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NEWSLETTER / FEBRUARY 2023
 MWMO staff made several visits to the Minnesota Legislature this month to support a pair of bills that won approval from House and Senate committees.
Youth Employment Program Funding
On Feb. 1, MWMO Community Outreach Specialist Mary Yang testified at a Senate committee hearing for SF400. The bill would appropriate $750,000 each year in 2024 and 2025 to the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board (MPRB) to expand its Teen Teamworks youth employment and training program.
Yang is a former member of the Mississippi River Green Team, which is a special unit of Teen Teamworks that was co-created by the MPRB and the MWMO. She testified about the impact the Green Team has had on her life.
“My experience as a participant in youth employment programming at the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board had a positive, lasting impact on my life, and led directly to my career,” Yang told members of the Senate Jobs and Economic Development Committee.
The bill was laid over for possible inclusion in a future omnibus funding bill.
Smart Salting Legislation
On Feb. 16, MWMO Executive Director Kevin Reich testified in support of the proposed smart salting bill, SF755, before the Senate Environment, Climate, and Legacy Committee.
The bill would create a voluntary smart salting certification program for commercial salt applicators and offer liability protections for those who become certified. The goal is to help reduce pressure on contractors and property managers to over-apply salt and deicing chemicals, which are harmful to waterbodies.
“We strongly support this legislation and we think this is the year to pass it,” Reich said.
Citizen group Stop Over Salting and the Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy have been leading the charge for the legislation for the last several years. The MWMO drafted a letter in support of the bill, which has been signed by 18 watersheds, cities, and nonprofits.
The committee voted to approve the bill, which now moves to the Senate Judiciary and Public Safety Committee.
 A fresh winter storm battered Minnesota this week, following two weeks of unusually warm weather that left many streets and sidewalks covered in a treacherous mix of ice and slush.
If you’ve been wondering how Minnesota winters will look in the era of climate change, they will probably look a lot like this: warmer, wetter, and messier.
Minnesota has warmed by 3 degrees Fahrenheit between 1895 and 2020, while annual precipitation increased by an average of 3.4 inches, according to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.
Most of the warming has occurred in winter. In fact, our winters are warming 2–3 times as fast as our summers, and average daily winter low temperatures rose more than 15 times faster than average daily summer high temperatures from 1970–2021.
Expect to see more freezing rain and “wintry mix”-type precipitation in place of snow, and fewer overall days with snow on the ground. Throughout the year, you can also expect dramatic swings in precipitation, with long periods of drought punctuated by intense rain events.
Learn more about the local impacts of climate change on our website.
 Master the art of pollution-free winter maintenance with these resources.
Planning Grants — Due Friday, March 10, 2023
Community Grants — Friday, April 21, 2023
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