The environment in your community has most likely experienced great change throughout history. These changes can be caused by natural occurrences such as forest fires, volcanic eruptions, floods and tornadoes. The most dramatic changes, however, are caused by human interaction with the environment. Environmental changes caused by human interaction often go unnoticed for long periods of time, until the changes are so severe that public health is threatened. Unfortunately, by that time, it is often too late to repair the damage.

Environmental concerns in communities can cause great conflict. Preserving or restoring environments means giving up convenient ways of modern life. Sometimes businesses or individuals are asked to sacrifice things they are not prepared to give up. For instance, pollution can be a problem for a large city where thousands of people commute to work by car. Reducing the number of cars on the roads will improve air quality. However, the people in the city might not be willing to give up the convenience and freedom driving a car offers. They would have to depend on car pools and mass transit such as buses, trains and subways. This becomes a problem for city planners and environmentalists who want to improve the air quality.

In Stearns County, residents of rural areas are setting regulations for feed lots. Feed lots are operations that raise large numbers of livestock, such as chickens or hogs, in an enclosed structure. It is an efficient way for farmers to raise livestock. The operation allows farmers to compete in the marketplace against large corporate farms. Unfortunately for neighboring residents, it means a threat to air and water quality. Many township and county officials are restricting the number of animals that can be housed in a feed lot operation.

	Has this happened in your community?
	What have your elected officials done? How does this affect the farmer?

			Abandon Quarry, Cold Spring, MN, 1978.

Like other areas of the country where mining was once a major industry, Stearns County had to deal with environmental changes caused by the granite mining industry. When granite deposits were depleted from a quarry, the granite company moved to a new site abandoning the old quarry. Stearns County officials and residents have worked together on a creative project to use a former quarry site. They have created Stearns County Quarry Park. This park celebrates the importance of the granite industry in Stearns County and offers residents a place to enjoy the outdoors and nature.

	What problems do abandoned quarries cause for a community? How could they be developed for reuse?
	What environmental concerns does your community have? How does your community respond to these concerns?

As the towns and cities of Stearns County grow and expand, residents are beginning to examine some environmental concerns such as loss of “green space” or natural areas. As more industry and homes are built in the rural areas, less and less of the original prairies, oak savanna and wetlands exist. Many people are exploring ways to preserve some of these spaces. Examples of communities joining together to preserve natural areas are the Roscoe Prairie and Partch Woods nature conservation projects.

Once prairie land covered one-third of Minnesota, but now 99 percent of the prairie land is gone. Roscoe Prairie, near Paynesville, was acquired by The Nature Conservancy because of the prairie flora and fauna that is important to Minnesota's heritage. In 1977 an inventory was taken of Roscoe Prairie to document the natural elements and design a preservation plan that would make it into a living museum. Walking on to the prairie land gives people a chance to see what the land looked like before settlers arrived and cleared the land for farms or towns. Roscoe Prairie, made up of 57 acres, is cared for by The Nature Conservancy.

Partch Woods, named after biologist Max Partch, is an 80 acre mature maple-basswood forest located 10 miles northwest of St. Cloud in Stearns County and is also run by The Nature Conservancy. The landscape was originally shaped by glaciers. An inventory revealed that there were 127 vascular plants growing in Partch Woods. This area also contains ten species of butterflies, 37 species of birds, and seven mammal species. During 1896, loggers came through the forest chopping trees, but the area grew back naturally. Partch Woods is an important element of Minnesota's natural heritage because it is one of the few surviving maple-basswood forests.

	Why would a community wish to preserve a wetland?
	Why is green space necessary?
	What are the environmental concerns that your community is working on?
	Who should pay to protect natural spaces?