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The Pine and Lakes Country Local Foods working group has been approved for a VISTA member to support the work of this Central Region task force.  The VISTA program, administered through the Initiative Foundation in Little Falls, offers a one-year service opportunity that is focused on support to poverty reduction programs within the U.S.  The VISTA project is a cooperative effort between the Partnership and the Region Five Development Commission.  Applications for the position will be taken through June 6 and should be made on line at www.americorps.gov.

Pine River Watershed Project Approved.  The Central Region Partnership recently approved $10,000 funding to work with the Pine River Watershed Alliance in a phosphorus reduction study.  Preliminary data indicates that Bungo Creek located in Cass County, is a major phosphorus contributor to the Pine River, and subsequently to the Whitefish Chain of Lakes in Crow Wing County.  The Whitefish Chair has become to show eutrophication due to phosphorus entering the surface waters.  Testing of the Pine River and its tributaries also shows that Bungo Creek is the major phosphorus source.  This project will involve more extensive data collection and analysis to identify the amount and location of phosphorus import to Bungo Creek.  John Moncrief, University Dept. of Soil, Water and Climate, will be the principal investigator.  Other cooperators include the MPC, Cass County, NRCS, Crow Wing County Forage Council, DNR, Central Lakes College.  Ron Myer, chair of the Pine River Watershed Alliance, is the citizen lead.

The Central Region Partnership will begin working with a new Scenic Byway.  The Parnership approved marketing support for the Lake Slipper Scenic Byway, which travels through National Forest Service land in the northern part of the Central Region.  The Central Region Partnership has previously worked with both the Lake Country and Paul Bunyan Scenic byways in planning, interpretive, and marketing activities as part of its sustainable tourism focus.

See our SE Current Projects page  -- we have lots going on!

The Home Grown Economy: Connecting Local Foods and Economic Develoment

The second  conference in the Home Grown Economy series sponsored by Congressman Collin Peterson was held March 30 and 31, 2008 at University of  Minnesota Crookston campus.  Co-sponsored with Northwest and West Central Regional Sustainable Development Partnerships, University of Minnesota Crookston, Minnesota Institute of Sustainable Agriculture (MISA), and University of Minnesota Extension Service.  

Click Home Grown Economy for more details

Minnesota Author Tells the Farm Story  From the Farm to the Table: What Every American Needs to Know about Agriculture, a new book by Gary Holthaus, has reached bookstores nationally," announces Erin Tegtmeier, Executive Director of the University of Minnesota Southeast Regional Sustainable Development Partnership – The Experiment in Rural Cooperation (ERC). The book is a collaborative project of ERC and The Rural America Writers Center in Plainview.Minnesota

 A resident of Red Wing, Minnesota since 1995, Holthaus recently accepted the position of Administrative Director of the Northern Plains Sustainable Agriculture Society in LaMoure, North Dakota, and has been named one of the holders of the University of Minnesota School of Agriculture Endowed Chair in Agricultural Systems, managed through the Minnesota Institute for Sustainable Agriculture.  Read more

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