OutdoorMN News - DNR launches updated performance and accountability webpage

[Rick]

The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources launched a new version of its performance and accountability reporting webpage. The webpage on the DNR’s website tracks the DNR’s progress toward achieving conservation results through 88 performance measures and targets. 

The DNR has been setting targets and tracking progress toward most of these measures for over a decade. Measurements on the website span all aspects of the agency’s work, from river and stream restoration projects and moose abundance to parks and trails management and facility energy use. The 2016 update includes many new performance measures to track progress in areas critical for better natural resources conservation, customer service, and related priorities.

Some examples of significant results over the last five years of data collected include:

• An average of 8.77 million visitors and overnights guests visited state parks and recreation areas each year.
• The number of watercraft users contacted about invasive species increased 353 percent, from 76,000 to 344,000. Much of this increase is a result of state funding provided to counties beginning in 2014 for aquatic invasive species prevention.
• Approximately 34,000 additional acres have been acquired for wildlife management areas since 2010, one of many DNR programs to protect wildlife habitat and provide public access for outdoor recreation.
• The number of long-term groundwater level monitoring wells in Minnesota increased 59 percent as part of an effort to expand and overhaul Minnesota’s groundwater level monitoring network.
• Maintained an average of over 4.96 million acres of state-administered lands approved for forest certification.
• Income from state mineral leases generated an average of $50.2 million dollars per year primarily benefiting public education.

The DNR will update the performance and accountability webpage annually and will work with stakeholders, the public, and elected officials to provide context for these measures as well as strategic advice on how to best achieve Minnesota’s conservation goals and targets.

Explore the performance and accountability reporting webpage and view the Conservation Agenda: DNR’s 10-year Strategic Plan.

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