| Year | President | Governor | Movies | Culture | Minnesota Environmental Law and Conservation | National Environmental Law and Conservation |
| 1953 | Eisenhower | C. Anderson | Hillary climbs Mt. Everest | Majority of MN citizens now live in cities | Watershed Protection and Flood Prevention Act | |
| 1954 | On the Waterfront | Site selected for Met Stadium | ||||
| 1955 | Freeman | Reserve Mining begins operation near Silver Bay | Watershed Act, Water Resources Board created | Commission created to deal with sea lamprey infestation in Great Lakes | ||
| 1956 | The King and I | 1st game in Met Stadium (Mpls Millers) Southdale opens | Soil Bank Program created | |||
| 1957 | 12 Angry Men | Sputnik launched | 1st Watershed District created | |||
| 1958 | 1st Russian in space | |||||
| 1959 | Some Like it Hot | 1st Metro Interstate miles laid | Corn yield: 39 bu/ac Soybeans: 19 bu/ac | |||
| 1960 | FDA approves birth control pill | |||||
| 1961 | Kennedy | E. Anderson | Twins and Vikings both arrive Berlin Wall goes up | Gov. Freeman appointed U.S. Secretary of Agriculture and tries to cut production | ||
| 1962 | Lawrence of Arabia Chinatown | Skyways built in Minneapolis John Glenn orbits earth | Silent Spring is published | |||
| 1963 | Rolvaag | Guthrie Theater opens | Land and Water Conservation Fund created | |||
| 1964 | Johnson | My Fair Lady | ||||
| 1965 | Sound of Music | Gatorade invented | St. Paul sees highest flood peak on Mississippi River (others in 52, 69, 97, and 01) | |||
| 1966 | ||||||
| 1967 | LeVander | The Graduate | Nicollet Avenue Mall | State Soil Conservation Committee (1937) becomes Soil & Water Conservation Commission; Met. Council forms; MPCA replaces the Water Pollution Control Commission. | ||
| 1968 | 2001 | |||||
| 1969 | Nixon | Butch Cassidy Easy Rider | Vikings lose Super Bowl; Apollo Mission lands on moon | Shoreland Management Act; Metropolitan Waste Control Commission takes control of wastewater system | Cuyahoga River burns in Cleveland | |
| 1970 | M*A*S*H Patton | Control Data Building built Windsurfer patented | Norman Borlaug wins Nobel Peace Prize; Mankato floodwall construction begins | Clean Air Act Amendments, Water Quality Improvement Act, first Earth Day | ||
| 1971 | W. Anderson | The French Connection | IDS Tower tops out; deer hunting season canceled | Water pollution Control Fund, Environmental Rights Act (MERA), Air & Sold Waste Permits, Southern Minnesota Rivers Basin Council | ||
| 1972 | The Godfather | Federal Water Pollution Control Act, Marine Protection, Research and Sanctuaries Act, Coastal Zone Management Act, Federal Environmental Pesticide Control Act, Noise Control | ||||
| 1973 | American Graffiti | Civic Center opens for hockey; Vikings lose second Super Bowl; Wendell Anderson on cover of Time | Environmental Policy Act (MEPA), Environmental Quality Board (EQB) Established, Public Waters Protection, Wild & Scenic Rivers Act | Endangered Species Act, phaseout of leaded gasoline starts | ||
| 1974 | Ford | Reserve Mining ordered to cease discharge; Vikings lose third Super Bowl | Hazardous Waste Control, Metropolitan Land Use, County Planning Authority | Safe Drinking Water Act | ||
| 1975 | One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Jaws | First home computer marketed | SWCC (1967) becomes Soil & Water Conservation Board; first Minnesota River Fish Consumption Advisory due to elevated PCBs | Voyageurs National Park created | ||
| 1976 | Rocky | Vikings lose fourth Super Bowl | Public Waters and Wetlands Protection | Federal Land Policy and Management Act, National Forest Management Act, Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, Toxic Substances Control Act | ||
| 1977 | Carter | Perpich | Star Wars | Apple II computer marketed | SWCD Cost-Share Program established | Clean Air Act Amendments, Clean Water Act, Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act |
| 1978 | Deer Hunter | Science Museum opens; first GPS satellites launched | Creation of Lake Improvement Districts, Area II MN River Basin Projects Inc. forms, BWCAW established | Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act Amendments | ||
| 1979 | Quie | Apocalypse Now | 3-Mile Island nuclear incident | Local Floodplain Management | ||
| 1980 | Miracle on Ice | EIS Categories; Waste Management Board created | Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (“Superfund”) | |||
| 1981 | Reagan | Raiders of the Lost Ark | IBM PC marketed | |||
| 1982 | E.T. | Memorial Stadium demolished; Pheasants Forever founded | Metropolitan Surface Water Management Act | |||
| 1983 | Perpich | City Center opens | Superfund Act | |||
| 1984 | Ghostbusters | Hazardous and Solid Waste Amendments | ||||
| 1985 | Ordway Theatre opens; Decade-long sewer separation starts in metro | County Water Management Act; Solid Waste Management Act mandates recycling | Farm Bill creates Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) | |||
| 1986 | Platoon | Zebra mussels found in the U.S. Mounds View pipeline rupture Chernobyl nuclear explosion | Re-Invest in Minnesota Reserve (RIM) | Safe Drinking Water Amendments, Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act | ||
| 1987 | Eurasian Water Milfoil found in MN Twins win World Series | Board of Water and Soil Resources created from organizations founded in 1937, ’55, and ’71 | Water Quality Act | |||
| 1988 | Hazardous Waste Cleanup Liens, Environmental Trust Fund | Endangered Species Act Reauthorization, Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act Amendments | ||||
| 1989 | Bush | Exxon Valdez spill | Groundwater Protection Act; Mankato floodwall construction completed. | |||
| 1990 | Dances With Wolves | World population at 5 billion; Hubble space telescope | Nitrogen Fertilizer Management Plan | second Farm Bill | ||
| 1991 | Carlson | Silence of the Lambs | MOA opens | Wetland Conservation Act (WCA) | ||
| 1992 | Unforgiven | Pilot Wetland Reserve Program (WRP) | ||||
| 1993 | Clinton | Schindler’s List | First Minnesota Envirothon held | WCA amended to require less mitigation in counties with >80% of pre-settlement wetlands; Minnesota River flood of record | ||
| 1994 | Forrest Gump | BWSR Coastal engineer established, Amendments to the WCA | WRP goes national, Soil Conservation Service becomes NRCS | |||
| 1995 | Toy Story | Farm Bill | ||||
| 1996 | Amendments to the WCA | |||||
| 1997 | Titanic | First cloned mammal | Major Red River flood | Kyoto treaty | ||
| 1998 | Saving Private Ryan | Hunting and fishing amendent | RIM matched with WRP and CREP, Red River Basin Flood Damage Reduction Work Group | Minnesota River is 2nd Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program created | ||
| 1999 | Ventura (Janos) | New Science Museum built | ||||
| 2000 | Gladiator, Chocolat | Great Lakes Aquarium opens | BWSR State Soils Office established w/ U of M Amendments to the WCA | |||
| 2001 | Bush | September 11 attack, Afganistan War begins | Amendments to the WCA | |||
| 2002 | Spider-Man | Large Red River flood in June, BWSR coastal engineering program terminated | Farm Bill | |||
| 2003 | Pawlenty | Finding Nemo | SWCD statute modernization | |||
| 2004 | Ray | |||||
| 2005 | CREP II established | Energy Bill pushes ethanol | ||||
| 2006 | Red Lake re-opens for walleye | Clean Water Legacy Act, Clean Water Council created, PCA approves statewide mercury TMDL | ||||
| 2007 | Juno | Wind energy tops 1,000 MW | corn yield: 146 bu/ac soybeans: 41 bu/ac | Energy Independence and Food Security Act pushes ethanol, CRP enrollment peaks in Midwest | ||
| 2008 | Iron Man | 35W bridge collapse | 3/8 of 1 % sales tax amendment passes; Lessard-Sams Outdoor Heritage Council created | Farm Bill | ||
| 2009 | Obama | The Hurt Locker | BWSR expands to 20-members, Technical Service Areas consolidate from 11 to 8 | Hydraulic fracturing technology radically alters energy sources, trade, and environmental impact. | ||
| 2010 | Avatar | Lake Vermillion State Park, Conservation Apprentice Academy funded by LCCMR | ||||
| 2011 | Dayton | Moneyball | 2nd Gulf War ends | AIS controls and enforcement expanded | ||
| 2012 | Argo, Zero Dark Thirty | Comprehensive changes to water planning statutes | Major farm bill discussion fails | |||
| 2013 | Captain Phillips | One World Trade Center tops out | ||||
| 2014 | DNR moves to est. Groundwater Mgmt. area | Farm bill passes linking conservation to subsidized crop insurance and ‘sodsaver’ provision |
A program of
