The State of Minnesota envisions our state as carbon-neutral, resilient, and equitable. To get there, we all have a role to play, and state agencies can’t do it alone. Minnesota’s Lake Superior Coastal Program supports Minnesota coastal communities in our common efforts to be resilient. Communities, businesses, and the natural environment can prepare, respond to, and recover from the impacts of climate change. You, your organization, and your community are invited to join us to achieve a shared vision.
Stay engaged with this Forum to find inspiration, helpful resources, and share your successes and challenges with colleagues around the region.
- Inspiration
- City Climate Corner podcast explores how small and mid-sized cities are tackling climate change and moving toward an equitable and sustainable future.
- Learn about sustainability and current climate action planning and implementation in Minnesota coastal communities:
- Climate Adaptation in Action: Tribal Climate Adaptation Tools and Resources Across the 1854 Ceded Territory | Minnesota Sea Grant (umn.edu)
- The Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Combine Mitigation with Capacity Building | U.S. Climate Resilience Toolkit
- Sustainability - City of Grand Marais - Minnesota (grand-marais.mn.us)
- Sustainability (duluthmn.gov)
- Return on Investment: Research Links Climate Action with Land and Property Value Increases | Lincoln Institute of Land Policy
- Green Infrastructure Code Audit (link is external). Information on City of Superior (Wisconsin) audit work and link to handbook, “Tackling Barriers to Green Infrastructure: An Audit of Municipal Codes and Ordinances”.
- Minnesota GreenStep (link is external). A voluntary challenge, assistance, and recognition program to help communities achieve sustainability and quality-of-life goals.
- Protecting Our Elders: Fond Du Lac Band - YouTube
- Lake Superior coastal processes, shoreline erosion, and strategies for property owners. Recorded virtual workshop, hosted by Cook and Lake counties (Minnesota).
- Timely opportunities and updates
- Winter Maintenance Training for Small Sites: The Mississippi Watershed Management Organization, University of Minnesota, and Fortin Consulting produced two videos to introduce best practices for winter maintenance of sidewalks, entryways, and steps, and offers guidance on deicing materials and application rates. Learn at your own pace, online with these two videos:
- Go electric! (Now): Rewiring America’s Guide to incentives of the Inflation Reduction Act. See the full website with information on policy, data and maps, news and publications, and more at: rewiringamerica.org.
- A new flood hazard zone is introduced! The Great Lakes Coastal Flood Study has resulted in new, high-risk wave hazard areas and introduction of new “VE Zones” in the Great Lakes basin. Summary of Wave Hazards and VE Zones on the Great Lakes is available online. The Great Lakes Coastal Flood Study website offers further, extensive information about the study and substantial resources for community outreach. Watch this two-minute video to better understand flooding risk along the Great Lakes coast.
- Check out the new Climate Mapping for Resilience and Adaptation Assessment Tool. Created by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, this tool provides an assessment of climate hazard information. Users can explore current and future exposure to five major climate-related hazards.
- Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) introduces Alternative Cost-Effectiveness Methodology for FY2022 BRIC and FMA (floods.org).
- Events and training
Capacity grants are available for climate action in Minnesota's coastal area. Applications accepted continuously while funds are available. Visit Minnesota's Coastal Program Grants | Minnesota DNR (state.mn.us) for more information.
Online, instructor-led
- Smart Salting Training Program from Minnesota Pollution Control Agency
- Smart Salting for Leaders; This workshop helps local leaders understand the impacts of chloride on infrastructure and water resources and provide them with resources and specific action steps to make policy changes in their communities to reduce salt pollution.
- February 8, 10 a.m. – noon: Information and registration
- Virtual - Facilitation Basics for Coastal Managers; Learn to plan and facilitate effective in-person or virtual meetings. For additional information or to register email [email protected]
- February 15–16, noon to 3 p.m. (Central)
- March 8–9, noon to 3 p.m. (Central)
- March 15–16, noon to 3 p.m. (Central)
Self-guided
- Learn the best tools homeowners can use to keep driveways and sidewalks safe in winter, use of deicers in various winter conditions, and effects of deicers and sand on lakes, streams and groundwater. The Mississippi Watershed Management Organization, University of Minnesota, and Fortin Consulting produced brief, instructional videos to introduce best practices for winter maintenance of sidewalks, entryways and steps, and offers guidance on deicing materials and application rates.
- Improved Winter Maintenance: Good Choices for Clean Water (15:05)
- Winter Maintenance for Small Sites, Part I (10:04)
- Winter Maintenance for Small Sites, Part II (9:30)
- Community Options and Considerations for Adapting to Flooding (April 2022): CCRUN Green Infrastructure, Climate, and Cities Seminar Series provided by Consortium for Climate Risk in the Northeast – CCRUN, A NOAA Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessments (RISA) Project. The focus of the CCRUN seminar series is on urban solutions to global problems associated with increasing temperature and sea level rise, precipitation variability, and greenhouse gas emissions. Topics cover a span of implications of such changes on the complex infrastructure of intensely developed landscapes, and on the health, well-being, and vulnerability of the people who live in them. Find ideas, inspiration and potential solutions in any of the multiple topics presented since 2016 in the recordings of past seminars.
- Minnesota Floodplain Training and Education: Department of Natural Resources Floodplain Management office hours, links to Water Talk Newsletter and recorded training courses on floodplain management matters.
- Risk Communication Essentials for More Effective Conversations: This six-minute training offers risk communication essentials for improved conversations about coastal hazards.
- Building Trust and Taking Action: Local Climate Justice Initiatives in Legacy Cities: July 2022; This recorded webinar focuses on Providence, RI Racial and Environmental Justice Committee and its Climate Justice Plan, the link between planning and public health, and how municipal actors can promote climate justice through stronger community engagement. Panelists consider how to ensure local governments’ sustainability priorities respond directly to the needs of diverse communities.
- Funding and Finance Coastal Resilience Webinars; This recorded webinar series builds foundational knowledge about funding and financing approaches used to support coastal resilience activities. Experts demystify this complex topic by sharing traditional and emerging approaches, project examples, and lessons learned. Four recorded webinars, 90-minutes total: The Basics, Spotlight on Environmental Impact Bonds, and Spotlight on Community Development Financial Institutions, and Building Capacity in Communities to Access Funding.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration – Office for Coastal Management (NOAA) provides free, devoted training curriculum for all staff working in coastal states. Visit the Digital Coast Training website for a complete list and details. If you wish to request a NOAA training course be held in-person at your Minnesota location, please contact us and we’ll help make it happen.
- Community resources
Please explore these resources and share with community members who may benefit and use.
For everyone:
- Help keep our fresh water clean and our communities safe. The North Shore Homeowners Guide to Managing Stormwater explains how and why to manage your property by managing stormwater.
- Be aware and be prepared. Plan Ahead for Disasters | Ready.gov
- Deep Winter Greenhouses are passive-solar greenhouses which can be used by gardeners and small-scale farmers to grow crops year-round. Information, production guidance, construction documents and much more is available through the University of Minnesota Extension Regional Sustainable Development Partnership.
- Citizens and communities can reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Find inspiration and ideas at the Duluth Citizens Climate Action Plan web page.
For educators:
- Climate.gov/teaching: National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) provides extensive resources for teachers on the sciences of climate and energy, current climate data, indicator trends, ongoing resources with up-to-date questions and answers.
- Climatelit.org is a comprehensive resource hub to help K-12 educators nurture young people’s climate literacy with children’s literature and media. Offered by the University of Minnesota Center for Climate Literacy.
For Lake Superior property owners:
- Citizen’s Coastal Erosion Monitoring Guide: This guide, developed by Lake County Soil and Water Conservation District, is meant to empower citizens to document the process of coastal erosion along the North Shore of Lake Superior.
- North Shore Erosion Data Viewer is a resource for identifying properties and highlighting erosion on lands of the North Shore of Lake Superior. Developed by Arrowhead Regional Development Commission and partners.
- Lake Level Viewer for the Great Lakes: This NOAA tool uses data and maps to illustrate the scale of potential flooding or land exposure at a given water level (not exact location). They do not account for erosion, subsidence, or future construction. Water levels are shown as they would appear during calm conditions (excludes wind-driven changes in water levels). The data, maps, and information provided should be used only as a screening-level tool for management decisions. As with all remotely sensed data, all features should be verified with a site visit.
- Plant Recommendations for Minnesota Point Homeowners (2022): The coastal sand dunes and associated plant communities (of Minnesota Point) are unique in Minnesota. The plants and animals supported in this ecosystem are well-adapted to special conditions and include several state-protected species. The native plant communities (Sand Beach, Beachgrass Dune, Juniper Dune Shrubland, and Red Pine-White Pine Woodland) are all considered rare and have been assigned the highest statewide conservation status, critically imperiled, due to their unique attributes and limited distribution in the state. Vegetation can help stabilize lands from wind and wave impacts. While not a guarantee of property protection in this dynamic location, plant establishment is an environmentally sound tool available to all. This guide includes a list of plants native to the plant communities found on the Point, which are best suited to survival in this exposed and dry sandy setting.
- Lake Superior Property Owner Resource Guide (2021) is a 32-page guidance to help property owners minimize coastal shoreline erosion. Information about the natural processes of coastal erosion and methods to minimize coastal shoreline erosion impacts are included.
- Visiting the house that sparked coastal land use setbacks is a story by Wisconsin Sea Grant about a tour of property on the south shore of Lake Superior in Herbster. The home on the property was moved 150’ away from the shoreline 20 years ago.
For community staff and leaders:
- The Private Equity Land Grab Expanding to Smaller Legacy Cities | Lincoln Institute of Land Policy
- Assess vulnerability of your Lake Superior public access site with this protocol created for Minnesota coastal managers.
- Return on Investment: Research Links Climate Action with Land and Property Value Increases | Lincoln Institute of Land Policy
- Find tools for communities facing extreme heat at the new website HEAT.Gov - National Integrated Heat Health Information System
- Climate Change Policy Guide. This (2020) reference document by the American Planning Association provides planners with guidance for creating locally and regionally tailored climate policies, plans, programs, projects, standards, and regulations.
- Review and consider Minnesota’s historical or projected future climate with the Minnesota’s Climate Explorer tool. Share this resource with your colleagues who may benefit from the information.
- Urban sustainability directors network provides tools to train staff and engage communities in efforts to support climate resilience progress. Review toolkits for USDN Game of Floods, Game of Extremes, and Game of Heat. Instructional video is included, or option to request facilitation. Partner with us and we can help facilitate a game in your (Minnesota) coastal community.
- Minnesota Floodplain Training and Education: Department of Natural Resources Floodplain Management office hours, links to Water Talk Newsletter and recorded training courses on floodplain management matters.
- Stay engaged
- Contact us to share your project, community success, or an idea that may help another community in the region.
- Local impacts, State of Minnesota actions, and community solutions are highlighted on Our Minnesota Climate website. Minnesota is taking action on climate change and there is a place for everyone to participate. Download Minnesota’s Climate Action Framework, review the state’s greenhouse gas emission analysis and find your place in climate action here.
- Join CHAOS, a community of practice for sharing knowledge and resources about natural hazards that affect Lake Superior’s coastal communities. Email Sarah Brown to join the mailing list and be informed about regional coastal hazards information and resources.
- Attend Twin Ports Climate Conversations, quarterly conversations with topics focusing on perspectives of climate change impacts, adaptation responses, and opportunities for mitigation and resilience. These conversations are made possible with partnership and collaboration. Join the conversation! Sign up to receive notice of events: Twin Ports Climate Conversations
- References from the February 9, 2022 Forum
- Regional Climate Update (44.48 minutes). Includes presentations by: Heidi Roop, University of Minnesota; Kim Channell, Great Lakes Integrated Sciences + Assessments; and Megan Salmon-Tumas, Northland College.
- Tools to Expedite Climate Action (30.27 minutes). Includes presentations by: Kristin Mroz, Minnesota Pollution Control Agency; Carol Andrews, St. Louis County; Abby Finis, Great Plains Institute; and Peter Lindstrom, Minnesota Clean Energy Resource Teams.
- Forum references and links
- Forum Agenda
- Climate concerns and priorities by geographic area
- Ojibwe People's Dictionary
- Working Definitions for Western Lake Superior Resilience Forum