Washington Conservation District

06/05/2026

“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 MN.

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Learn more about the special place where the Mississippi and Minnesota Rivers meet in this week's East Metro Water blog by Angie Hong.

This summer, you can visit the We Are Water exhibit at the Capitol Region Watershed District in St. Paul (595 Aldine St.) from now through June 14 or at Itasca State Park from June 18 to August 10.

There will also be another Learning from Place: Bdote event on June 23, 8:30am-2:30pm. Learn more at www.mnhum.org/events.

http://eastmetrowater.org/2026/06/05/where-two-worlds-and-waters-meet/

“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 sp…

06/04/2026

Nominate a natural shoreline for our 2026 awards!
June 1 - July 5 at www.lsc1w1p.org/awards.

The goal of the Natural Shoreline Award Program is to recognize Minnesotans who are stewarding their lakeshore, riverfront and streamside properties by maintaining existing upland, shoreline and aquatic habitat or replacing rock rip-rap, turf grass, and retaining walls with native flowers, shrubs, trees and plants.
Nominations will be accepted in the following categories:
• Single family residential
• Commercial or multi-family residential
• Publicly owned park or public water access

The Natural Shoreline Award Program was created by the East Metro Water Education Program (EMWREP) and Lower St. Croix Watershed Partnership. Award-winning properties can be located in Chisago and Washington Counties as well as portions of Anoka, Pine, and Isanti Counties that are within the Lower St. Croix Watershed, and portions of Ramsey County that are in the Ramsey-Washington Metro Watershed.

Research by the Natural Shorelines Partnership finds that Minnesota has lost 40-50% of its natural shorelines over the past 100 years, and continues to lose shoreline habitat at a rate of 1-2% per decade. As a result, we are seeing less diversity in wildlife, less aquatic invertebrates, and fewer, smaller fish, even in lakes and rivers with relatively good water quality.

Learn more about the program, meet the 2025 winners, and submit your nominations at www.lsc1w1p.org/awards.

05/21/2026

Help gather data that road authorities and local communities can use to design safer roads and wildlife crossings. The Wildlife Casualty Count week of action will take place from May 22 to May 29.

Help gather data that road authorities and local communities can use to design safer roads and wildlife crossings. The Wildlife Casualty Count week of action will take place from May 22 to May 29.

05/20/2026

Meet another new face!

Deven Lane is a rising senior at College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University and she will be joining us for a summer internship. Deven will be providing assistance to our water monitoring, natural resources maintenance, and education teams.

Stop by and say hi if you see her at an upcoming community event!

05/20/2026

Cottage Grove vs Woodbury - who will win??

These two southern cities are going head to head in a battle to recruit new storm drain adopters between now and the end of May!

At the end of week 2, Cottage Grove remains in the lead, but barely.

Since the challenge began, Cottage Grove has secured 19 new adoptions (0.43 of the population) compared with Woodbury’s 32 new adoptions (0.39 of the population).

Want to help your city win the coveted Golden Gutter Award and protect our lakes and rivers from stormwater pollution?

Sign-up to adopt a drain at https://mn.adopt-a-drain.org
Volunteers make a difference by spending 15-minutes of effort, twice a month, to pick up the garbage and debris near their drain.

City of Cottage Grove, MN - City Government
City of Woodbury, MN - Government
Adopt-a-Drain MN

05/15/2026

Stop by the County Fairgrounds TOMORROW (9am-1pm) to shop from hundreds of varieties of plants for your yard, including annuals and perennials, native and prairie plants, monarch and pollinator favorites, grasses, shade loving plants, and vegetables including heirloom tomatoes and herbs.

Why shop OUR plant sale? To support our community! Plant sale proceeds fund youth and adult education classes and several community gardens including the RCS Giving Garden at Retail Construction Services, Inc. which supplies fresh produce to food shelves. Bring a wagon and shop our sale from 9:00 to 1:00 on Saturday, May 16th at the Washington county fairgrounds.

05/15/2026

"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)."

Even if you fish from a pier or the shore, there are actions you can take to help prevent the spread of AIS. Read this week's East Metro Water blog to learn more.

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…

05/13/2026

Meet your local prairie wildlife!

Prairies once covered one-third of North America and one-third of the land that is now called Minnesota. Rivaling the African savanna, this sea of grass stretched from Saskatchewan to Texas and was home to deer, elk, antelope, prairie dogs, and an estimated 30-60 million bison. For 12,000 years, humans have been part of the prairie as well. Though only 1-4% of the original native prairie remains today, helping hands are spreading seeds and pulling weeds. Piece by piece, the prairie is rising again.

Come visit us this Saturday, May 16 (10am-2pm) for the annual Belwin Conservancy Bison Festival. We’ll be sharing info about prairies and native plantings and handing out prairie wildlife trading cards.

Visit www.belwin.org/bisonfest to find a full event schedule and buy tickets. The bison will be released at approximately 12:30 pm. Arrive by noon to allow time to park and walk to the Bison Prairie.

05/13/2026

We've got a few new faces at our office this spring!

🌳Ellen Loch, Annica Stiles, and Renee Rademacher are part of our natural resources project crew and will be getting their hands dirty throughout the summer, weeding raingardens, planting trees, pulling buckthorn, and supporting lake, stream, and habitat restoration projects.

💧Claire Benson will be helping our water monitoring team throughout the summer and early fall. Look for her collecting water samples on a local lake or tromping about in waders.

🌼Ashley Petel is our newest landscape restoration specialist. She holds degrees in architecture and horticultural science and has previous experience managing programs at environmental nonprofits. At the WCD, Ashley will be helping to design raingardens, native plantings, and other planting projects.