$1.1 million to go toward big lake

The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources will use a $1.1 million grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to support the work of Minnesota’s Lake Superior Coastal Program, fund three significant local projects and continue the program’s quarterly Short Term Action Request grants.

Project funding includes:

• An assessment of shore protection structures along the shoreline. The assessment will examine the effectiveness of structures like seawalls and breakwaters, and their performance under different lake level and storm scenarios.

• Soil and water conservation districts in Cook and Lake counties will host a series of erosion workshops for contractors, landowners, local governments and realtors.

• The Great Lakes Aquarium in Duluth will create a new exhibit about key watershed concepts. The exhibit will include a working scale model of the Great Lakes basin and three water activity stations.