Registration
Registration to attend this event is required. A full agenda is available.
Description
The University of Minnesota Sea Grant College Program (MNSG), MNSG Advisory Board, and MNSG stakeholders identified a call for developing a better understanding of research needs associated with the St. Louis River Estuary and fostering partnerships that may lead to research funding opportunities, as well as, methods for effectively making and implementing estuary-wide decisions.
MNSG is seeking input from those who are gathering data on bird, fish, and wild rice habitat in the St. Louis River Estuary and using those data to make natural resource management and/or permitting decisions.
Workshop goal
Generate ideas and partnerships that will lead to targeted and impactful research funding for the St. Louis River Estuary and provide a mechanism for estuary-wide decision-making.
Workshop objectives
- Develop ideas for a public-facing tool to help natural resource managers, researchers, and others view data on an estuary-wide scale.
- Identification of possible formats and mechanisms.
- Identification of key metrics for long-term monitoring of fish, birds, and wild rice that should be incorporated.
- Prioritize gaps in current data that could be addressed through MNSG-funded research.
- Identify data-sharing partnerships that could increase the efficiency and impact of the estuary-wide decision-making process.
Outcomes
The outcomes of this workshop are intended to benefit the ongoing planning processes within the St. Louis River Estuary, and may also inform habitat restoration project planning, in-water construction project planning, proposed dredging and maintenance operations, and in-water placement of dredged materials.
Workshop partners
Nick Bogyo, 1854 Treaty Authority; Gini Breidenbach, Minnesota Land Trust; Jeramy Pinkerton, Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and St. Louis River Habitat Workgroup; Titus Seilheimer and Jennifer Hauxwell, University of Wisconsin Sea Grant; Jeff Stollenwerk, Duluth Seaway Port Authority.
Contact
Great Lakes Sea Grant Transport Extension Educator Kelsey Prihoda.
Minnesota Sea Grant Fisheries and Aquaculture Extension Educator Amy Schrank.
Minnesota Sea Grant Fellowship and Research Coordinator Alex Frie.
Award acknowledgement
Minnesota Sea Grant prepared this workshop using federal funds under award #NA20NOS4190088 from the Coastal Zone Management Act of 1972, as amended, administered by the Office for Coastal Management, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce provided to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources for Minnesota’s Lake Superior Coastal Program.
Image credit: Euan Reavie.