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If you enjoy a Honeycrisp, Haralson, SweeTango or First Kiss apple at your local orchard or farm stand this fall, you can thank the University of Minnesota apple breeding program for putting it there.A new apple release from the U of M, called Kudos, might join your list of favorites in coming years.David Bedford, a senior research fellow in the College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences, answers questions about the new apple.Q: How would you describe Kudos?Bedford: Kudos is a beautiful red apple with a unique combination of traits including an excellent crisp, juicy texture and a sweet, well-balanced flavor with occasional tropical overtones.

The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency released its proposed impaired waters list for 2024, adding 199 impairments over 54 water bodies.

Voyageurs National Park is No.

Overnight tent camping reservations and houseboat permits for the 2024 summer season at Voyageurs National Park has opened.Park staff encourage visitors who wish to stay overnight in the park to make a reservation as soon as they know their plans.

New research from the Voyageurs Wolf Project in northern Minnesota sheds light on how humans are having a profound impact on wolf-deer relationships by altering forest ecosystems.The premise is really quite simple: human activities change where deer are on the landscape, and wolves go where the deer are.

Access and use of the frozen lake surfaces in Voyageurs National Park should see no change this winter, as the National Park Service reviews comments made in spring about its proposal.A public comment summary report on the public input process has been posted by the National Park Service on the park’s website, reports the park service.The report analyzes 182 comments received through the mail, provided in person, or submitted through the NPS’s Planning, Environment, and Public Comment website.The comments came from in-person and virtual meetings held in spring to present to the public a preliminary proposed action, preliminary purpose and need statements, and potential resource considerations.An appendix accompanies the summary report documenting the comments in their entirety, while redacting any personal information.

The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources State Forest Nursery is accepting orders for spring 2024 seedlings.

The Lake of the Woods Water Sustainability Foundation reports the cyanobacterial bloom, or blue-green algae, on Lake of the Woods is tracking toward being one of the most severe since 2002.The foundation reports the view of the bloom from space is compelling and confirms firsthand accounts on Lake of the Woods at the end of September.The foundation is gearing up for its 2024 International Rainy-Lake of the Woods Watershed Forum, an annual gathering of professional researchers and resource managers, policy makers and the public interested in the Rainy-Lake of the Woods Watershed.The forum, March 6-7 at Minnesota North College Rainy River Campus, will discuss climate change, nutrients and algae; paleolimnology, aquatic invasive species; sediment studies; hydrology, fisheries, emerging technologies and more.The foundation is a registered Canadian charity based in Kenora, Ontario, working binationally to develop a sustainability plan for the Lake of the Woods Basin, based on sound science and international cooperation and collaboration.The foundation reported that by late September a massive bloom extended across 73 percent of the lake’s surface.