Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge - History

History

Early plans to create a park along the Minnesota River were forestalled by World War II. It wasn’t until the early 1970s that the threat of development inspired concerted efforts to preserve the valley. An act creating the national wildlife refuge was passed in 1976.

Long Meadow Lake is spanned by a wood and steel bridge built in 1920. Known as the Old Cedar Avenue Bridge, it was turned over to the city of Bloomington in 1979 when the Minnesota Department of Transportation constructed a new bridge nearby. In poor repair, the old bridge was closed to vehicle traffic in 1993 but remained a crucial link for pedestrians and cyclists until officials closed the bridge entirely in 2002. The refuge managers, Bloomington and Eagan officials, and public interest groups have all expressed a desire to replace the unsafe bridge, but funds have not been yet been secured to remove the old bridge, much less build a new one.

In the late 1990s the Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport planned a new runway which would route air traffic over parts of the refuge. A real estate appraisal firm arbitrated a settlement to compensate the refuge for the environmental impact of the noise pollution. The airport’s commission voted unanimously to accept the settlement in 1998 and ultimately paid $26 million into a trust. Some of that money was used in 2004 and 2005 to purchase 420 acres (1.7 km2) between the Chaska and Rapids Lake Units.