Minnesota DNR Making Big Changes To More Than 100 Boat Launches

Spring is here! Most of the ice has come off the lakes and people are eyeing up the fishing opener just over a month away. There are thousands of public boat access areas across the State of Minnesota. The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources has plans to make changes to at least 100 of them if not more.

$149.9 Million Dollars Budgeted For Get Out More Program

It's part of the Get Out More program. The program is designed to modernize outdoor recreation experienced across Minnesota. The state has allocated $149.9 million dollars on the project. The goal of the Get Out More program is to address five key areas.

To enhance access and welcome new users to public lands and outdoor facilities.
To Revitalize camping and infrastructure.
To modernize boating access to make them more accessible to all users, and meet the needs of modern watercraft.
To enhance the fisheries and fishing Infrastructure.
To restore streams and modernize water-related infrastructure

$35 million will go to renew and rehabilitate more than 100 public water accesses.

The Minnesota DNR has found through various studies and sources that getting outdoors is good for people's health and mental well-being. They want to make it more accessible for everyone, including those with disabilities. They've set aside $35 million to do this for over 100 boat launches. They also want to improve the lake access points for modern watercraft.

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Many of the facilities were built in the 1960s, and they need rehabilitation. They also will improve the protection of public waters from stormwater runoff and invasive species.

Here's where the funding is going on the current project, along with future plans with additional funding.

Minnesota DNR

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Stacker used data from the 2020 County Health Rankings to rank every state's average life expectancy from lowest to highest. The 2020 County Health Rankings values were calculated using mortality counts from the 2016-2018 National Center for Health Statistics. The U.S. Census 2019 American Community Survey and America's Health Rankings Senior Report 2019 data were also used to provide demographics on the senior population of each state and the state's rank on senior health care, respectively.

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Gallery Credit: Hannah Lang