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Minnehaha Park in Minneapolis, with its 53-foot waterfall, limestone bluffs and Mississippi River overlooks, is a popular destination. Oaks, elms, silver maples, basswoods, hackberries and cottonwoods abound.
Photos: LASN editor Stephen Kelly

The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) presented its 25-year plan to the state legislature on Feb. 14, 2011.

The plan, developed over 18 months with help from the Citizens League and the University of Minnesota's Center for Changing Landscapes, lays out guidelines developed after the most detailed inventory of local, region and state parks facilities ever put together in the state, and with the input of more than 1,000 Minnesotans.

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Buying land for new parks and trails, and maintaining and restoring existing ones is the aim.

Brett Feldman, executive director of the Parks & Trails Council of Minnesota, said he hopes legislators take advantage of current low prices to buy more land for parks and trails in the near future.

The 25-year Parks and Trails Legacy plan is available at www.legacy.leg.mn/funds/parks-trails-fund/plan. The inventory and framework are posted at https://ccl.design.umn.edu/mnpat.html.