More than 30 watershed professionals attending the Minnesota-Crow Watershed
Network spring meeting May 12 in Redwood Falls heard Pete Fastner of the MPCA
offer tips on making grant applications. Faster is coordinator of the agency’s
Clean Water Partnership grant program. He said funds likely will continue to be
available from various sources. One of the most important parts of a grant
application is answering the “why” question, he says. Why target a certain
resource, why use a certain strategy?
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Does the project address water quality
goals, and have long-term benefits? He advises to read instructions closely, be
concise and clear, convey your enthusiasm for a project, and make sure the
numbers add up. Other meeting topics included a report on the April 12-13
training on “new approaches to watershed-based civic engagement,” a Discovery
Farms update, viewing of segments of the documentary “Working Together,” and
round-robin about what’s going on at individual watershed organizations.
Networking opportunity
Beyond
the topics, the meetings provide a good opportunity for informal networking.
The network effort was revived in 2009, building on a series of meetings that
took place in 2004. The purpose of the network is to help watershed
professional staff share their experiences and learn how to make their outreach
efforts more effective. A
monthly e-newsletter was launched in June 2009. A watershed network webpage has been posted on the MPCA website, including past issues of the
newsletter.
To coincide with the June 12 broadcast on KARE-11 of "River Revival: Working Together to Save the Minnesota River," the Minnesota River Basin Data Center launched an updated and expanded the MRBDC website. "The site has been migrated into a new content management system that
will enable searchable database features for reports, calendar,
contacts, videos and other media." The "Reports" tab links to a comprehensive list of scores of documents and reports about the river and basin. The MRBDC is a project of the Water Resources Center at Minnesota State-Mankato. In a KARE-11 promo for the documentary, producer John Hickman was interviewed on June 9 by Diana Pierce.
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Reported in the West Central Tribune, Willmar, following the May 16
River Board meeting: The
Minnesota River Board needs to establish clear-cut goals and a strategy to meet
them if it is to see continued state funding support, according to John
Jaschke, executive director of the Board of Water and Soil Resources. It
receives $84,000 a year in state funding. Its member counties also pay dues to
support its operations. The River Board has been urging legislators to continue
the state funding, according to Shannon Fisher, executive director. The River
Board needs to become more action-oriented and set goals that will generate
support for funding if it is to survive as a clean water organization,
according to Jaschke.
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