Environmental News

MPR News is your source for environment news from Minnesota and across the country.

Getting to Green: Minnesota’s energy future

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'Forever' chemicals leave costly water problem in Bemidji, cities across the country
The north-central Minnesota city is just one of many cities across the United States dealing with the expensive environmental fallout from PFAS, which are known for being some of the most resilient chemicals ever created.
Northern lake ice loss threatens water, economies, culture
Nearly 15,000 lakes in the Northern Hemisphere already have only intermittent winter ice cover, a new study notes, and further loss of ice threatens freshwater availability, economies and culture in the world's north, including Minnesota and Wisconsin.
Hungry deer may be changing how things sound in the forest
Sound travels differently through open fields than the woods. When deer eat up bushes, small trees and other forest plants, it affects the transmission of bird calls and other natural sounds.
Bugs vs. superbugs: Insects offer promise in fight against antibiotic resistance
With the rise of antibiotic-resistant infections, scientists are exploring nature to find new disease-fighting compounds. They're finding them in surprising new places: the microbiomes of insects.
In allowing Line 3 appeal, Walz wades into most contentious issue yet
Just a month into the job, Gov. Tim Walz waded into one of the state's most contentious battlegrounds Tuesday with the announcement that he will continue an appeal of an oil pipeline project his predecessor began last year.
Monster sturgeon pulled from St. Croix may be biggest-ever Minnesota fish
Darren Troseth pulled a 78-inch sturgeon out of the ice on the St. Croix River Saturday, 5 inches longer than the current state catch-and-release record set last year. Official word may come Wednesday from the DNR.
North Dakota to sue feds over pipeline protest police costs
North Dakota will sue the federal government to try to recoup the $38 million it spent policing the prolonged protests against the Dakota Access oil pipeline — a tactic one expert believes has little chance of success.
To protect imperiled salmon, fish advocates want to shoot some gulls
Biologists think gulls are eating more juvenile salmon than they thought, and fish advocates are proposing to kill problem gulls. But opponents say dam modification is what's needed to protect salmon.