September 29, 1999 - There's an urban forest just minutes from downtown St Paul -- where a group of teens have been working to restore the native ecosystem. In addition to its natural beauty, the area ---called Swede Hollow--- has historical importance as home to a succession of immigrants. The teens worked with enviornmental artist Chris Baumler.
December 30, 1999 - MPR’s Bob Kelleher reports on fear of fire danger into new century after BWCA area blowdown. Kelleher interviews several forest officials.
January 4, 2000 - An attorney for a former employee at the Koch refinery in Rosemount portrayed him as a good worker who was fired because he reported serious environmental violations by the company. Charles Chadwell is suing Koch Petroleum Group under a state law that protects whistleblowers from retailiation.The case went before a 10 person civil jury yesterday in Minneapolis. An attorney for Koch told the jury Chadwell was fired for "legitimate and lawful reasons." Minnesota Public Radio's Mary Losure reports. Charles Chadwell is a former waste water treatment operator at the Koch refinery in Rosemount. He was fired in 1997, eight months after he reported environmental violations to the Minnesota
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.