The Minnesota State Water Trails Newsletter will now be published as a quarterly newsletter, rather than a semiannual newsletter. This means you'll receive the information you want and need in a more timely manner.
What's featured:
Water Trail events
Volunteer opportunities
Grant listings
Water Trails website tools and content
Water Trail news and announcements
Paddle the Minnesota River State Water Trail in a Day
We’re setting out to do something that has never been done before, and we need your help.
The goal is to round up enough paddlers to paddle all 318 miles of the Minnesota River in a single day—all the way from the headwaters at Big Stone Lake State Park in Ortonville to its confluence with the Mississippi River at Fort Snelling State Park in St. Paul.
Opportunities to participate will include:
Joining one of several guided public paddles.
Organizing a group paddle.
Registering to paddle a section of the river on your own.
Come and visit our booth at the 60th bi-annual Outdoor Adventure Expo this weekend, April 24-26. At the Expo you can pick up Water Trail maps, talk with DNR employees, attend a seminar, try out new products, buy a canoe or kayak, and much more!
After the Summit: The Cannon River at Northfield
The Minnesota Water Trails Tourism Summit, which took place in St. Cloud in Sept. 2014, brought together over 140 community representatives and paddling enthusiasts from across the country. The summit was the first of its kind in the nation, bringing together tourism and outdoor recreation interests to build communities’ capacity to promote paddle sports. For attendees from the Northfield area, it also helped solidify the need for better water recreation opportunities along the Cannon River Water Trail.
Creating the opportunity for collaboration between units of government, citizens, businesses, and non-profits was one of the primary goals of the summit. If you have a success story from the Summit and would like to share it, please email Ana Vang at Analeisha.Vang@state.mn.us.
Cold Water Paddling
Spring is a great time to get out paddling, but the water temperatures may still be cold even on a warm day. Be sure to wear your life jacket, and bring an extra set of clothes in a waterproof bag. Always let someone know where you are going and when you plan to be off the water. And before you go, check the DNR’s river level map.
The Fund for Wild Nature believes that healthy ecosystems are too essential to be sacrificed. Increasingly rare, wild areas constitute the main reservoirs of biodiversity, and provide key spiritual and scientific reference points for the understanding of the planet's wondrous cycles of birth, life, death and decay.
The Fund provides small grants for North American companies to save native species and wild ecosystems, with particular emphasis on actions designed to defend threatened wilderness and biological diversity. The deadline for the next cycle of grants is May 1st, 2015. For more information, visit the Fund for Wild Nature website.
Environment Steward’s AmeriCorps Program
Do you have unmet organizational needs or need help with a project? Want to have access to National recruitment for your project? Conservation Legacy’s Environmental Stewards Program is providing opportunities for 10-week to year-long AmeriCorps Environmental Stewards for your agency. Stewards can assist your organization with a wide range of activities including: water, habitat, vegetation monitoring, grant writing, program development, volunteer project organization, outreach and education, GPS use and GIS mapping, interpretive services, invasive species management, and other hands-on work related to environmental stewardship. Stewards can start anytime throughout the year. Click here for more information.
Water Recreation Cooperative Acquisition and Development Program
This program provides financial and technical assistance to local governments for public boat accesses, campsites, rest
areas and portages on the State's rivers and lakes. Eligible projects include acquisition, development and improvement
of public boat accesses, parking lots, docks, boat launching ramps, campsites, rest areas and portages. Engineering and
design assistance is available. For more information, click here.
Clean Vessel Act Grants
The purpose of this grant is to encourage the development or improvement of marina sanitation facilities for boaters in
order to maintain and improve water quality in public waters. Eligible projects include the development or improvement
of sanitation facilities for boaters (includes both pump-outs and dump-outs). Click here for more information.
State Boat and Water Safety Grant Program
The purpose of this program is to assist in funding boat and water safety programs carried out through the county sheriff's offices. The goal is to reduce deaths, injuries and property damage on state waters. Funds may be used by the county for patrol, enforcement; search and rescue; buoying; removal of hazards to navigation; boat and water safety outreach; inspection of watercraft for rent, lease or hire; watercraft and water accident investigation; and search, rescue or recovery of accident victims. For more information, click here.
Local Trail Connections Program
The Local Trail Connections Program provides grants to local units of government to promote relatively short trail connections between where people live and desirable locations. Eligible projects include acquisition and development of trail facilities. Projects must result in a trail linkage that is immediately available for use by the general public. Trail linkages include connecting where people live (e.g. residential areas within cities, entire communities) and significant public resources (e.g. historical areas, open space, parks and/or other trails). For more information, click here.
Regional Trail Grant Program
The Recreational Trails Program (RTP) provides grants to local units of government to promote development of regionally significant trails outside the seven-county metropolitan area. Eligible projects include acquisition and development of trail facilities outside the seven-county metropolitan area that are considered of regional or statewide significance. Click here for more information.
Have State Water Trails questions or comments? Let us know about any channel obstructions, report facility conditions, or make map or river gage corrections by filling out our conditions reporting form.
For any other issues or inquiries, please contact Erik Wrede, DNR Water Trails Coordinator (651-259-5624, Erik.Wrede@state.mn.us).
