Energy Conservation, Clean Energy, Community Resilience, Cultural Exchange, and Celebration
Welcome & Introduction to the Series
The Morris Model will be hosting and facilitating a series of discussions centered around community resiliency with community members, community leaders, and experts. The goal is to engage our community and think about what it means for us to be resilient, how we become more resilient, and why it matters. Planning is currently underway, but look for more info in late January! This work is made possible through support from the Minnesota Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund as recommended to the Minnesota Legislature by the Legislative-Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources (LCCMR) and the West Central Initiative.
What is resiliency?
Resiliency is the ability of a system or a community to survive disruption and to anticipate, adapt, and flourish in the face of change.
Goals of the series:
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Community engagement
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Expanding local awareness and knowledge capacity for action
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Create an actionable resiliency plan for the community for adoption by the Planning Commission and City Council
Topics of the series:
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Ongoing trends and future projections of MN weather
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Agriculture
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Outdoor recreation and natural resources
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Community Health
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Infrastructure and utilities
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Business/industry/finance
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Culture and community identity
When will the Community Resiliency Discussion Series take place?
The Morris Model plans to bring together our community leaders and members to discuss resiliency starting every 4th Tuesday of the month starting February 24th, 2021 from 6 - 7 PM virtually.
RSVP to the next Resiliency Discussion Series event or learn more here.
Context
The Morris Model has been hard at work assessing and leading dialogue on how our community can be more resilient and be more prepared for future changes due to changing weather. The Morris Model held a similar discussion series in 2014 called the Rural Climate Dialogue organized by the Jefferson Center and the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy. This 3-day event brought together Morris residents to discuss the impact of Minnesota’s changing weather and to identify steps they felt our community should take to prepare for it. In March of 2015, the Office of Sustainability at the University of Minnesota, Morris was awarded a grant by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) to assist the community in extreme weather and resilience planning. Out of these meetings came the Morris Model Community Resilience Plan in 2016.
The Morris Model also brought our community partners and leaders together in 2018 for the Climate Smart Municipality Strategic Planning Retreat held at Camp Ripley to discuss goals for our community of Morris, Stevens County, and west-central Minnesota. The retreat was made possible by a West Central Initiative Community Planning Grant. Over 30 community leaders and representatives were brought together from city and county government, the Stevens County Economic Improvement Commission (SCEIC), Morris Area Public Schools, UMN Morris, USDA Soils Lab, and WCROC, Denco II ethanol plant, Ottertail Power, Riverview LLP, and Superior Industries. The representatives brainstormed goals and projects for all community partners.
The group then formed and ratified the Morris Model Strategic Plan.
The plan includes the "Big 3" goals:
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Produce 80% of the energy consumed in the county by 2030
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Reduce energy consumption 30% by 2030
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No land-filling of waste generated within the county by 2025
The plan also has goals within 4 areas:
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Energy – Generation, Efficiency, and Integration
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Transportation – (e.g. Electric and Bio-fuel transition at all levels)
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Waste Reduction and Recycling
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Energy and Resiliency Education at all levels
Resiliency discussion series sessions are listed in order.
Previous Sessions
Session 1: Climatic Changes in Minnesota - Ongoing Trends and Future Projections | Feb. 23rd
Hear from Dr. Kenneth (“Kenny”) Blumenfeld and Dr. Heidi Roop about Minnesota's weather trends over that the last few decades to today with future projections shared. Learn what variations exist and why they exist in our weather patterns. In order to be resilient, communities need to be proactive in planning. Learn how inclusive, flexible, and data-driven approaches can be used to help solve current and future problems.
Watch the recording below. The PowerPoint slides and info on the speakers can be found here.
Part A: Dr. Kenneth (“Kenny”) Blumenfeld on Minnesota's Climatic Changes
Part B: Dr. Heidi Roop on Adaption & Preparedness
Session 2: Preparedness in Agriculture | March 23rd
Hear from Dennis Todey, the Director of the USDA Midwest Climate Hub in Ames, IA on how trends toward warmer, wetter, and more humid conditions provide challenges for agricultural field work, increased pressure from disease and pests, and reduce agricultural yields. These challenges may reach the extent that they can be only partially overcome by technology. These trends also amplify the effects of existing stressors such as invasive species, insect pests, and plant disease on the region’s natural resources. Natural resource managers are taking steps to address these issues by increasing the diversity of trees and introducing species suitable for a changing climate. Source: https://www.climatehubs.usda.gov/hubs/midwest/topic/midwest-us-climate-resiliency-toolkit.
Watch the recording below. The PowerPoint slides and info on the speakers can be found here.
Session 3: Preparedness in Outdoor Recreation | April 27th, 6 - 7 pm |
Hear from Mark Cleveland, Regional Resource Specialist at the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, as he discusses the predicted changes to how we interact with and enjoy the outdoors as our regional weather patterns shift to warmer, wetter, and more volatile conditions.
Watch the recording below. The PowerPoint slides and info on the speakers can be found here.
Session 4: Towards a Resilient Energy Infrastructure | May 25th, 6 - 7 pm |
Hear from industry experts from one of our local utilities, Otter Tail Power, about how the utility conducts its planning process and implements projects to satisfy climate, resiliency, and economic considerations, as well as the technical measures and incentive programs created to mitigate risks by promoting efficiency and conservation. We will also be joined by Lise Trudeau, Emerging Technology Planning Director at the State Energy Office at the MN Department of Commerce, who will be providing our community with a broad overview of the state's work on forecasting energy needs and completed feasibility studies of what our future grid could look like with a greater emphasis on renewable technologies.
Watch the recording below. The PowerPoint slides and info on the speakers can be found here.
Part A: Otter Tail Power representatives discuss current system status and considerations for future grid planning
Part B: Lise Trudeau, State Energy Office in the Department of Commerce, discusses recent state projects and studies envisioning a future grid incorporating more renewable technologies
Session 5: Climate and Cultural Identity | June 22nd, 6 - 7 pm |
This was an in-person event held at the Morris Community Center.
Session 6: Preparedness and Adaptation in Rural Business Operations | Aug 17th, 6 - 7pm |
This series kicked off with a briefing from David Zanoni, Senior Underwriter at the USDA Risk Management Agency, on how the USDA calculates, designs, and administers the federal crop insurance program. Learn how payments are estimated and allocated, how they have changed over time, and how they can be reasonably expected to change further in the context of increasing growing seasons experiencing volatile weather such as the current extreme drought. Following this are two presentations from Fritz Ebinger, Rural Energy Development Manager at Clean Energy Resource Teams, and Brian Ross, Vice President of the Great Plains Institute, as they discuss the opportunities to diversify rural land use practices to generate cost savings and additional revenue from the development of on-site renewable energy generation technologies or implementing energy efficiency upgrades. They will provide a run-down of existing policies and programs that can assist businesses or homeowners in funding these projects, benefits for customers and the local economy, and discuss the zoning and land use implications for larger scale project development.
Watch the recordings below:
Part A: David Zanoni, USDA Risk Management Agency, discusses federal crop insurance program design and evolution
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Part B: Fritz Ebinger, Clean Energy Resource Teams and U of MN Extension, discusses benefits and funding opportunities for implementing clean energy projects for farms and rural businesses
Part B: Brian Ross, Great Plains Institute, provides an overview of the economic and environmental benefits available to local communities from properly sited large-scale renewable energy projects
Session 7: Preparedness in Public Health
The Morris Model team is excited to bring to you a discussion on how our changing weather will provide new challenges and opportunities to rural businesses and agricultural operations, specifically as it relates to risk management and diversification of revenue streams from land use practices. As our local weather patterns shift to warmer, wetter, and more volatile systems the processes by which federal crop insurance programs and funding resources will have to adapt as well. Recent policy and legislation at the state and federal levels are including more initiatives and funding programs to promote and facilitate the installation of renewable resources, enhance energy conservation programs, and guide our nation's energy economy through a transition to a more decentralized system. At the intersection of these realizations is the emerging opportunity for rural communities, farmers, and local governments to take advantage of these changes and position themselves to add reliability and resiliency to their operations by saving on energy costs, earning revenue on energy produced, and add to their local tax base and job markets.
