Hello Commissioners, City staff and Minneapolis residents,
My name is Amanda Winterer and I represent the Bottineau Neighborhood Association. I am the group’s treasurer. Thank you for this opportunity to make this statement. Bottineau Neighborhood Association requests that the funding structure and levels of funding remain the same for all neighborhood groups for the foreseeable future. The Citizen Participation Program has worked well for the past 8 years.
For example, Bottineau has established Neighborhood Priority Plans. One such NPP is the Homework Helper at Bottineau Park. After a few Somali parents asked for this help, at a community meeting, our neighborhood group got busy and set up the coordination of volunteer tutors to help all children get STEM help at our park. Another NPP implemented is Crime Solutions that works with the police to track crime trends and react with organized volunteers when shots are fired in the community or other crimes are committed. We have many examples of this type of outreach conducted at community request.
BNA also requests that the Community Innovation Funds, CIF, be expanded and used more. BNA was a recipient of one such CIF grant and put it to use studying air pollution around the Lowry Bridge that leveraged an additional 500,000 dollars in MPCA air monitoring that is currently being conducted on the Mississippi Water Management Organization roof top near Lowry Bridge.
As a matter of neighborhood tradition, a pumpkin carving is held at the Park every fall and a Bottineau Neighborhood and Mississippi River clean-up is held every April in honor of Earth Day. This year, as part of the Green Zones in Minneapolis, we will be able to offer 25 free trees to the community to help remediate air pollution and improve the tree canopy in Bottineau.
Thanks again for listening to our request. Copies of this testimony are at the sign in table.
Thursday, September 10 — 6-8 p.m.
Sheridan Memorial-Above the Falls Regional Park, Northeast Minneapolis
Help maintain the riverfront raingarden in Minneapolis’ newest park. In addition to beautifying this memorial park, the raingarden provides bee, butterfly and bird habitat while reducing the amount of polluted runoff flowing into the Mississippi River.
Learn more and sign up via the event page, or sign up now with Amy at [email protected] or 651-222-2193 x31.
Native Wetland & Green Infrastructure Planting
Thursday, September 17 — 6-8 p.m.
Crosby Farm Regional Park, St. Paul
Near the confluence of the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers, volunteers will work in a raingarden, a runoff-reducing berm and in a demonstration prairie, planting a variety of native plants in each. This “green infrastructure” reduces erosion, filters water pollution and provides much-needed pollinator and wildlife habitat in the urban river corridor.
Learn more and sign up via the event page, or sign up now with Amy at [email protected] or 651-222-2193 x31.
Woodland Seedling Tending
Thursday, September 24 — 6-8 p.m.
Whitetail Woods Regional Park, Farmington
Join us in Dakota County’s newest park, 456-acre Whitetail Woods! Working alongside FMR and Dakota County staff, volunteers will install and repair tree tubes to protect seedlings recently planted by local volunteers from Dakota Electric. In addition to protecting the young trees from rabbits and deer, the tubes will shelter the seedlings from high winds and create a sort of microclimate to help them make it through their first winter.
Learn more and sign up via the event page, or sign up now with Amy at [email protected] or 651-222-2193 x31.
Community Spirits Night
Thursday, September 24 — 6-9 p.m.
Wander North Distillery, 771 Harding St. N.E., Ste. 150, Minneapolis
FMR is the nonprofit of the night at this new local distillery! Enjoy a tour (8 p.m.), drink raffles and craft libations in the cocktail room. Plus a dollar of every drink sold goes towards FMR, and it’s a great way to introduce friends or family to your favorite local nonprofit. Rusty Taco food truck will also be there. No RSVPs necessary!
Seed Collection in the Sand Coulee/Rare Prairie
Saturday, October 3 — 9:30-11:30 a.m.
Sand Coulee Scientific & Natural Area, near Hastings
After a brief training, volunteers will help collect much-needed native prairie seed while enjoying this rare sand-gravel prairie in full fall bloom. All seed will be used for further habitat restoration. Large quantities —— of volunteers and seed alike —— are needed!
Learn more and sign up via the event page, or sign up now with Amy at [email protected] or 651-222-2193 x31.
Showy Demonstration Prairie Planting
Thursday, October 8 — 5:30-7:30 p.m.
Ole Olson — Above the Falls Regional Park, Minneapolis
Join us as we break ground on FMR’s newest restoration site in north Minneapolis! Working with FMR Ecologist Alex Roth and Stewardship Coordinator Adam Flett, volunteers will install a demonstration native prairie garden along the bike trail — beautifying the park and providing much-needed pollinator habitat.
Learn more and sign up via the event page, or sign up now with Amy at [email protected] or 651-222-2193 x31.
Hayride + Buckthorn Blast — Join one or both!
Saturday, October 17 — 8:30-1 p.m.
3M-Cottage Grove bluff top woodlands and prairie, Cottage Grove
Thanks to community volunteers and a long-term partnership with 3M, FMR has had the privilege of helping to preserve and restore a rare prairie and oak woodlands at 3M’s Cottage Grove facility just above the Mississippi River. Former invasive species thickets are now home to wildflowers and wildlife, and help connect adjacent natural areas to create a green corridor in southern Washington County. Come help celebrate our success and continue this important restoration project!
This special event kicks off with a light breakfast followed by a prairie nature walk and hayride with FMR Lead Ecologist Karen Schik. Next, volunteers are needed to work with FMR Ecologist Alex Roth and River Stewardship Coordinator Adam Flett to help restore the oak woodlands by hauling pre-cut brush, primarily buckthorn, and then enjoy a catered lunch. You can sign up for the walk and hayride (8:30-10:30 a.m.), the buckthorn blast (10:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.), or both!
Learn more and sign up via the event page, or sign up now with Amy at [email protected] or 651-222-2193 x31. Don’t forget to let Amy know if you’re planning to join the nature walk and hayride, the buckthorn blast — or both!
Restore Habitat at Pine Bend Bluffs
Saturday, October 24 — 9 a.m.-noon
Pine Bend Bluffs, Flint Hills Resources restoration area, Rosemount
Join FMR, Flint Hills Resources and Great River Greening as we return to the Flint Hills property within the Pine Bend Bluffs Natural Area along the Mississippi River —— one of the largest and most diverse native ecosystems remaining in the metro area. The site is only accessible to the public for special occasions such as this annual restoration and celebration event.
Learn more and sign up via the event page, or sign up now with Amy at [email protected] or 651-222-2193 x31.
New Stormwater Park and Learning Center Demonstrates Sustainable Development, Green Infrastructure
MINNEAPOLIS — The Mississippi Watershed Management Organization (MWMO) invites the public to celebrate the completion of its one-of-a-kind Stormwater Park and Learning Center on Saturday, Sept. 19.
The family-friendly grand opening celebration from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. will feature tours, interactive displays and exhibits, and kids’ activities. The event will mark the completion of the MWMO’s public park and facility, which serves as a showcase of landscape features that save, clean and reuse stormwater.
“We have built a beautiful green space for people to enjoy — but more importantly, it’s a place where people can see what green infrastructure looks like and how simple features like raingardens and tree trenches protect our natural resources,” said MWMO Executive Director Doug Snyder.
The park is built around 11 unique, visible stormwater management features. Highlights include a green roof, a 4,500-gallon cistern, large raingardens with native prairie vegetation and a special experiment station to test different soil mixtures for filtering stormwater.
“Not a drop of water that falls on our site runs off into the river,” Snyder said. “Our stormwater treatment train can absorb and clean up to seven inches of stormwater runoff in a single day from our site and the surrounding area.”
The MWMO’s building, which hosts many energy and water-saving technologies, has been upgraded with a number of educational and interpretive features to teach the public how stormwater runoff pollutes water.
The opening of the Stormwater Park and Learning Center involved removing nearly 18,000 tons of contaminated soil and restoring a piece of riverbank to a natural, sustainable state. The project won a Minnesota Brownfields ReScape Award and provides a new public access point to the Mississippi River.
Visitors will also have the opportunity to see the Minneapolis Satellite Reef, part of the worldwide Crochet Coral Project created by the Institute For Figuring, in partnership with the Minneapolis Institute of Art.
When
Saturday, Sept. 19, 2015
10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Where
MWMO Stormwater Park and Learning Center
2522 Marshall Street NE
Minneapolis, MN 55418
Photos and Videos
Flickr photo album: https://flic.kr/s/aHske2wn8j
YouTube video about our backyard restoration project:
