Tips and tales about keeping water clean
“The Mississippi River is my heart. She is everything to me,” says Tara Perron Tanaǧidaŋ To Wiŋ, as she greets our group along the edge of the river at Fort Snelling State Park. It’s a beautiful spring day and there are twenty of us gathered for “Learning from place: Bdote,” a tour organized by the Minnesota Humanities Center, Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, and We Are Water Minnesota.
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I don’t think it’s much of an exaggeration to say that fishing saved my family during the summer of 2021 when we navigated yet another summer of COVID with no day care and only a few weeks of camp. That summer was Minnesota at its quintessential, and in spite of chaos in the world, life was pretty good.
May 9, 2026 marks the beginning of another year’s fishing season, and with luck, many children just like Charlie will be making lifelong memories. As Minnesotans hit the water with fishing poles and boats, a well-trained team of watercraft inspectors, conservation officers, and even K9 officers will also be rolling out to lakes and rivers to help keep them safe from aquatic invasive species (AIS).
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In 1965, protests in Stillwater, Minnesota ignited a national conversation that eventually inspired Congress to pass the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act in 1968.
Two years later, Senator Gaylord Nelson (WI) helped to organize the very first “Earth Day” on April 22, 1970. During this inaugural event, 20 million Americans — 10% of the U.S. population at the time — participated in teach-ins and rallies, calling for sweeping changes to end the environmental destruction they saw happening across the nation.
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Way down south along the Mississippi River, great blue herons are on the move. This week they crossed the border into Missouri. By the end of the month, we’ll welcome them back to Minnesota.
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Once, it was C̣hokáŋ Taŋka, the Dakota village of Kaposia, and a bountiful mecca for fishing, hunting, and gathering. Later, it was a highway of pollution, filled with human sewage, garbage, and carcasses from the local slaughterhouses. Today, it includes a regional park and DNR Scientific and Natural Area, surrounded by rail yards and heavy industry.
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Road maintenance in rural communities like Grant and Stillwater Township is significantly different than in larger cities like Oakdale and Woodbury. A new rural roads training module aims to help small communities stretch their limited public works budgets while also protecting local lakes and streams from salt and sediment pollution.
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When the snow falls and lakes freeze over, Minnesota’s wildlife employ a variety of adaptations to stay alive.
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David, Kim, Barb and Mike are part of an elite cadre of volunteers helping to engage communities across Minnesota and western Wisconsin in grass-roots projects to protect and restore lakes, rivers, and streams.
Beginning in 2026, Freshwater is taking the program statewide and removing the enrollment fee so that more people can participate. Locally, the St. Croix Valley Foundation has provided grant funds to Washington Conservation District (WCD), Freshwater, and North Woods and Waters to train-in a new cohort of volunteers, starting in 2026.
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Bluegreen algae blooms have become more prevalent in urban lakes, as well as in pristine northern lakes including Lake Itasca, the Boundary Waters, and Quetico Wilderness Area.
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East Metro Water 