A River Flows Through Minneapolis Listening Session

August 5, 2010 | Blue Trails, Clean Water, Protecting Rivers

Here's a blog post from Dave Dempsey of Conservation Minnesota, who covered the AGO listening session for American Rivers from Minneapolis:

A great river is the reason why Minneapolis and St. Paul exist – and that river, the Mississippi, coursed through the Obama Administration’s America's Great Outdoors listening session in Minneapolis yesterday.

Speaker after speaker in the 400-person audience and in breakout sessions touched on the Mississippi River’s presence in both cities as a natural amenity and a way to connect urban youth with nature – and on the need to clean up the river’s pollution to assure it can play an even greater role in environmental education and recreation.

The message of American Rivers was heard, too, as Conservation Minnesota and individual citizens called for a national Blueways, also known as Blue Trails, system.  Citing Minnesota’s 31-river, 4,000-mile system of river trails, they called for federal partnership with the states in coordinating and promoting an interstate network.

Before the later afternoon session, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson, White House Council on Environmental Quality Chair Nancy Sutley and other federal officials recognized a youth river paddle of about 50 young people who paddled down the Mississippi next to downtown St. Paul. They are part of an urban canoeing initiative for youth arranged in part by the National Park Service. The Mississippi National River and Recreation Area (MNRRA), a unit of the National Park Service, stretches along 72 miles of the river.

“It’s inspiring to see cities that have embraced rivers as their front yard, not their back yard,” said Sutley.

Other officials called the effort to get more young people on the river encouraging because it presents a “stark contrast” to busy city streets.

Citizens noted that full funding by Congress and the Obama Administration of the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) would provide support for more communities to connect young people in urban areas the chance to enjoy rivers and parks in their midst. LWCF funds could also promote land buys on river shorelands in more remote areas as part of local, state or federal-state-local initiatives.

Other citizens and a representative of the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) pointed out that Mississippi pollution from soil runoff and other contaminants has triggered six years of work to develop a plan for cleanup.  They questioned federal Clean Water Act enforcement backup to help implement the plan.

Speaking on in favor of an American Rivers proposal, a Conservation Minnesota staffer urged National Park Service coordinating efforts to work with states on a national Blueways system.  Such a system would enhance both urban and wilderness recreation and promote the visibility of rivers as a natural resource that needs cleanup.

“We could do this with a minimum of new federal dollars, but federal support for this system through education and coordination is vital,” said the staffer.

America’s fresh water should be high on the national agenda, several speakers said.  One of Minnesota’s water trails hugs 155 miles of shoreline along Lake Superior, which contains 10% of the world’s available fresh water.

EPA Administrator Jackson said the comments and those from approximately 25 others across the country will help build “a 21st Century conservation plan.”

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