Environment

Live Green Live Smartplans to meet the strictest possible energy-efficiency standards for his home in order to prove that LEED certifications aren't limited to commercial buildings.

U.S. farmers are planting one of their largest corn crops ever this spring. Most of the extra corn is bound for ethanol refineries. All that corn means more fertilizer and that could affect the Gulf of Mexico.

Resorters on the Gunflint Trail are recovering from the Ham Lake fire. They say they're ready for business.

This weekend, teams of volunteers will plant trees to help rejuvenate forest areas along the Gunflint Trail, after the big fire earlier this month. Many in the area want those burned areas to look green as soon as possible. But, some think the newly barren ground holds its own different kind of attraction.

Officials with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources are concerned that development is crowding land that's been set aside for hunting.

There's been a lot of grumbling about unattained goals and missed opportunities this legislative session. But energy policy appears to be an exception.

Rising almost as fast as the price of scrap metal is the theft of those materials. A southern Minnesota salvage operator has found that out firsthand.

Even as the Ham Lake fire burns into Canada, life can start getting back to normal for many of the people who live in the Gunflint Lake area. Fire officials let them return to their homes Wednesday, nearly a week after they were forced out by the Ham Lake fire.

U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., gives a speech titled "Building from the Center: Getting the Job Done on Renewable Energy" Monday at the University of Minnesota's Humphrey Institute.

It's 5 feet 3 inches tall, well over 100 pounds and smells like rotting meat. It's the corpse flower, a rare, southeast Asian plant. Thirteen years ago, a professor at Gustavus Adolphus in St. Peter planted its seeds and the plant finally bloomed this weekend.