Trust for Public Land in Minnesota - 2021

The Trust for Public Land in Minnesota THERE IS SO MUCH TO BE PROUD OF

in 2021

AND MORE TO LOOK FORWARD TO IN THE YEAR AHEAD

LETTER FROM MINNESOTA ADVISORY BOARD CHAIR JIM BR ANDENBURG

Burntside Lake Ely, MN

Thank you for your support of The Trust for Public Land. Through your generosity, you are helping us build healthy, equitable, resilient communities by expanding access to precious parks and public land for everyone in Minnesota.

During the pandemic, we came to appreciate— even more than before—the ease and stressfree joys of walking, camping, and picnicking with family and friends. But the pandemic also exposed that not everyone has equal access to the outdoors. Equitable access to nature’s myriad benefits is more important than ever. Now is the time to champion the pivotal role of parks in addressing inequities and ensure that the healing power of nature is available to all of us.

The Trust for Public Land is committed to advancing equity, health, and climate resilience

through nature in every community. Since 1972, we have created more than 5,000 parks and green spaces, safeguarded more than 3.7 million acres, put a park within a 10-minute walk of home for more than 9 million people, and generated more than $85 billion in public funding for parks, trails, and open spaces.

We hope you will take the time to celebrate The Trust for Public Land’s recent accomplishments in Minnesota and learn about our goals for the coming year.

We could not do this without support from incredibly generous donors like you. Thank you for all you do to make our work possible!

We hope that you will be inspired by all we have accomplished together, and continue to support our vision for the future. Thank you for helping us create happier, healthier communities where all people can thrive!

B. Andrew Brown Minnesota Advisory Board Chair

PROTECTING AT-RISK LANDS IN THE NORTHWOODS Every year, people across the Midwest and the country travel to bask in the vast forests, skim across the bountiful lakes, and embrace the invitation for adventure and connection in the Northwoods region of Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan.

However, the region’s forests and waterways are increasingly threatened by the growing demand for development. Limited real estate, sale of private forestlands, and overall changes in land use patterns accelerated by the pandemic have put access to our beloved Northwoods landscapes at risk. That is why The Trust for Public Land is taking action!

This past year, we protected more than 600 acres in the Northwoods across Crow Wing, Itasca, and Aitkin Counties in the key watersheds of the Mississippi River in Minnesota. We also made substantial strides toward protecting an additional 13,000 acres all across the Northwoods territory within the next two years.

These accomplishments are made possible thanks to our Northwoods Land Protection Fund (NWLPF), created 20 years ago with help from a very generous private donor. With the original Fund nearly depleted, we are extremely excited to share that a new landowner has donated $200,000 to seed a challenge to inspire other Northwoods advocates to raise $1 million to replenish our vitally important NWLPF. With your support, we can maintain the priceless water-rich, forested legacy of these special places.

What an incredible opportunity!

Rise to the challenge

Donate to the Northwoods Land Protection Fund today to protect 25,000 acres of land, 25 additional miles of shoreline, and 25 more special places in the region over the next five years

RICHARD HAMILTON SMITH

Mississippi River Northwoods Habitat Complex Near Brainerd, MN

HEALTHY COMMUNITY SCHOOLYARDS™ JENNA STAMM

John M. Patterson School Philadelphia, PA

Public schoolyards throughout Minnesota are packed with potential. And yet, too few schoolyards are designed with the kinds of green space and play features that the school and greater community need and desire.

Conventional schoolyard design can contribute to groundwater and stormwater issues, loss of tree canopy and pollinator habitat, and exacerbate heat island impacts. Additionally, aging infrastructure, outdated schoolyard design, traffic, safety issues, and the lack of outdoor classrooms limit the potential of these outdoor spaces.

A growing collection of research proves the vital benefits of outdoor play for kids—including boosting physical and mental health, reducing behavior issues, improving academic achievement, and fostering next-generation environmental stewards.

Our work is guided by research and our renowned mapping systems to ensure we make the biggest impact possible.

We start by identifying schools in communities with the greatest need based on health, equity, and climate data. Based on this information, we invite schools to partner with The Trust for Public Land to develop park-like outdoor places designed by students and the community and open to the public.

As part of The Trust for Public Land’s national Schoolyards initiative, we are bringing the myriad benefits of Community Schoolyards™ to Minnesota. Guided by unprecedented successes in New York City, Philadelphia, and Oakland, we have secured early state and private funding to analyze and map statewide need, organize local partnerships, and begin community engagement and design for Minnesota’s first Healthy Community Schoolyard.

To make Community Schoolyards the standard practice by 2025, we aim to increase the public and private support needed to complete at least three pilot schoolyard sites—urban, exurban, and rural—in Minnesota in the next two years.

SCALING UP! PARKS AND CONSERVATION FUNDING IN MINNESOTA The Trust for Public Land has a long history of helping partners secure federal, state, and local investment in parks, trails, and public lands across the country. At the state and local levels, we have a successful 30-year track record of organizing within communities, conducting research, providing technical assistance, and when the time is right, loudly advocating alongside our partners for the public investments in parks and open space that communities need and want. Through decades of experience, we know that building trust and advocacy within communities takes time.

Early support from donors like you is critical to this long-term success, enabling us to leverage extraordinary impact.

While we have a lot of work ahead of us, we are proud to report that in 2020, The Trust for Public Land worked with Rochester residents who voted overwhelmingly to invest $40 million in the city’s parks, trails, and natural lands.

This recent Rochester win builds on the success of our involvement in the 2008 statewide Clean Water, Land, and Legacy Amendment, the 2016 Minneapolis city property tax increase for

For every $1 in private donation raised, The Trust for Public Land generates approximately $2,000 in new public funding

neighborhood parks, the 2018 Brooklyn Park bond for parks and trails, and more. Over time, and with early help from private donors, measures similar to these are expected to create $3.9 billion in critical parks and conservation funding for Minnesota communities!

R ACHID DAHNOUN

In Minnesota, we face a pivotal moment for parks and public lands. The state’s two major sources of dedicated funding for parks and land conservation are set to expire in 2024 and 2034.

Voter-approved measures for parks in the 2022, 2024, and 2026 elections will determine public investment in our shared parks, trails, and public lands for decades to come. And given the incredible use of local parks and natural areas during the pandemic, more and more counties and cities in Minnesota need our help as parks and public lands are quite simply being loved to death. That’s why we are Scaling Up!

Did you know?

Minnesota Advisory Board

MINNESOTA OFFICE STAFF

Andrew Brown, Dorsey & Whitney LLP† Julia Silvis, Itasca Project ‡ Cheryl Appeldorn, Conservation Minnesota Daniel Avchen, HGA Architects and Engineers Karin Birkeland, former partner, Faegre & Benson Toni Carter, Ramsey County District 4 Commissioner Page Knudsen Cowles, Knudsen Vineyards* Paul Durkee, retired, Antea Group Thomas Fisher, University of Minnesota Peter Gove, retired, St. Jude Medical, Inc. Susan Haigh, Retired, Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity John Herman, Herman Real Estate Advisors LLC Lisa Hondros, park activist Doug Kelley, Kelley, Wolter & Scott, P.A. Steve King, Landscape Structures, Inc. Mary Merrill, former superintendent, Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board Steven Meyer, Fox Rothschild LLP Timothy O’Brien, Ph.D., Ecolab, Inc. Andrew Rosen, National Ataxia Foundation Don Samuels, MicroGrants John Shepard, Hamline University Marnie Wells, former executive director, Camp Fire Minnesota Jim Wyman, retired

Rachel Baird, Midwest Institutional Giving Manager

†

Chair; ‡ Vice-chair; * Also serves on national Board of Directors

Leslie Brauman, Sr. Director, Field Philanthropy (Interim Director of Philanthropy, Minnesota) Will Cooksey, Sr. Project Manager DJ Forbes, Project Manager II Bob McGillivray, Land Protection Director Nadilyah Stewart, Minnesota Program Assistant Susan Schmidt, Vice President, Midwest Region and Minnesota State Director Eric Weiss, Program Director, Community-Powered Parks

ANDY RICHTER

Crystal Spring Scientific and Natural Area Washington County, MN

BACK COVER: JERRY AND MARCY MONKMAN • FRONT COVER: 1,3,4 ANDY RICHTER; 2,3 DARCY KIEFEL

Thank you for helping improve the health, equity, and climate outcomes for communities in Minnesota and beyond.

We couldn’t do this without you.

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

Susan Schmidt VP Midwest Region & MN State Director 651.917.2240 | susan.schmidt@tpl.org Leslie Brauman Sr. Director of Field Philanthropy 347.281.2830 | leslie.brauman @tpl.org 2610 University Avenue, Suite 300 Saint Paul, Minnesota 55114