- Environmental education network meeting on Thursday, June 26
- Become a Stop Food Waste Challenge partner
- Results and impacts of school assemblies and the Mighty Mississippi Cleanup
- Conference, training, and event opportunities
- Green Partners project updates
 Using nature as a metaphor for resilience and wellbeing
Thursday, June 26 from 6 to 7:30 p.m. on Zoom
Join fellow environmental educators and advocates for a virtual wellness session that draws inspiration from the natural world. Together, we’ll explore how to ground existing resiliencies, deepen self-connection, and explore self-care strategies.
This interactive session will support you in:
- Connecting with your own resilience through nature-based metaphors
- Engaging with interactive tools to examine personal values and purpose
- Developing a personalized wellness strategy with actionable next steps
- Reflecting individually, in pairs or small groups, and as a whole
To promote open, honest conversation, this session will not be recorded. Resources from this meeting will be shared afterward.
About the presenter
Laura Rodriguez is the Founder & CEO of Restoring C.A.R.E., Capacity for Accountability, Reciprocity, & Empathy, LLC. She is passionate about providing coaching, consultation, training and facilitation to individuals and organizations ready for lasting change. Laura is committed to justice, equity, and inclusion, and actively embodies values and behaviors required to advance these.
 We're hosting an online in August to help residents learn more about why food goes to waste in their household and improve skills in cooking, planning, shopping, and storing food. By wasting less food, we can save money, save time at the grocery store, and gain confidence in the kitchen. By coming together with our community, we can make a real difference toward reducing waste and fighting climate change. But we can’t do it alone!
We need your organization’s help with promotion and engagement. All Stop Food Waste Challenge partners will have their logo displayed on the challenge website, gain access to promotional materials, and get various recognition and cross-promotion during the challenge. There is no cost to becoming a partner.
Being a challenge partner shows your organization’s commitment to sustainability, helps build community, and promotes collective action. Nonprofit organizations, community groups, cities, neighborhoods, schools, and businesses are welcome partners.
See the for details. Fill out the to become a 2025 Stop Food Waste Challenge partner.
 Hennepin County partnered with Twin Cities Road Crew during the 2024 to 2025 school year to provide assemblies on waste reduction and recycling for elementary students. The Twin Cities Road Crew performed at 24 schools, reaching approximately 6,000 students.
Of the school staff who attended assemblies and completed surveys about them, 100% would recommend the program to another school and said that students learned new behaviors to help the environment. The assemblies will continue in the 2025 to 2026 school year at more than 20 schools.
 Hennepin County was challenged by our downstream neighbor, Goodhue County, to participate in the Mighty Mississippi Cleanup Challenge between April 15 and May 15, and we wholeheartedly accepted! We encouraged nonprofits, partners, and residents to join a cleanup event, which we listed on our Earth Day web page, organize their own cleanup, or sign up to Adopt-a-Drain.
About 50 cleanups and hundreds of drain cleanouts happened throughout the county during the challenge. We had results reported from 16 groups, including cities, staff groups, neighborhood groups, and nonprofit organizations. The groups that shared data and photos had about 2,800 participants and picked up over 20,500 pounds plus 110 bags of litter!
See our 2025 Mighty Mississippi Cleanup Challenge results and photos (PDF).
Thanks to everyone who contributed to keeping our lakes and rivers clean and making Hennepin County a great place to live!
LGBTQIA2S+ Pride demonstration box tending on Nicollet Island
Wednesday, June 25 from 6 to 8 p.m.
Join the Friends of the Mississippi River (FMR) for a special evening during Pride Month to come together and revitalize the planting demonstration boxes in the Nicollet Island prairie. FMR is leading a multi-year restoration of the natural areas on the north half of Nicollet Island in partnership with Mississippi Watershed Management Organization, Hennepin County and the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board.
Together with the guidance of FMR staff, volunteers will dig in to tend to grasses and wildflowers, which provide examples of native prairie plantings to park users. These plants provide ideas of what might create good habitat in their own neighborhoods.
This event is for those who self-identify as LGBTQIA2S+ or as allies of the queer community! No experience is needed; however, registration is required, and capacity is limited. All tools, gloves and training will be provided. Additional details and registration form.
Lake Superior Speaks: Educator and Researcher Confluence
July 23 to 25 at Wolf Ridge Environmental Learning Center
Minnesota Sea Grant is hosting “Lake Superior Speaks: Educator & Researcher Confluence," a water science workshop that will bring together educators, researchers and community partners.
This three-day workshop for environmental educators will build community and educational resources through participatory science, experiential learning, skills for teaching outside, and engaging with water science using nature as a co-teacher. Formal and informal environmental educators are encouraged to attend. Advance registration is required.
Registration costs range from $159 to $399. Confluence details and registration.
Call for presentations and save the date: Minnesota Naturalists’ Association conference
Proposals due: Friday, October 3
Conference: November 14 to 16 at Eagle Bluff Environmental Learning Center
The Minnesota Naturalists' Association is looking for presenters for the 2025 conference held at Eagle Bluff Environmental Learning Center in Lanesboro, Minnesota. The conference theme is “Gather Around the Fire” and focuses on nature, inclusion, community and education. Conference details and presenter application form.
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