ANNUAL ACCOMPLISHMENTS

2010 Great River Greening Accomplishments Highlights
Building Partners for Greater Stewardship

Thanks to our friends and supporters, in 2010, Greening increased the scope of
our impact, achieving more diverse conservation results and reaching new audiences.

Among the highlights of the year were receipt of over $1 million of funds from different sources for terrestrial and freshwater conservation in the Anoka Sandplain ecological region of Central Minnesota, the advance of significant forest work with private landowners in the St. Croix Valley, the exploration of conservation work with farmers in the Minnesota River Valley, and the completionof another year of volunteer involvement topping over 2,000 volunteers!

Volunteers included youth and corporate groups

• 2110 Volunteers, including 1,132 youth (53%) participated in our events resulting in:
  • removal of 231 acres of invasive species,
  • planting of 1138 trees and shrubs and
  • installment of 12,834 forbs and grasses.
  • 16 teen volunteer supervisors were trained to lead community events and neighborhood projects.
  • Our Million Acorn Challenge II engaged almost 700 area youth who collected over 100,000 ecotype acorns.
  • Group volunteers included employees from Best Buy, Delta, Toro, and Unilever.
  
  
• The Science Areas Teen Network, involved more than 226 minority, immigrant and at-risk youth.
  In addition to hands-on restoration work and class activities, these youth talked with community mentors in the science field whose background reflected their own, learning how leadership skills developed as teens can be used in future careers.
  Major 2010 funding from Andersen Corporate Foundation, Beim Foundation, Gannett Foundation, Midwest Mountaineering, Nash Foundation, Pentair Foundation, REI, Weyerhaeuser Family Foundation.

Conservation programs leveraged resources and partners

• Metro Conservation Corridors Partnership - Through this partnership, Greening has restored more than 900 acres across 56 sites over the past 8 years.
  Major funding from the Minnesota Environmental Trust Fund.
  
  
• St. Croix Blufflands and Floodplain - Organized a campaign with Audubon Minnesota, Department of Natural Resources, Washington Conservation District and other partners to improve migratory bird habitat throughout the lower St Croix River Valley.
  
Major funding from National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. Other funders include Aveda Earth Fund, Anderson Corporation, Bailey Nursery, and Gordon & Margaret Bailey Foundation.

• St. Croix Healthy Waters Initiative - Completion of three-year program of award-winning Best Management Practices to safeguard the waters of the St. Croix River in Washington and Chisago counties.
  Major funding from Bush Foundation and Pollution Control Agency.
  

• Anoka Sandplain Partnership - Rice Area Sportsmen’s Club Wildlife Management Area (Benton County) and Rice Creek SNA (Kanabec County) are the first projects scoped for this 20-partner collaboration targeting conservation on public and private lands throughout this ecological region of Central Minnesota.
  Major funding from Lessard-Sams Outdoor Heritage Council, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and Board of Water & Soil Resources. Other funders include Athwin Foundation, Buuck Family Foundation, Centerpoint Energy, Great River Energy, National Wild Turkey Federation, Rathmann Family Foundation, Xcel Energy.

• Metro Big Rivers Habitat Partnership - Work started in this newly formed Partnership to elevate conservation within habitat corridors along the Lower Minnesota, Mississippi and St. Croix rivers in the Twin Cities Metro Area. 2010 projects included the beginning of restoration of nearly 70 acres at Franconia Bluffs Scientific and Natural Area, starting with the planting of acorns gathered by area youth.
  Major funding from the Lessard-Sams Outdoor Heritage Council. Other funders include Brookfield Renewable Power and RBC Blue Water Fund.

• Middle Minnesota River - We completed a natural and historical/cultural conservation plan for the Middle Minnesota River Valley (centered in Redwood and Renville counties) that is now guiding conservation action in the region.
  Major funding from the Minnesota Environmental Trust Fund.

Awards received in 2010

• Minnesota Community Forestry Awards Outstanding Project Award for the Million Acorn Challenge II
• The 2010 Outstanding Environmental Partner Award from Xcel Energy
• Minnesota State Horticultural Society Community Garden Award for the Million Acorn Challenge I

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Since 1995, Great River Greening, together with over 25,000 volunteers, has planted over 60,000 trees and shrubs, 206,000 forbs, removed 1,575 acres of invasive species, planted over 550 acres of prairie, and collected 400 pounds of local ecotype seed and 1.4 million acorns for restoration projects.

Major operating support for Great River Greening programs comes from McKnight Foundation.

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During 2010 our restoration and landscape ecologists made the following presentations:

• Cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum) control in east-central Minnesota sand-gravel prairies presentation at Minnesota Society for Conservation Biology “Science in the Century of Accelerating Change.”
• Cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum) control in east-central Minnesota sand-gravel prairies presentation at Minnesota-Wisconsin Invasive Species Conference
• Bird Conservation in the St. Croix Valley workshops at William O’Brien State Park and Afton State Park

Our professional ecologists added to the over 50 management plans already written for ecologically-significant private and public lands across the state of Minnesota, with:

• Franconia-Scandia LIP (Clark) Management Plan
• Lever Street Management Plan
• Minnesota Green Corridor Conservation Plan
• St. Croix Boat Launch Evaluation

Paddleboat photo © Minnesota Office of Tourism.