Henderson has been trying to save the species that don't interest hunters and anglers. Some of them have been a success--the bald eagle and the timberwolf, but many others haven't attracted the same kind of attention and level of funding. Now Henderson is hopeful that he's finally going to get some help from the Federal Government. The House has passed a bill that would take revenues from off-shore oil drilling and funnel it to state parks and recreation areas, and non-game wildlife. The bill is now going through the Senate, and Henderson says it could mean an extra 36 to 37 (M)million dollars annually for Minnesota's non-game species: