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Pulling back the curtains on wage-theft enforcement in MN; Trump's latest attack is on RFK, Jr; NM LGBTQ+ equality group endorses 2024 'Rock Star' candidates; Michigan's youth justice reforms: Expanded diversion, no fees.

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Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says rebuilding Baltimore's Key Bridge will be challenging and expensive. An Alabama Democrat flips a state legislature seat and former Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman dies at 82.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Using Tax Time to Help Minnesota Wildlife

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Tuesday, February 9, 2016   

ST. PAUL, Minn. - As many of us are preparing our income taxes, one state agency is reminding Minnesotans there's an easy way to help protect wildlife at tax time.

All it takes is checking the box on the state tax form to donate to the Nongame Wildlife Program, part of the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.

Spokesperson for the program Lori Naumann says its work helps protect more than 800 species, including some that are endangered or threatened. But Naumann says since 2008 and the recession, donations have dropped off.

"We are sort of a nonprofit," says Naumann. "Because we rely on those donations and if we didn't have them, we wouldn't exist and there wouldn't be a lot of the protections that are there for those non-game species."

She says by checking off any amount on Line 21 of the Minnesota state income tax form, the tax-deductible donation is also matched dollar-for-dollar by the state's conservation license-plate fund. In 2013, donations totaled just over $1 million.

The nongame program protects animal species that are not allowed to be hunted. In the past, the group also has helped reintroduce several fragile populations back to Minnesota, including bald eagles and trumpeter swans. Naumann says they're working to keep the state's biodiversity intact because it's all connected.

"If there are contaminants in the water and then, the fish get contaminated and the bald eagle can also grab a fish and take that to the nest and feed it to their chicks and then, the chicks might die," she says. "It's important to have someone as sort of a watchdog, someone who watches out for these species."

More information about the program is on the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources' website.


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