Restoring Natural Communities
Inspiring Citizen Participation
The Big Rivers Partnership is a team of nonprofit and government agencies that have joined forces to restore critical river valley habitat while building community investment in our urban natural resource base. The partnership provides resources and technical assistance to public and private landowners who wish to create ecologically sound management plans and make real, on-the-ground improvements to natural areas near the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers.
Working together to restore our river valleys
The Mississippi and Minnesota rivers are the defining natural features of the Twin Cities metropolitan area. As they wind through our communities, these rivers form a green corridor that gives us breathtaking beauty, provides habitat for fish and wildlife and supplies drinking water for millions of people.
Development and pollution have degraded and fragmented much of this green corridor and threaten to destroy even more of our precious natural areas. Plants not native to our ecosystem have taken hold in many areas, choking out vegetation that provides important habitat.
For landowners, there are ecological, financial and social benefits to replanting native vegetation and completing other restoration activities in the river valley. Such stewardship enhances the value of land in the valley and improves the entire ecosystem along these great rivers.
The Big Rivers Partnership is designed to coordinate the restoration efforts of landowners, community organizations and public agencies, and to involve local citizens in managing natural resources.
Funding and technical assistance available
River valley landowners and community organizations have a great opportunity for restoring lands important to them-whether it is improving a slightly degraded natural area or planting native species on turf or former farm field. For selected sites, the Big Rivers Partnership is providing the funds and assistance needed to:
- Conduct detailed inventories of existing vegetation and other features.
- Develop planting designs and restoration and implementation plans.
- Plant native trees, shrubs, and prairie plants, and conduct other restoration activities.
- Coordinate the volunteers and contractors needed to complete this work.
Great River Greening (Project Coordinator)
Friends of the Minnesota Valley
Friends of the Mississippi River
City of Saint Paul, Division of Parks and Recreation
Metropolitan Council
Minneapolis Parks and Recreation Board
Minnesota Department of Natural Resources
Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Mississippi National River and Recreation Area, National Park Service
Ramsey County Parks and Recreation Department
The Trust for Public Land
Big Rivers Partnership Project Area
The project area for the Big Rivers Partnership includes the Mississippi River Valley (bluff to bluff) from St. Anthony Falls downstream to Ravenna Township east of Hastings, and the Minnesota River Valley (bluff to bluff) from the western corner of Scott County downstream to the junction with the Mississippi River.
