A person holding a cluster of pine needles between their two fingers. — White pine White pine and white cedar are increasingly favored in Minnesota for their climate resiliency. © Uche Iroegbu

Stories in Minnesota

Advocate: Use Your Outside Voice!

Learn about conservation policy in Minnesota, plus how you can get involved by speaking up for nature.

Last updated September 16, 2024

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Speak Up for Nature!

In Minnesota, we enjoy gifts like abundant freshwater, rich diversity of species and ecosystems, and productive working lands. We have a tremendous responsibility to respect and care for the nature that sustains us so that it may sustain future generations as well. That’s why we’re using our outside voices to speak up for nature—and we invite you to join us!

Frozen shore of Lake Superior. — Frozen North Shore of Lake Superior in Minnesota. © Erik Fremstad

Policy Makes Conservation Possible

Together, we can advance nonpartisan policy solutions that allow people and nature to thrive. As with our conservation work, our policy priorities are directly informed by science.

Our collaborative approach to advancing conservation through policy brings together people and partners from all walks of life, including private landowners, agricultural producers, Indigenous communities, business and industry, and government agencies at the local, state, Tribal and federal levels.

It’s more important than ever to work across borders, aisles and sectors to conserve the lands and waters on which all life depends. Get involved by learning about policy priorities in Minnesota and ways you can use your voice to make a difference and start speaking up for nature.

Policy Priorities in 2025

Protect Healthy Land & Water

Increased development, frequent severe weather events and underinvestment in management is threatening ecosystems in Minnesota. We need to take action to protect lands and waters and all the benefits they provide.
Tackle Climate Change

Climate change isn’t a distant threat—it is happening now. Policy can help us leverage nature-based solutions and expand clean energy strategies necessary to meet climate targets.
Provide Food & Water Sustainably

Agricultural production and policy are closely linked, and good policy helps farmers and ranchers be more productive and resilient. Working with producers, we can improve soil health, water quality, carbon sequestration—and productivity.

Protect Healthy Land & Water

**Wildlife Habitat** Programs that protect healthy lands and waters—like Minnesota’s Scientific & Natural Areas and Aquatic Management Areas—help us protect some of Minnesota’s most iconic species © Jean Wallace/TNC Photo Contest 2021

**Clean Water** Protecting freshwater while it’s still clean is significantly more cost-effective than remediation efforts after water has become polluted. © Ackerman + Gruber

**Healthy Lands** Keeping natural lands intact provides many benefits, including carbon sequestration, water storage and filtration and recreation opportunities. © Richard Hamilton Smith

The Nature Conservancy advocates for dedicated state investments in nature, like the Outdoor Heritage Fund, Clean Water Fund, and Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund. We're also working to increase state investments in natural resources through other funding sources.

TNC has long been in the business of protecting important natural areas, and this work has never been more vital. As Minnesota's climate changes, these places will become even more critical as wildlife come to increasingly rely on these natural highways and havens as they move due to climate threats and habitat loss. These natural areas are also critically important because of the immense amounts of carbon that they can capture and store through natural regeneration.

State investments in reforestation, public land acquisition, prairie restoration, wetland protections and more are all necessary to secure the benefits of healthy land and water in Minnesota.

Learn About Protection

Established in 1988 by the voters of Minnesota, the Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund provides funding for the state’s air, water, land, fish and wildlife through revenue generated by the Minnesota State Lottery. Since the early 1990s, this fund has generated more than $900 million, funding more than 1,700 conservation projects across Minnesota. Some of Minnesotans’ favorite conservation programs, like Lawns to Legumes and the Voyageurs Wolf Project, rely on funding from the ENRTF. In 2024, 77% of Minnesota voters opted to extend this dedicated funding through 2050, a strong sign of support for public funding for conservation.
The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency has documented impairments on nearly 2,800 of the state’s lakes, rivers and streams. The Mississippi River headwaters area—a region that provides drinking water for about 2.5 million Minnesotans—is one of special concern for The Nature Conservancy. We’re also working to improve the health of Lake Superior by planting more than 10 million trees in northern forests and restoring shoreline along its tributaries in coordination with conservation partners. coordination with conservation partners.
In 2008, voters in Minnesota passed the Clean Water, Land and Legacy Amendment, which continues to provide supplemental funding for clean water, healthy lands, parks and trails as well as the arts. Explore places we've protected using Outdoor Heritage funding through the Legacy Amendment.
Biodiversity underpins every aspect of life on our planet. The food we eat, the air we breathe, our climate—essentially, everything that makes Earth inhabitable—all depends on the interplay of millions of organisms in diverse ecosystems, which have learned to thrive and interact over billions of years. Learn more about biodiversity.

Tackle Climate Change

**Natural Climate Solutions** Actions like planting trees, protecting grasslands and investing in soil health are all things we can do to mitigate climate change. © David Bowman

**Nature-Based Adaptation** To protect Minnesotans from climate impacts, nature-based strategies like stormwater management and floodplain restoration should be implemented more broadly around the state. © Dudley Edmondson

**Climate and Energy Policy** As the demand for clean and renewable energy grows, state leaders must take steps to ensure climate and conservation efforts are aligned toward a more sustainable future. © Anthony F Belfast

People, wildlife, and all of nature are experiencing climate impacts every day. Nature-based solutions that store more carbon through natural processes and are equipped to adapt to climate change can improve lives in the process. We’re working to incentivize public and private landowners to use practices like planting trees, improving soil health on agricultural lands and protecting and restoring our grasslands, wetlands and peatlands.

The Nature Conservancy is also encouraging state leaders to support policies that can accelerate the transition to clean energy. In this process, we must balance the effects on communities, conservation and our climate.

More on Climate Change in MN

Climate change is already having an enormous impact on our waters, lands, wildlife and people. It's showing up in the form of droughts and dying trees, extreme weather and flooding events, and the compounded effects of both in far too many Minnesota waterways. Read more about climate change in Minnesota.
Natural climate solutions are conservation, restoration and improved land management actions that increase carbon storage, avoid greenhouse gas emissions and help nature and people adapt to climate change. Combined with clean energy and other decarbonization efforts, natural climate solutions offer some of our best options to respond to climate change.
Reforestation, restoring wetlands and planting cover crops are just a few of the ways Minnesotans can help draw down carbon emissions through nature. Our farms, forests, grasslands and other ecosystems can help mitigate as much as 26 million metric tons of CO2e. In addition to natural climate solutions, nature-based adaptation strategies like building rain gardens and planting trees where people live can also improve the resilience and quality of life for communities living near climate threats. Read more in this report.

Provide Food & Water Sustainably

**Cover Crops** Grown to protect bare soils from the elements, cover crops are one way farmers can improve soil health and increase carbon storage. © Fauna Creative

**Working with Partners** Advancing soil health practices requires a broad coalition of leaders in agriculture, conservation and government. © Jason Whalen / Fauna Creative

**Reduced Tillage** Low-till and no-till farming practices can help farmers improve their soil health and increase carbon storage. © Jason Whalen/Fauna Creative

Agriculture runs deep in Minnesota, and our state’s agricultural economy depends on farm productivity and improved management. When making investments in agriculture, it is critical to maximize benefits to society like protecting our air, water and soil, as well as our communities and the health of the people who live here.

We work with state government agencies to develop innovative programs that will improve impaired waters and prevent further degradation. State investments can make it easier for farmers to access the resources they need to implement soil health solutions that improve productivity, water quality, biodiversity, carbon storage and public health outcomes.

Livestock producers also have a role to play in managing grasslands. Cattle, for example, can mimic the effects that bison would have had on prairies throughout their historical range. Making these management strategies more widespread requires lawmakers' help to drive incentives that will improve the health of agricultural lands and support Minnesota ag producers who are doing right by nature.

ABOUT REGENERATIVE AGRICULTURE

About half of Minnesota's lands are currently in agricultural production, and most are not managed with practices that regenerate the health of the soil. That means an outsized risk of erosion and runoff to Minnesota's waters, as well as greenhouse gas emissions due to carbon released from the soil. But this also presents an opportunity to leverage agricultural landscapes to work better with nature's systems. Learn more about regenerative agriculture in Minnesota.
Practices that sequester carbon, increase organic matter and ultimately improve the biological, physical and chemical function of the soil are generally referred to as soil health practices. These include cover crops, reduced tillage, diversified crop rotation, improved nutrient management and edge-of-field strategies that help farmland more efficiently hold water and carbon.
Row crop farming and livestock production account for a quarter of greenhouse gas emissions and 70% of all freshwater usage. And it is perhaps the single greatest cause of biodiversity loss. But it provides essential nourishment for earth’s billions of residents, and livelihoods for more than a third of the world’s population. A regenerative food system takes us beyond mere sustainability toward positive growth that benefits our planet and the billions of farmers, fishers, ranchers and others who work to provide our food—without harming the health and livelihoods of rural communities and communities of color. Learn more about regenerative agriculture by watching this video.

If we want to preserve our lands, waters and our ways of life in Minnesota, we must speak up for nature. And we want to make it easy for you to speak up! Sign up for alerts below so you never miss a thing.

Be a Voice for Nature!

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