Minnesota and the Northwoods THERE IS SO MUCH TO BE PROUD OF IN 2023 AND MORE TO LOOK FORWARD TO IN THE YEAR AHEAD
Celebrating 50 Years of Impact, Thanks to You!
© LORENA O’NEIL
This year, TPL celebrates 50 years of connecting everyone to the joys and benefits of the outdoors. What started as a bold idea in a small office half a century ago has blossomed into a nationwide movement to ensure that everyone, no matter where they live, can experience nature. At this pivotal moment, we thank you, the incredible supporters who make TPL’s work possible and catalyze our future efforts. It is a remarkable moment for me to join TPL as Minnesota’s State Director. Returning to my hometown of Minneapolis after 15 years, I am excited to join TPL’s nationwide movement to ensure equitable access to the outdoors.
And we are just getting started! It is an exciting time to be a part of the TPL community in Minnesota and the Northwoods, as we look to new opportunities for connecting with nature, our histories, and each other.
With your support, TPL has preserved some of Minnesota’s best-loved places—like projects in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, Forest Lodge, and Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary—and created community parks where they are needed most—like Frogtown Park and Farm and Midway Peace Park in St. Paul. These and many other special places are bringing neighbors together and fostering a love for the outdoors.
This year, we launched TPL’s Community Schoolyards™ program in Minnesota, working with students to transform underperforming schoolyards into vibrant, green neighborhood parks. We continued to protect lands and waters that inspire and sustain us, preserving 8,470 acres of critical land along our rivers and in the great Northwoods. To support these and other vital efforts, we are advocating at every level of government for increased park and land conservation funding. With your enduring support, we will make Minnesota and the Northwoods a healthier and more equitable place for everyone. Thank you and I look forward to working with you! Sophie Vorhoff Associate Vice President Minnesota State Director
Frogtown Park, St. Paul, MN. © ANDY RICHTER
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Forever Northwoods
Hubbard County Deep Lake Park, MN. © ANDY RICHTER Unspoiled forests, abundant lakes, wild streams, and rivers—this is the iconic Northwoods of Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan. Visitors from across the region and around the world have created lifelong memories in these breathtaking landscapes—hiking tree-lined trails, kayaking and fishing in the pristine waters, and simply soaking up the timeless wilderness. Yet the Northwoods are increasingly threatened by the climate crisis and real estate development. The demand for these special places is a strain not only on the ecosystems but also on the stewards that watch over them. Moreover, it is detracting from the outdoor experiences that draw us to the Northwoods in the first place. Which is why our Forever Northwoods program is more important than ever before. By building ties with communities, private landowners, and public agencies, we have saved over 230,000 acres (and counting) of watersheds and forests at risk of disappearing. This past year alone we protected Sand River Headwaters in Bayfield County, Wisconsin, and Wild and Scenic Ontonagon River in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. These victories have enhanced recreation, sustained local economies and ways of life, and bolstered climate resilience for communities and wildlife. 4 |
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We have much to celebrate but there is so much more we can accomplish together. Help us ensure that the Northwoods live on forever by supporting our ongoing land protection efforts. Together we can safeguard more priority lands in the face of increasing threats to these fragile and essential landscapes. For more information on individual projects in this program, please visit tpl.org/forever-northwoods.
NORTHWOODS LAND PROTECTION FUND Please consider giving to the Northwoods Land Protection Fund. With your support, we can secure public conservation funds and act quickly to purchase land before losing it to development. We are well on our way to raising the $1 million needed to replenish this vital land protection fund and ensuring that the 40 million people who live within a day’s drive can continue to enjoy and access the Northwoods.
Minnesota’s Rivers
Cannon River Turtle Preserve Scientific and Natural Area, Red Wing, MN. © ANDY RICHTER
Minnesota’s rivers and their tributaries are among the state’s most precious natural resources and beloved outdoor playgrounds. From angling to kayaking to digging in the sand, they offer endless opportunities to play, unwind, and cool off. They also supply fresh drinking water for communities throughout the Midwest and are home to a diversity of birds, fish, and other wildlife. Our Minnesota Rivers program focuses on five geographic areas: the Mississippi Headwaters, St. Croix and Cannon River Watersheds, Metro Big Rivers, and the Southeast Blufflands. We work in partnership with communities to protect these waterways and the lands surrounding them, keeping public access points open so everyone can enjoy our incredible rivers.
This was a banner year for the program; we protected just over 5,000 acres of critical watersheds. This included nearly doubling the park space in Sherburne County with the addition of Big Elk Lake Parkland and creating new wildlife and aquatic management areas (WMA) in Faribault and the Cannon River Valley. There is more impactful work ahead of us as we seek to protect 3,500 acres over the next two years, including creating a new WMA in Le Sueur County, adding to state forest lands in Southeast Minnesota—where less than five percent of the land is in public ownership—and expanding protection across the St. Croix watershed—home to one of the nation’s earliest designated federal wild and scenic rivers. For more information, visit tpl.org/minnesotas-rivers.
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Establishing Keystone Woods TPL is hard at work on one of the most exciting and monumental projects in Minnesota conservation history: the creation of a sweeping state wildlife and recreation area within an hour’s drive of the Twin Cities. This incredible piece of land contains 2,600 acres of forests, grasslands, and wetlands and will offer abundant possibilities for enjoying the great outdoors, including hiking, fishing, and hunting, among many other activities. Moreover, it will provide these opportunities to more than 3.5 million Metro residents, many of whom lack access to public land where they can engage in these kinds of recreational pursuits, which are generally reserved for rural areas, or the Northwoods several hundred miles away.
INSE T:© TPL STAFF. L A RGE: © ANDY RICHTER PHOTOGR APH Y.
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TPL worked with a local farm and cattle company to acquire this land—one of the largest undeveloped tracts in single ownership in the Twin Cities metro area. When TPL conveys most of the property by the end of 2023, it will become a new state wildlife management area called Keystone Woods. Our work is in tandem with Washington County, which will purchase the remaining acreage to become part of the Big Marine Park Reserve. We are thrilled to be creating a new recreational destination so close to the Twin Cities that will benefit thousands of residents, while also preserving a large block of intact habitat for wildlife.
Community Powered Parks The park systems of St. Paul and Minneapolis are consistently ranked among the best in the nation, but our parks and public spaces fail to serve all residents equally, creating a sizable equity gap in access to the outdoors. For example, in Minneapolis, communities of color have 60 percent less park space than predominately white neighborhoods. TPL is helping close that gap. This year, we focused on Central Village Park, a seven-acre park and trail system in Rondo, one of St Paul’s historically Black neighborhoods that has welcomed numerous Somali immigrants as new neighbors in recent years. Decades of underinvestment have taken a toll on this neighborhood, including the park, which has become rundown, outdated, and unsafe. Long-time residents have fond memories of going to the park for pick-up games, barbecues, and social gatherings, and using the park as a forum for social activism. Today, they are drawing on this activism to renew the park, not only to upgrade its recreational features, but also to honor the community’s rich multiculturalism and resilient history.
Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary, St. Paul, MN. © ANDY RICHTER 8 |
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Midway Peace Park, St. Paul, MN. © ANDY RICHTER This spring, after three years of deep community engagement and park activation, the Central Village Park Master Plan was completed. Its new design and amenities, including new playgrounds, volleyball court, soccer pitch, and wayfinding signage for its trail network, will match the needs of the neighborhood. This project is a story of the tireless advocacy and commitment of the neighbors of Central Village Park and a coalition of community organizations, including Springboard for the Arts, the neighborhood planning council, and city staff. For more information, visit tpl.org/community-poweredparks-twin-cities.
Community Schoolyards™ LAUNCHING OUR STATEWIDE EFFORT
LEF T: Current conditions at Brooklyn Center Elementary STEAM. © TPL STAFF; RIGHT: Renderings of the future Brooklyn Center Community Schoolyard. © SWA There are about 2,500 schools in Minnesota—one in almost every neighborhood. And yet, only a small number of schoolyards are open to the public after school and on weekends. Even fewer are designed with the kind of natural features and dynamic learning spaces that students need and deserve. This is especially true in marginalized communities, where underinvestment has been the status quo for far too long. These untapped resources are a solution to closing the park equity gap in Minnesota. Through our community schoolyards program, TPL partners with teachers, students, and neighbors to remake underutilized school grounds into vibrant green spaces. These park-like spaces are open to the community after school hours and can help address public health, student learning, and climate change. Each community schoolyard is uniquely designed by the community to best meet their needs. Typical features include outdoor classrooms, accessible playgrounds, pollinator habitats and gardens, and public art. Investments in our communities’ schoolyards are investments in the community. By leveraging underutilized public lands, public funding, and private support, we can provide safe green spaces to all community members.
BROOKLYN CENTER ELEMENTARY STEAM Brooklyn Center Elementary STEAM serves one of Minnesota’s most diverse cities. It is bordered by two major highways whose noise and exhaust pollution affect student health and learning. As a result of our participatory design and community outreach, the transformed schoolyard will feature trees and vegetation to buffer highway impacts; learning labs and pollinator gardens for learning outside; trails and nature play areas for connecting with nature; and sports fields and courts for robust recreation. The result will be a dynamic and accessible space for outdoor learning, exercise, and play. As a pilot project, the thoughtfully-designed, renovated schoolyard will galvanize conversations across the city and beyond. By making community schoolyards standard practice in Minnesota, we can transform health, learning, and climate resilience across the state. If you’d like to learn more about how you can support this initiative, please contact visit tpl.org/minnesotacommunity-schoolyards.
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Advocating for Parks and Open Spaces
The demand for high-quality outdoor recreation, green spaces, and climate solutions is growing. Luckily, Minnesotans always show up on Election Day to protect, create, and maintain these vital spaces. People like you create these funds by voting YES to protect clean air and water and to conserve wildlife habitats in local and statewide elections. Voter-approved public funds are investments that accelerate climate solutions and preserve Minnesota’s beauty. Financing conservation, parks, and natural climate solutions is a tangible action communities take to 10 |
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strengthen community health, improve quality of life, and fortify climate resilience. In partnership with state and local governments, land trusts, and community organizations, TPL invites millions of voters to serve as nature’s fundraisers. In fact, since 1996, TPL has helped create $93 billion for conservation, climate, and parks nationwide. Seven billion dollars of these funds benefit Minnesota parks and open spaces. TPL helps shape ballot measures that give YOU the power to fund nature. We perform research, manage public
opinion polls, and build funding programs. We help form coalitions that mobilize ballot measure support, culminating on election days when voters decide. These efforts are direct democracy in action. Our relationships with elected officials and public agencies run deep in Minnesota, as do our collaborations and coalitions, thanks to decades of relationship building. TPL won 11 out of the 12 state and local ballot measures in which we have been involved. Successful campaigns include working with the statewide Clean Water, Land, and Legacy Amendment (2008) and the cities of Minneapolis (2016), Brooklyn Park (2018), and Rochester (2020). Now, we are looking ahead to November 2024 and the renewal of state lottery funding for the Environmental and Natural Resources Trust Fund (ENRTF). Throughout the state, voters will be asked to protect drinking water sources and the water quality of lakes, rivers, and streams; conserve wildlife habitat and natural areas; improve air quality; and expand access to parks and trails by extending the transfer of 40 percent of state-operated lottery proceeds to the ENRTF and dedicating the proceeds for these purposes. The renewal of ENRTF has the potential to create $2.7 billion in public funds for Minnesota’s irreplaceable natural resources.
EXPAND ACCESS TO PARKS AND TRAILS There is plenty more work ahead in our efforts to pass the lottery funding renewal. The coalition invites campaign contributions to encourage YES votes on Election Day 2024, and we hope you will consider a contribution. If you would like to learn more, please visit tpl.org/scaling-parks-andconservation-finance.
This ballot measure did not just land on the ballot overnight. Thanks to donor support, TPL diligently researched, surveyed public opinion, and built a coalition of partners to advance this conservation dedication of lottery funds to the state ballot. Our efforts go well beyond renewing state lottery funding for the ENRTF and continue in Minnesota year after year. We are also working with Washington County to renew funding for their county land conservation program. On our horizon is the renewal of the highly successful Clean Water Land and Legacy Amendment. We aim for Minnesota to continue to serve as a national conservation leader— funding land protection, water, wildlife, and connecting every Minnesotan to nature.
Your charitable donations to TPL’s conservation finance efforts create approximately 2,000 times their amount in public funds, often more!
OPPOS ITE PAG E: © LINDSAY UPSON; THIS PAG E , TOP: © R ACHID DAHNOUN; BOT TOM: © CAROLINE YANG
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MINNESOTA ADVISORY BOARD
MEET THE MINNESOTA TEAM
Julia Silvis, McKinsey & Company (Chair)
Anna Callahan, Community Powered Parks & Schoolyards Program Manager
Susan Haigh, retired, Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity (Vice Chair)
Nick Bancks, Land Protection Project Manager
Will Cooksey, Land Protection Senior Project Manager
Cheryl Appeldorn, Policy Analyst
DJ Forbes, Public Grant Manager
Andrew Brown, Dorsey & Whitney LLP
Bob McGillivray, Land Protection Director
Toni Carter, retired, Commissioner, Ramsey County District 4
Heather Meyer, Philanthropy Coordinator
Paul Durkee, retired, Antea Group Paul Fate, PFate & Associates
Chris Vazquez, Program Assistant Sophie Harris Vorhoff, Associate Vice President and Minnesota State Director
Peter Gove, retired, St. Jude Medical, Inc. Shubha Harris, Xcel Energy John Herman, Herman Real Estate Advisors LLC Doug Kelley, Kelley, Wolter & Scott, P.A. Steve King, Landscape Structures, Inc. Page Knudsen Cowles, Knudsen Vineyards Sungduck Lee, University of Minnesota
THANK YOU for helping us to connect people to the outdoors in Minnesota and beyond. We could not do this work without you.
Mary Merrill, Superintendent Emeritus, Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board Steven Meyer, Fox Rothschild LLP Andrew Rosen, National Ataxia Foundation John Shepard, Cascade Communications & Hamline University Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary, St. Paul, MN.
Sophie Vorhoff Associate Vice President Minnesota State Director 651.999.5304 sophie.vorhoff@tpl.org
Join us Help ensure everyone has access to the outdoors. Every park we create, schoolyard we transform, trail we extend, and landscape we protect is thanks to supporters like you. tpl.org/donate/mn
COV ER , A LL: © ANDY RICHTER; THIS PAG E: © ANDY RICHTER
2610 University Avenue Suite 300 St. Paul, MN, 55114 651.760.0179 minnesota@tpl.org