Author: Lisa Filter

July 9, 2021

Gateway Brown’s Creek Trail Association

Trail advocates who go the extra mile

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Brass band playing in parking lot
June 7, 2021

Parks & Trails Fun Quiz – June

2021 June - Fun Quiz 1 / 4 What percent of visitors participate in birdwatching while at a state park (based on a 2017 Visitor Survey by the MnDNR)? 57% 37% 17% 7% Four years ago, about 17% of state park visitors who were surveyed ...
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June 3, 2021

Securing the missing link to extend the Goodhue Pioneer State Trail

For years, the northern segment of this trail came to an abrupt end at a dirt road in Hay Creek Township. Across the road lay an overgrown field marked with a private property sign.
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paved trail and horse trail
April 5, 2021

Where Gretchen the Lion once roared, park visitors will soon stroll

You wouldn’t guess it by strolling the grounds today, but the property Parks & Trails Council acquired for Charles A. Lindbergh State Park in 2020 was once famous for the menagerie of wild animals that lived there when it was the home of the Smuda Zoo.
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Newspaper clipping showing the owners of Smuda Zoo
March 15, 2021

Redwood County announces new camper cabins

Redwood County’s one and only park, Plum Creek Park, is proud to announce the addition of camper cabins for the 2021 camping season.

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three wooden cabins next to a field
March 10, 2021

House Legislative committee hears our case for state trail rehab

On Tuesday, our staff presented at the House Capital Investment Committee to share our State of the Trails report.
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Parks & Trails Council's Research Bike
March 8, 2021

Parks & Trails Fun Quiz – March

March 2021 Fun Quiz 1 / 4 What is the largest source of fine particle pollution in Minnesota? Personal wood burning (wood stoves, boilers and campfires) Road transporation (cars, trucks, buses) Factory emissions (point source) According to the MnPCA, wood burning for campfires, stoves and ...
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February 2, 2021

Special Places Newsletter Winter 2021

From the president | Gov. proposes park permit increase | Lake Shetek State Park | Nature prescriptions | 5 ways nature makes us healthy | Adapting with friends groups | State Park project updates | Places & Friends: Chester Woods Park
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Cover of Newsletter
February 1, 2021

2021 Legislative Session underway

State park fee increases proposed in governor's budget Lawmakers convened the 2021 legislative session in early January in what will be one of the more unusual yet consequential sessions in recent memory. Legislators have a short but complex list of tasks: battling the ongoing COVID-19 ...
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January 22, 2021

History of Lake Shetek State Park

1862 Tensions escalate between the Dakota and white settlers leading to a group of Dakota attacking the Lake Shetek settlement in the early days of the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862. 1863 The bodies of the 15 white settlers who were killed in the attack are ...
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Wooden sign mounted between stone pillars
January 22, 2021

Saving a rare forested peninsula for Lake Shetek State Park

Parks & Trails Council secured a treasured landscape for Lake Shetek State Park during a live auction on Oct. 24, 2020. The sale is expected to be finalized by May. The 24.5-acre property, with 3,000 feet of lakeshore along Lake Shetek, was put up for ...
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Aerial view of peninsula
January 21, 2021

Meet the Friends of Chester Woods Park

This is a park that wholeheartedly welcomes volunteers. “There’s a whole culture of embracing volunteers within all Olmstead County Parks,” says Joel Dunette, one of the founding members of the friends group. In fact, the number of hours that volunteers contribute toward the park is equal to the staff hours.

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Eight people standing outdoors with buckets around waist to collect seeds
January 19, 2021

5 Ways Nature Time Makes Us Healthier

1 It helps us feel healthy and happy Spending at least two hours in nature (such as parks, woodlands and beaches) per week, has been associated with significantly more likelihood of reporting good health or high well-being. And just 20 minutes spent in urban parks, …

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Two women with three children all on bicycles
January 19, 2021

Movement growing for doctors’ to prescribe nature

The next time you’re at your doctors office you may end up leaving with a prescription not for pills, but for nature.

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Doctor's prescription to spend time at a park and image of people at Frontenac State park
December 21, 2020

New cabins to open at Lake Vermilion-Soudan Underground Mine State Park

From MnDNR Reservations open Dec. 28; first lodging begins Dec. 31 The new camper cabins at Lake Vermilion-Soudan Underground Mine State Park, in northeastern Minnesota, are ready for visitors! Campers can begin making reservations at 8 a.m. Monday, Dec. 28 for stays beginning on Dec. …

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Two cabins nestled between trees and plants