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Environment Of Minnesota
The natural history of Minnesota covers the plant and animal species of the United States, U.S. state of Minnesota. The continental climate and location of Minnesota at the Physiographic regions of the world, physiographic intersection of the Laurentian Upland, Laurentian and the Interior Plains influences its plant and animal life. Three of North America's biomes converge in Minnesota: prairie, prairie grasslands in the southwestern and western parts of the state, the eastern temperate deciduous forests in the east-central and the southeast, and the Temperate coniferous forest, coniferous forest in the north-central and northeast. Ecoregions An ecoregion is an area uniquely defined by environmental conditions and natural features. Ecoregions in Minnesota were largely influenced by the unique Glacial history of Minnesota, glacial history, Geology of Minnesota, geology, soil type, land use, and Climate of Minnesota, climate of the state. The United States Environmental Protection A ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Minnesota Terrestrial Biomes
Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the south, and North Dakota and South Dakota to the west. It is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 12th-largest U.S. state in area and the List of U.S. states and territories by population, 22nd-most populous, with about 5.8 million residents. Minnesota is known as the "Land of 10,000 Lakes"; it has 14,420 bodies of fresh water covering at least ten acres each. Roughly a third of the state is Forest cover by state and territory in the United States, forested. Much of the remainder is prairie and farmland. More than 60% of Minnesotans (about 3.71 million) live in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area, known as the "Twin Cities", which is Minnesota's main Politics of Minnesota, political, Economy of Minnesota, economic, and C ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
United States Environmental Protection Agency
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is an independent agency of the United States government tasked with environmental protection matters. President Richard Nixon proposed the establishment of EPA on July 9, 1970; it began operation on December 2, 1970, after Nixon signed an executive order. The order establishing the EPA was ratified by committee hearings in the House and Senate. The agency is led by its administrator, who is appointed by the president and approved by the Senate. The current administrator is Lee Zeldin. The EPA is not a Cabinet department, but the administrator is normally given cabinet rank. The EPA has its headquarters in Washington, D.C. There are regional offices for each of the agency's ten regions, as well as 27 laboratories around the country. The agency conducts environmental assessment, research, and education. It has the responsibility of maintaining and enforcing national standards under a variety of environmental laws, in consultat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness
The Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW or BWCA) comprises of pristine forests, glacial lakes, and streams in the Superior National Forest. Located entirely within the U.S. state of Minnesota at the Boundary Waters, the wilderness area is under the administration of the United States Forest Service. Efforts to preserve the primitive landscape began in the 1900s and culminated in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness Act of 1978. The area is a popular destination for canoeing, hiking, and fishing, and is the most visited wilderness in the United States. Geography The BWCAW extends along of the Canadian border in the Arrowhead Region of Minnesota. The combined region of the BWCAW, Superior National Forest, Voyageurs National Park, and Ontario's Quetico and La Verendrye provincial parks make up a large area of contiguous wilderness lakes and forests called the "Quetico-Superior country", or simply the Boundary Waters. Lake Superior lies to the south and east ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Superior National Forest
The Superior National Forest, part of the United States National Forest system, is located in the Arrowhead Region of the U.S. state, state of Minnesota between the Canada–United States border and the North Shore (Lake Superior), north shore of Lake Superior. The area is part of the greater Boundary Waters region along the border of Minnesota and the Canadian province of Ontario, a historic and important thoroughfare in the fur trade, fur trading and exploring days of New France and British North America. Under the administration of the United States Forest Service, the Superior National Forest comprises over 3,900,000 acres (6,100 mi2 or 16,000 km2) of woods and waters. The majority of the forest is multiple-use, including both logging and recreational activities such as camping, boating, and fishing. Slightly over a quarter of the forest is set aside as a wilderness reserve known as the Boundary Waters Canoe Area (BWCA), where canoers can travel along interconnect ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chippewa National Forest
Chippewa National Forest is a National Forest located in north central Minnesota, United States, in the counties of Itasca, Cass and Beltrami. Forest headquarters are located in Cass Lake, Minnesota. There are local ranger district offices in Blackduck, Deer River and Walker. History The Forest was established as the Minnesota Forest Reserve on 27 June 1902, with the passage of the Morris Act. While this act mainly addressed the disposition of unallotted lands on Ojibwe Indian reservations in Minnesota, of the Chippewas of the Mississippi, Cass Lake, Leech Lake, and Winnibigoshish Indian reservations were designated as a Forest Reserve. Led by Maria Sanford and Florence Bramhall of the Federation of Minnesota Women's Clubs, conservation activism beginning in 1900 brought the forest and potential threats to wide public attention. The Reserve was re-established as the Minnesota National Forest on 23 May 1908. In 1928, the forest was renamed in honor of the Chippewa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Old-growth Forest
An old-growth forest or primary forest is a forest that has developed over a long period of time without disturbance. Due to this, old-growth forests exhibit unique ecological features. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations defines primary forests as naturally regenerated forests of native tree species where there are no clearly visible indications of human activity and the ecological processes are not significantly disturbed. One-third (34 percent) of the world's forests are primary forests. Old-growth features include diverse tree-related structures that provide diverse wildlife habitats that increases the biodiversity of the forested ecosystem. Virgin or first-growth forests are old-growth forests that have never been logged. The concept of diverse tree structure includes multi-layered canopies and canopy gaps, greatly varying tree heights and diameters, and diverse tree species and classes and sizes of woody debris., the world has of primary forest ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Erythronium Propullans
''Erythronium propullans'', the Minnesota dwarf trout lily, Minnesota adder's tongue or Minnesota fawnlily, is a rare plant endemic to the Cannon River and North Fork Zumbro River watersheds in Rice County, Goodhue County and the extreme northern edge of Steele County, Minnesota, in the United States. The plant is closely related to the white trout lily (''Erythronium albidum'') and is believed to have evolved less than 9,000 years ago. It was listed as an endangered species of the United States under the Endangered Species Act in 1986. The plants flower in the spring at the same time as hepaticas, Dutchman's breeches, bloodroot, and other spring wildflowers. Nerstrand-Big Woods State Park, River Bend Nature Center, and several tracts owned by The Nature Conservancy protect portions of its habitat. Description ''Erythronium propullans'' is a perennial growing from a small bulb. It has smaller flowers than ''E. albidum'', often only 1 cm long with a pinkish tint to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Populus
''Populus'' is a genus of 25–30 species of deciduous flowering plants in the family Salicaceae, native to most of the Northern Hemisphere. English names variously applied to different species include poplar (), aspen, and cottonwood. The western balsam poplar (Populus trichocarpa, ''P. trichocarpa'') was the first tree to have its full DNA code determined by DNA sequencing, in 2006. Description The genus has a large genetic diversity, and can grow from tall, with trunks up to in diameter. The Bark (botany), bark on young trees is smooth and white to greenish or dark gray, and often has conspicuous lenticels; on old trees, it remains smooth in some species, but becomes rough and deeply fissured in others. The shoots are stout, with (unlike in the related willows) the terminal bud present. The leaves are spirally arranged, and vary in shape from triangular to circular or (rarely) lobed, and with a long petiole (botany), petiole; in species in the sections ''Populus'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Birch
A birch is a thin-leaved deciduous hardwood tree of the genus ''Betula'' (), in the family Betulaceae, which also includes alders, hazels, and hornbeams. It is closely related to the beech- oak family Fagaceae. The genus ''Betula'' contains 30 to 60 known taxa of which 11 are on the IUCN 2011 Red List of Threatened Species. They are typically short-lived pioneer species and are widespread in the Northern Hemisphere, particularly in northern areas of temperate climates and in boreal climates. Birch wood is used for a wide range of purposes. Description Birch species are generally small to medium-sized trees or shrubs, mostly of northern temperate and boreal climates. The simple leaves are alternate, singly or doubly serrate, feather-veined, petiolate and stipulate. They often appear in pairs, but these pairs are really borne on spur-like, two-leaved, lateral branchlets. The fruit is a small samara, although the wings may be obscure in some species. They differ from t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spruce
A spruce is a tree of the genus ''Picea'' ( ), a genus of about 40 species of coniferous evergreen trees in the family Pinaceae, found in the northern temperate and boreal ecosystem, boreal (taiga) regions of the Northern hemisphere. ''Picea'' is the sole genus in the subfamily Piceoideae. Spruces are large trees, from about 20 to 60 m (about 60–200 ft) tall when mature, and have Whorl (botany), whorled branches and cone (geometry), conical form. Spruces can be distinguished from other Genus, genera of the family Pinaceae by their pine needle, needles (leaves), which are four-sided and attached singly to small persistent peg-like structures (pulvini or sterigmata) on the branches, and by their seed cone, cones (without any protruding bracts), which hang downwards after they are pollinated. The needles are shed when 4–10 years old, leaving the branches rough with the retained pegs. In other similar genera, the branches are fairly smooth. Spruce are used as food pla ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pine
A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus ''Pinus'' () of the family Pinaceae. ''Pinus'' is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. ''World Flora Online'' accepts 134 species-rank taxa (119 species and 15 nothospecies) of pines as current, with additional synonyms, and ''Plants of the World Online'' 126 species-rank taxa (113 species and 13 nothospecies), making it the largest genus among the conifers. The highest species diversity of pines is found in Mexico. Pines are widely species distribution, distributed in the Northern Hemisphere; they occupy large areas of boreal forest, but are found in many habitats, including the Mediterranean Basin, and dry tropical forests in southeast Asia and Central America. Wood from pine trees is one of the most extensively used types of timber, and some pines are widely used as Christmas trees. Description Pine trees are evergreen, coniferous resinous trees (or, rarely, shrubs) growing tall, with the majority of species reachin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tallgrass Prairie
The tallgrass prairie is an ecosystem native to central North America. Historically, natural and Historical ecology#Anthropogenic fire, anthropogenic fire, as well as grazing by large mammals (primarily bison) provided periodic disturbances to these ecosystems, limiting the encroachment of trees, recycling soil nutrients, and facilitating seed dispersal and germination. Prior to widespread use of the steel plow, which enabled large scale conversion to agricultural land use, tallgrass prairies extended throughout the Midwestern United States, American Midwest and smaller portions of southern Aspen parkland, central Canada, from the transitional ecotones out of eastern North American forests, west to a climatic threshold based on precipitation and soils, to the southern reaches of the Flint Hills in Kansas, to a transition into forest in Manitoba. They were characteristically found in parts of the upper Mississippi River Valley, in the central forest-grasslands transition, the centr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
