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<span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); line-height: normal;">NOAA, October 25, 2021</span><o:p style="font-size: 12pt; font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"> </span></o:p><br>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 11pt;">Summary: </span></p>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 11pt;">Northern wild rice is an ecologically and culturally important part of the Great Lakes landscape. Wild rice was once abundant in the St. Louis River estuary but
has been reduced to a few remnant stands over the last 50 to 100 years. It has been affected by many environmental stressors, including variable water levels, degraded water quality, and predation by wildlife. These changes have disrupted tribal harvests for
wild rice and native wetland species around Lake Superior and its tributaries. </span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">While previous restoration efforts have improved water quality in the estuary,
wild rice populations did not rebound on their own. Wild rice bed restoration was identified as a key habitat improvement that would help move toward delisting the St. Louis River estuary as an </span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; border-width: 1pt; border-style: none; border-color: windowtext; padding: 0in; font-size: 11pt;">Area
of Concern</span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"> by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. </span><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Segoe UI", sans-serif; color: rgb(68, 68, 68);"><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"> </span></o:p></span></p>
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<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal;">Link to article: https://www.habitatblueprint.noaa.gov/habitat-focus-areas/efforts-to-restore-native-wild-rice-in-the-st-louis-river-estuary/</span><o:p style="font-size: 12pt; font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit;"><span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"> </span></o:p></p>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">St. Louis Estuary Area of Concern: https://www.epa.gov/great-lakes-aocs/st-louis-river-aoc</span><o:p><span style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"> </span></o:p></p>
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