June 2019 Letter from the Director
Hello from MAISRC!
After a busy legislative session and because of your support, I am pleased to report that MAISRC’s funding requests fared well. MAISRC was included in the Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund bill for $4 million over four years. Additionally, through the Omnibus Environment and Natural Resources Finance Bill, MAISRC will receive $510,000/year for two years. $100,000 in the first year will be allocated to develop a new AIS early detection system.
We are very grateful for both of these avenues of support, and would like to express special thanks to: the Legislative-Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources, which makes recommendations for the Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund; and the House and Senate Environment and Natural Resources Finance and Policy Committees and committee leadership who designated funding for AIS research during this legislative session.
Huge thanks to all of you who contacted your legislators to express support for AIS research. It’s so encouraging to see the bipartisan interest in addressing AIS problems and the value placed on finding science-based solutions.
And one last very special group of people to thank: the MAISRC researchers who are out every day, working long hours this field season to solve our AIS problems. Your dedication, diligence, and passion to this work is inspiring. Your commitment – along with our enthusiastic AIS Detectors – is making a real difference in the fight against AIS. We couldn’t do it without you!
Time to get back to the lab...
Nick