Great River Greening’s project goals are to improve the region’s natural resources by improving ecological systems and promoting stewardship and management of critical lands and waters. Within this goal, we choose our projects according to very specific criteria: conservation need; ecosystem services provided, likelihood of project success, and community benefits.
 
Currently we have several programs going on:

• The Million Acorn Campaign: Great River Greening is leading the effort to restore the endangered oak savannas and forests throughout the Twin Cities and Minnesota region with a five year, community based restoration campaign.
  
  
• Healthy Waters St. Croix: Developed by Great River Greening to improve water quality in the St. Croix River by restoring upland plant communities and establishing best management practices and funded by a multi-year Bush Foundation grant, the St. Croix Initiative is a collaboration with Washington County Conservation District and Chisago Soil and Water Conservation District. [link to Healthy Waters page]
  
  
• Sustainable Landscape for Affordable Housing: Great River Greening is improving water quality with native plantings and other best management practices in public, private, urban, and suburban landscapes. Our partnership with the Home Depot Foundation to develop sustainable landscapes in selected affordable housing developments is an example.
  
  
• Stewardship for the Future: To ensure that Greening’s restoration projects thrive over generations through maintenance, monitoring, training and outreach we are providing advanced training to our corps of volunteer supervisors, as well as future youth conservationists.