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The Minnesota Chippewa Tribe (MCT) Environmental Program began development in September 2015. The Environmental Program maintains an EPA Indian General Assistance Program (GAP) grant to facilitate environmental program capacity. Administrative, financial management, information management, public education/communication, legal, and technical/analytical capacities have been established, and periodically evaluated/revised to reflect the current needs of the environmental protection program. The EPA GAP grant ensures that the Environmental Program has the capacity for MCT to maintain and enhance environmental protection activities through collaboration and oversight of environmental work. Protecting the quality of the MCT’s water, land and air resources is achieved by supporting the basic infrastructure of the MCT environmental program. The program is intended to assist in the protection of MCT lands within the six (6) member reservations (Bois Forte, Fond du Lac, Grand Portage, Leech Lake, Mille Lacs and White Earth) and off-reservation lands held in trust on behalf of MCT. The program assesses a wide variety of potential project areas such as solid waste management protection, pollution prevention and environmental education and outreach activities. The program intends to provide up-to-date statutes, regulations and policies directly impacting environmental protection activities in order to promote appropriate legal authorities are put in place to prevent environmental deterioration, reduce pollution and manage specific regulator programs within MCT lands. The main intentions of the program are to assist in protecting the quality of the MCT’s water, land and air resources by supporting collaborative working relationships. Ongoing programmatic development continues to build capacity to leverage resources from partnerships with other jurisdictions and provide community outreach to MCT tribal members. The MCT Environmental Program exists so that water, land, and air resources of the MCT are protected and support sustained use by all Tribal members.
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