What Can a Dollar Do?
If you are a sponsor, a pledge of...
$10 — Helps produce an action alert to inform Twin Cities residents about important river issues and engage them in active river protection efforts. This is one way that the Mississippi River is conserved for current and future generations.
$20 — Engages a Gorge Steward volunteer in trail monitoring and clean-up efforts. The work done by the Gorge Stewards allows all of us to enjoy the beauty and recreational amenities of this beautiful area along the river in Minneapolis and St. Paul.
$40 — Supports coordination of a volunteer event to remove invasive exotic species like buckthorn and garlic mustard, helping to conserve and restore the natural biodiversity of buffer zones along the Mississippi River and its tributaries. This improves water quality, wildlife habitat, and the recreational value of these areas.
$60 — Enables Friends of the Mississippi River to conduct a birding hike in the Gorge, led by experienced birders and naturalists, and encourage community members to appreciate and value the wonder and beauty of the river environment.
$80 — Provides water quality and pollution prevention education to 50 school children and gives them a hands-on storm drain stenciling experience that in turn educates the broader community. Storm drains are stenciled with the message “Please don’t pollute! Drains to River!” to raise awareness of the direct link between storm drain runoff and river pollution, and volunteers then distribute educational materials door-to-door in the community.
If you are a participant, a cumulative pledge goal of...
$250 — Presents a community Watershed Workshop packed with information about natural lawn and garden care, composting, rain gardens and rain barrels, native landscaping, car care, and other topics that raise awareness of steps individual Twin Cities residents can take to protect and restore the Mississippi River and its watershed.
$300 — Reaches out to landowners with ways to protect and restore the ecological value of their land. This work is expanding the greenway corridors in the Twin Cities, helping to improve water quality as land is restored to its natural filtering capacity, and increasing the amount of habitat available for wildlife and rare native plant species.
$400 — Supports coordination of and supplies for a volunteer planting event to restore native species to important wetland areas in the watershed. These plantings recreate the natural biodiversity of the wetland, improve its quality as habitat for native wildlife, and recover its ability to filter and purify groundwater resources as well as the water that drains to the river.
$500 — Helps to convene a community design workshop to plan riverfront development that protects the river while maximizing recreational access and the potential for economic growth. These workshops take a multifaceted approach to river protection and ensure that all stakeholders, including citizens, have a voice in the process.
$1,000 — Purchases 1,200 trees and shrubs for a streambank stabilization project that can secure over 1,000 feet of streambank. Projects like these prevent erosion and subsequent sediment buildup downstream, improve water quality by restoring the natural filtration process, and enhance aquatic as well as terrestrial habitat. A recent project on the Vermillion River has helped protect this important tributary to the Mississippi as a high-quality trout stream for fish and for anglers from across the state.