The Park Board in Minneapolis, Minn. is weighing an exploration of significantly reducing the amount of water pumping that now keeps the municipal course and surrounding homes mostly dry. Such a move would leave much of the course too soggy for play.   The Minneapolis (Minn.) Park Board is getting closer to determining the future…

Properties that depend on revenues from fishing as much as golf, boating or other forms of warm-weather recreation now expect many northern lakes and other bodies of water to still be frozen when the state opens the fishing season on May 12, after the first half of April brought prolonged below-zero overnight temperatures, record late snowfalls and days of bitter cold winds.

An advocacy group has joined with the city of Fairfax, Minn. to seek legislative action to keep the course, which is in a state park, open. The state’s Department of Natural Resources announced last year that it would close the course and possibly return it to natural prairie. A state representative is preparing to file a bill to save the 90-year-old course.

Friends of Fort Ridgely State Park hopes to convince the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources to keep the nine-hole golf course open in Fairfax, Minn., by offering volunteers to maintain and operate the facility. The group also hopes to encourage area groups to donate youth green fees to cultivate a new generation of golfers.