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STEPHANIE HEMPHILL: It's called the Minnesota Statewide Conservation and Preservation Plan, and it's the first time this has been done. More than 100 scientists from different fields worked together to create an overall assessment of the state's environment, followed by about 60 recommendations on how to protect and restore it. Deb Swackhamer supervised production of the plan. She's interim director of the University's Institute on the Environment. She says the main problem with current Environmental Protection is that it's done from bureaucratic silos, with people concentrating on land, or water, or air.

DEB SWACKHAMER: What this plan takes us to the next level is to have an integrated approach to managing multiple resources at once so that you don't have policies that protect water but hurt the land, or protect land and hurt the water, that we have policies and strategies for managing the resources in an integrated fashion.

STEPHANIE HEMPHILL: So one of the chief recommendations is that different agencies and different levels of government should work more cooperatively with each other. The plan identifies parts of the state that urgently need protection and restoration, such as the native prairie, old growth forest, and areas that link large, intact ecosystems.

It points out some disturbing implications of climate change. Anne Kapuscinski directs the University's Institute for Social, Economic and Ecological Sustainability. She told members of the LCCMR that in 50 years, the Boundary Waters Canoe area wilderness will feel more like Iowa. She says climate change models show Minnesota will lose its boreal forest, and that raises tough questions.

ANNE KAPUSCINSKI: If we just leave it alone, there's the risk that it would become somewhat degraded grasslands with a lot of invasive species. Should we be instead trying to think of converting it to, or helping it to become a more desirable savanna, or maybe a more desirable, different forest, but one that can tolerate warmer temperatures.

STEPHANIE HEMPHILL: The plan alternates between that almost philosophical, nearly imponderable question, and smaller scale advice like put more land in Conservation Reserve, it'll protect water quality and provide habitat, and make biofuels from perennial grasses, and waste materials, instead of from corn. And get people to drive less by building compact, multi-use developments. That's something John Shardlow knows about. He works for Bonus Draw, a Saint Paul based consulting firm, and one of the partners in preparing the report. He says people want to protect the environment.

JOHN SHARDLOW: Certainly there are people who are concerned about gas prices, and their instant reaction is to hear some quick fix to that, like, let's drill for more. But my experience with the people who've been coming to community meetings that we're currently assisting, something like 19 cities in the Twin Cities Metropolitan area, I think we're beyond the tipping point where people realize that we have to do more, and we have to do better.

STEPHANIE HEMPHILL: One member of the LCCMR, Jeff Broberg, a geologist from Rochester, says the report doesn't talk enough about the changes all of us will need to make in an environment facing so many challenges.

JEFF BROBERG: The agricultural community needs to refocus on those conservation efforts instead of the maximum profit. The development community needs to find a better way to create livable, walkable, communities that take care of their own wastewater and their own energy uses. And it's going to be a big change.

STEPHANIE HEMPHILL: And it's going to cost more money. The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources says it will use the report as a rough framework as it plans for its budget. The plan doesn't quantify how much more the state should invest for the environment, but it points out many areas where investment is needed. Stephanie Hemphill, Minnesota Public Radio News, Saint Paul.