Geog. 3111 Geography of Minnesota

1. Geog. 3111 Geography of Minnesota • Rod Squires, 546 Social Science Building • 12.20-1.15 pm Tuesdays Blegen Hall 130 1.15-2.15 pm Tuesdays 628 Social Sciences  • Tel. 612 625 0179 • E-mail squires@umn.edu • Office hours before class

2. Maxims • “Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves or we know where to find information on it” (Samuel Johnson Boswell'sLife of Johnson) • “Intelligence is not the ability to store information but the ability to find it” (Albert Einstein) • “If you can't explain something simply, you don't know enough about it” (Albert Einstein)

3. Aim of the Course • To suggest a way of describing Minnesota • To allow you to carry out personal research • Student Learning Outcome • Mastering a body of knowledge and a mode of inquiry • Can communicate effectively • To show you how to gather information about Minnesota placed on the World Web • Student Learning Outcome • Can locate and critically evaluate information • Have acquired skills for effective citizenship and life-long learning

4. Land O’Lakes Minnesota Department of Agriculture United States Department of Agriculture

5. Milk Cows/ acre by County

6. Other interests • Dairy farming • Livestock – beef cattle, pigs, turkeys • Field crops – corn, soybeans, sugar beet, sunflowers • Paper production • Iron ore mining • Electricity production - nuclear fuels, coal fired plants, alternative fuels or sources • Gasoline refining and distribution • Natural gas distribution • Transportation – air, road, rail, or water • Safe drinking water • Waste management • Hazardous, non-nuclear, waste disposal • Waste water treatment • Hunting, fishing, or snowmobiling • Food processing • Public lands - state forests, state parks, wildlife management areas, or scientific and natural areas • Asbestos, lead, mercury, PFCs, arsenic in Minnesota • Environmental protection – wildlife, groundwater, invasive species

7. Don’t like my map? • Google Images <maps of minnesota> • Make your own (United States Department of Agriculture) • Minnesota Land Economics • Minnesota Geospatial Information Office • Ramsey County Surveyor’s Office

8. Minnesota Land Use (Land Management Information Center)(renamed MnGeo: Minnesota Geospatial Information Office)

9. Major Uses of the Land 2002 (Economic Research Service)

10. How societies organize space and behavior • How entities with the right to use land exercise those rights to produce goods and provide services and thus create landscapes

11. A Paradigm for Landscape Activity Goods Service Artifacts Legislation Regulation Judicial Opinions Organization of Space Organization of Behavior Law Public Policy Landscape Evaluation

12. The nature of landscape • (A)ny landscape is an artifact - an object made by man. Its condition, rightly seen, reveals a society's culture as directly as does a novel or a newspaper or a Fourth of July oration because today's environment, the "natural part included, is synthetic • (Roderick Nash The American Environment: Readings in the History of Conservation, 1968 ix) • Our human landscape is our unwitting autobiography, reflecting our tastes, or aspirations, and even our fears, in tangible, visible form.... All our cultural warts and blemishes are there, and our glories too; but above all, our ordinary day-to-day qualities are exhibited for anybody who wants to find them and knows how to look for them • (Peirce Lewis "Axioms for reading the landscape, some Guides to the American Scene" in Donald Meinig (ed) Interpretations of Ordinary Landscapes (New York, Oxford University Press, 1979 23) see also New Axioms for Reading the Landscape: Paying Attention to Political Economy and Social Justice – Don Mitchell Political Economies of Landscape Change

13. Landscapes, comprising goods, services, assemblages of artifacts, are political statements • They represent the outcome of rational decisions of individuals, corporations, and governments

14. Organization of Space • Jurisdictions (governments)  • Organized spatially • Horizontally • Vertically • Historical Trend • Increasing number  • Decreasing size 

15. Organization of Space  • Real property - land surface, water, air • subsurface, wildlife • Organized spatially • Horizontally • Vertically • Organized temporally • Historical Trend • Increasing number  • Decreasing size Ramsey County Half-section Maps https://maps.co.ramsey.mn.us/RCHalfSectionMap/default.aspx

16. Organization of Behavior - Law • Level of Jurisdiction(Census Bureau) • Federal • State • Local – county, city, township • Tribal Government • Branch of Government • Minnesota Legislature • Minnesota Executive State Agencies • Minnesota Judiciary • Subject Matter • Minnesota Statutes • Minnesota Administrative Rules

17. Complexity - Minnesota is one type of space simultaneously contained in other spaces containing other spaces Metropolitan Council

18. Complexity – Spaces and Behaviors have constantly changed

19. Public policy • The Legislative branch of government enacts legislation, statutes, acts that • define and establish broad social goals • outline what behavior modifications are needed to achieve those goals • delegate authority necessary to change behavior • appropriate revenue • In accordance with the Minnesota Constitution • The Executive agencies translate legislation into rules of behavior • Department of Natural Resources • Department of Agriculture • Pollution Control Agency • Public Utilities Commission

20. The Judicial branch determines whether the legislation or the rules accord with the constitution

21. In the course I view Minnesota as • the outcome of numerous debates about the role of government, commonly termed public policy or law, prompted by the demands of individuals, corporations, and governments - usually about what goods should be produced and what services offered and how • the response of those same individuals, corporations, and governments to such public policy

22. Muddling through – disjointed incrementalism • The political and legal entity we know as Minnesota - comprising landscapes and people - reflects the result of several iterations of debate involving the federal, state, and local governments • Most, if not all, of its geographical characteristics, both tangible and intangible, have evolved as we have "muddled through" 150 years

23. Big Stone II Power Plant and Transmission Project, SD and MN Plant Project (MPR, June 5, 2008) Transmission Project – MPR Jan 31, 2007) Minneapolis Star Tribune <Big Stone> PUC Minnesota <Big Stone> Big Stone II (Sourcewatch- Center for Media and Democracy)

24. Minnesota Public Utilities Commission • The PUC provides oversight of proposals to construct or modify large energy facilities in Minnesota, which include electric power plants and transmission lines, wind power generation plants, and gas and petroleum facilities • Siting & Routing • The Commission’s authority under state statutes and administrative rules gives it power • To issue a Certificate of Need • To issue a Route Permit

25. Big Stone Sourcewatch (SourceWatch.org) • Big Stone Factsheet (Sierra Club) • Big Stone loses another investor (Fresh Energy) • Obama EPA blocks Big Stone II (Minnesota Progressive Project) • EPA objects to Power Plant (MPR January 23 2009) • Big Stone Power Plant (Asbestos.com) • Conservation group appeals Big Stone power plant ruling (MPR August 4, 2009)

27. Each afternoon will be divided between a lecture and a laboratory period allowing you to work on the required projects

28. Powerpoint presentations • My lecture notes, which you may not fully understand without my narrative • Practical way of organizing my thoughts • Convenient method of displaying the information I think is important – taken from a variety of sources • A bibliography for the class

29. You will notice that I concentrate on certain aspects of the geography of Minnesota • I do not, for example, talk about immigration or urban centers • What I talk about represents what topics I find interesting and important about Minnesota, topics that are not covered in other geography courses