Since the Cynthia Krieg Memorial Stewardship Fund was established, 76 grants totaling $542,022.92 have been awarded to community organizations in the Minnehaha Creek Watershed.

2008 Projects

Alliance for Sustainability

• Description: 25 volunteer teams from neighborhoods, congregations, schools & lake groups in the watershed will plan spring and summer projects and will receive year-round support to carry out 25 watershed education and restoration projects. 200 metro city staff will study model ordinances to implement the watershed goals in their comprehensive plans.
• Project Started: February 21, 2008
• Total Funds: $5,000.00

Bachman’s Inc.

• Description: Bachman’s, Inc., will construct the following exhibits at their Lyndale Avenue Garden Center: Rain Gardens, Permeable Pavers, Rain Barrel, Green Roof, and Aquatic Plants. The purpose is to educate the public on the problems associated with storm water runoff and what can be done on a residential scale to mitigate these problems. Each display will be an accurate representation of how a homeowner can build or install one of these solutions in their own yard and will explain the benefits of doing so.
• Project Started: February 14, 2008
• Total Funds: $30,000.00

Download description of project (pdf).

Cedar Manor Elementary

• Description: Our main goals are to: *Capture and relocate purple loosestrife beetles. *Collect and destroy ~garlic mustard and buckthorn. *Educate and assist students with water quality / watershed instruction.
• Project Started: February 21, 2008
• Total Funds: $1,075.00

City of Medina

• Description: The City's goal is to promote environmentally-sustainable practices that provide shoreline restoration and improve water quality as at its Holy Name Lake City Park.
• Project Started: February 21, 2008
• Total Funds: $12,850.00

City of Shorewood

• Description: Educate homeowners about improving water quality and reducing contamination through home lawn/garden care and landscaping. Two workshops will be offered and will include options to purchase reduced cost rain barrels and native plants, and soil test kits.
• Project Started: January 11, 2008
• Total Funds: $5,275.00

Friends of CUE/Metro Blooms

• Description: Metro Blooms has collaborated with watershed districts and local government organizations to educate, motivate, provide incentives for, and recognize community members who garden with ecologically sound practices. These practices include installing rain gardens, using native plants that thrive without pesticides and fertilizer, and redirecting downspouts and water flow to prevent polluted water runoff that damages our watersheds. The locations for our workshops and seminars that are in MCWD will be located in urban centers to attract and serve the largest number of citizens possible. These locations will be planned in collaboration with municipalities and partner organizations. At this time, we confirmed workshop locations in: St. Louis Park, SE Minneapolis (Nokomis), SW Minneapolis (Lynnhurst), and Plymouth. The funding will be used to hold educational workshops and seminars on stormwater runoff mitigation tactics (rain gardens, rain barrels, porous pavement, etc), print an educational brochure, award most watershed-friendly garden awards, and for our annual Blooms Day educational event.
• Project Started: February 14, 2008
• Total Funds: $20,000.00

Great River Greening

• Description: Landscape of a 4-unit apartment building will be transformed from turf grass and impermeable paving into a site where stormwater is treated on-site with a variety of low cost infiltration practices and native plantings. Volunteer installation is planned and design/results of monitoring will be made available as an online resource.
• Project Started: January 11, 2008
• Total Funds: $7,323.00

Kenny Community School

• Description: This project includes the development and installation of permanent educational signs for the Kenny school rain gardens, development and printing of teacher guides for the rain gardens, and the printing and mailing of an informational flyer/invitation regarding the educational signs to every neighborhood household
• Project Started: February 14, 2008
• Total Funds: $4,500.00

Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board

• Description: Watershed Explorations is a 10 week education program designed for urban youth between ages 11 and 14 to learn about their neighborhood watershed through hands-on activities and monitoring, service learning, and neighborhood outreach/leadership. Our 10 week program in includes 3 locations: the area around Lynnhurst, Pearl, and Nokomis Recreation Centers.
• Project Started: February 14, 2008
• Total Funds: $7,500.00

St. David’s

• Description: The Wetland Restoration and Water Quality Stewardship Project will further restore our School Forest Wetland, prevent shoreline erosion, and promote environmental stewardship through classroom and community-wide learning activities. Grant funds will increase public awareness of water quality, coordinate activities raise awareness, and increase community access. The Project benefits children enrolled in our preschool program, children from area school districts, community members and volunteers involved in service projects, environmental education, and the resulting improved water quality and general environmental health.
• Project Started: January 11, 2008
• Total Funds: $15,000.00

TonkaBlue

• Description: TonkaBlue consists of several young and ambitious individuals who plan to utilize a variety of methods that will effectively communicate our message of sustainability, preservation, and stewardship. Our goals for the Pro-Lake in ’08 Campaign are as follows: Create and distribute pertinent educational materials that allow students to construct knowledge of environmental processes and human systems, foster a sense of stewardship for our environment and a sense of personal responsibility for one’s actions, encourage social activism and community involvement, and build awareness of pressing local issues.
• Project Started: January 11, 2008
• Total Funds: $5,000.00

Western Hennepin County Pioneers Association

• Description: The WHCPA building is at 1953 W. Wayzata Blvd in Long Lake. Due to Highway 12 construction there is a need to upgrade the facilities with an addition and site work, including a parking. As part of the upgrade, WHCPA will install green parking lot and install interpretive signage (1 to 2 permanent signs, 18” x 24” or larger) outdoors at the green parking lot site. The sign(s) will explain the technology of the parking lot, the need for stormwater management, and the natural resources features on the site.
• Project Started: January 11, 2008
• Total Funds: $20,000.00

2007 Projects

Cermak Rhoades Architects/TCGRC

• Description: This project will develop a printed guide and workshops for homeowners interested in installing a green rooftop on a new or existing residential garage or other small outbuilding. A demonstration project will be installed, including test plots monitoring the performance of different plant varieties and growing media.
• Project Started: February 1, 2007
• Total Funds: $30,000.00

Eisenhower Elementary School

• Description: Phase Two of the “We are Water” project will continue to build on the success of Phase One. Please refer to the project report for an in depth account of the first phase. The overall goal of this educational play area is to inspire awareness and prompt lifetime conversation between children, teachers, parents and families about personal stewardship of our water. The Stepping Stones program is a pre-school program housed in the Hopkins schools, in this case Eisenhower Elementary. So the play area is available to the 600 children and their families as well.
• Project Started: January 1, 2007
• Total Funds: $15,945.00

Folwell Middle School

• Description: Our goal is to create sustainable science curriculum development for permanent rain and vegetable gardens. We will conduct soil studies that examine interrelationships between soil and water. We will also include a “story stone path” displaying the water cycle, in addition to various service learning projects that will be carried out by students.
• Project Started: February 1, 2007
• Total Funds: $7,320.02

Friends of CUE/Minneapolis Blooms

• Description: Minneapolis / Metro Blooms requests funding from the Minnehaha Creek Watershed District to expand the delivery of MB’s highly successful Rain Garden Workshops (RGWs) Program. To respond to the burgeoning demand for these tested education programs, MB plans to serve participants across the Minnehaha Creek Watershed District in collaboration with community organizations and volunteers during February through October of 2007. In the MCWD, we plan to provide: educational workshops serving at least 525 people in this watershed; small-group coaching seminars serving at least 420 people; at least 50 On-Site requested Rain Garden Consultations; and 52 Rain Garden Installation and Native Plant Grants. We will develop personal outreach to citizens in at least six MCWD communities. We will work with the MCWD to determine locations for workshops and coaching sessions. The goals of these workshops, piloted in 2005, is to educate as many citizens as possible to make positive and powerful changes in their landscaping choices by installing rain gardens in order to increase storm water infiltration directly into the aquifer and decrease polluted run-off into local storm water management systems. MB will offer citizens easy, compelling, cost-effective and environmentally sound land management practices, while helping to build and strengthen relationships within the community.
• Project Started: January 1, 2007
• Total Funds: $25,894.00

Friends of Edina Nature Center

• Description: In this project we will plant approximately 50 trees near the 62nd Street parking lot of Pamela Park in Edina. Our goals are to thus help absorb, and compensate for, the carbon dioxide/greenhouse gas emissions of Edinans to the atmosphere (some of which, will be monitored); to filter the parking lot’s run-off and other run-off before it reaches the waterway; to beautify the community; and thereby to continue the upgrading of the Minnehaha Creek watershed in the Pamela Park area.
• Project Started: February 1, 2007
• Total Funds: $5,000.00

In the Heart of the Beast Theatre

• Description: A grant from the Cynthia Krieg Watershed Stewardship Fund will support Invigorate the Common Well, an episodic production that will educate audiences about the city’s drinking water source. Blending performance, science, and civic engagement, Invigorate the Common Well offers an accessible and engaging means to examine issues of protecting, conserving and managing our watershed. The production will be presented as part of our company’s 2007 performance season and it is intended for youth and adult audiences.
• Project Started: January 1, 2007
• Total Funds: $5,000.00

Lake Minnetonka Garden Club

• Description: This project will be launched as part of an education exhibit open to the public during a three-day flower show at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum. Following the exhibit, outreach materials (a video and supplementary bookmark) will be distributed to citizens, municipalities and organizations throughout the Lake Minnetonka region, including the City of Minnetonka and Minnehaha Creek Watershed District.
• Project Started: February 1, 2007
• Total Funds: $4,267.00

St. David's Child Development

• Description: The Wetland Restoration and Stewardship Project joins educators, preschool children, and community members in an effort to restore our School Forest Wetland and build environmental stewardship through curriculum, activities and service learning.
• Project Started: February 1, 2007
• Total Funds: $15,000.00

TonkaBlue

• Description: Tonka Blue consists of several young and ambitious individuals who plan to utilize a variety of methods that together will effectively communicate our message of sustainability, preservation, and stewardship. Our goals for the Preservation through Education Project are as follows: create and distribute pertinent educational materials that allow students to construct knowledge of environmental processes and human systems; foster a sense of stewardship for our environment and a sense of personal responsibility for one’s actions; encourage social activism and community involvement; build awareness of pressing local issues; and establish the TonkaBlue brand as a symbol of those ideas through auxiliary products.
• Project Started: January 1, 2007
• Total Funds: $2,550.00

2006 Projects

Carondelet Catholic School

• Description: Implementation of watershed service learning with macroinvertebrate sampling, soil test kit distribution, and native plantings.
• Project Started: January 30, 2006
• Total Funds: $1,400.00

Eisenhower Elementary School

• Description: Design and construct a “We Are Water” watershed themed playground to educate children and families in the community about water quality and water resource protection.
• Project Started: February 6, 2006
• Total Funds: $12,000.00

Friends of CUE/Minneapolis Blooms

• Description: Conduct rain garden community workshops and provide technical assistance from landscape architects. Participant projects will receive ‘mini-grants’ to install rain gardens.
• Project Started: January 19, 2006
• Total Funds: $18,490.00

Fulton Neighborhood Association

• Description: Provide education and assistance to neighborhood residents for a decrease of the amount of stormwater runoff to improve the water quality of lake Harriet and Minnehaha Creek by gutter redirection, rain barrels and rain gardens.
• Project Started: February 6, 2006
• Total Funds: $9,675.00

Gleason Lake Improvement Association

• Description: Connecting students and lakeshore residents with process of documenting and assessing the flow of pollutants into Gleason Lake with partnership of City of Plymouth to install stormwater reduction practices.
• Project Started: January 23, 2006
• Total Funds: $16,220.00

Great River Greening

• Description: Produce Plants for Stormwater Design Volume II, including a chapter dedicated to the value of trees in stormwater management.
• Project Started: February 6, 2006
• Total Funds: $12,600.00

Kenny Neighborhood Association

• Description: Restoration of Grass Lake by developing a comprehensive plan focused on removal of invasive species and promoting native vegetation, shoreline stabilization and a widespread community education effort.
• Project Started: February 6, 2006
• Total Funds: $7,500.00

Minnesota Lakes Association

• Description: Conduct teacher workshops on the Minnesota Lake Ecology curriculum and lead schools in the lake related community service learning projects.
• Project Started: February 6, 2006
• Total Funds: $8,250.00

MTS Communication Arts & Technology High School

• Description: Begin a student stream monitoring site in Minnehaha Creek partnered with the River Watch program to assess the biodiversity of macroinvertebrates and monitor water quality parameters.
• Project Started: February 3, 2006
• Total Funds: $4,500.00

Orono Intermediate School

• Description: Integrate water studies into art, science, and music with a community wide water festival in Spring 2006.
• Project Started: January 27, 2006
• Total Funds: $8,375.00

2005 Projects

East Harriet - Farmstead Neighborhood Association

• Description: Bryant/BEAT! (Bryant/Barton Environmental Awareness Team) is a collaborative project between East Harriet Farmstead Neighborhood Association (EHFNA) and Barton Open School where students, school staff and EHFA staff and volunteers are creating and participating in a new "clean water curriculum"; researching, creating and distributing clean water educational materials, holding workshops, and posing everyday actions for neighborhood residents and business owners to improve water quality in the community.
• Project Started: May 31, 2005
• Total Funds: $10,604.00
• Project Summary

Friends of CUE/Minneapolis Blooms

• Description: The Minneapolis Blooms program is conducting a series of 17 workshops on how to create rain gardens utilizing native plants. As an incentive for homeowners to implement what they learned in the workshops, a $50 grant will be provided to gardeners to reimburse them for their first $50 purchase of native perennial plants to be planted in their own rain garden.
• Project Started: April 13, 2005
• Total Funds: $3,534.00
• Project Summary

Great River Greening

• Description: Great River Greening promotes innovative landscape design and maintenance. Project to include development and presentation of a series of workshops for professionals and contractors to explain the basic principles and benefits of native plant and natural system design and provide information on how to successfully design, install and maintain native plantings.
• Project Started: April 20, 2005
• Total Funds: $3,000.00
• Project Summary

Minneapolis Park & Recreation Board

• Description: Stabilization for 237 linear feet of shoreline on the north bank of Minnehaha Creek at Longfellow Gardens area, install interpretive panels focusing on shoreline stabilization and native plantings.
• Project Started: March 9, 2005
• Total Funds: $22,000.00

2004 Projects

Conservation League of Edina

• Description: Citizen monitoring project on Pamela Lake and Lake Harvey in Edina. Presentation and educational materials were also created and shared with the Edina community.
• Project Started: February 5, 2004
• Total Funds: $3,680.00
• Project Summary

Dharma Field Zen Center

• Description: The project initiated an integrated water management/landscape design focused on reducing water runoff through gutters and rain gardens, using native habitat, including urban prairie.
• Project Started: July 30, 2004
• Total Funds: $8,185.50
• Project Summary

In the Heart of the Beast Theatre

• Description: The Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre created two summer arts programs, Art Bus and Lake Street Theater Club, for inner city youth that examined watershed protection issues using puppet theater.
• Project Started: August 26, 2004
• Total Funds: $2,000.00
• Project Summary

Park Nicollet Heart & Vascular Center

• Description: The Heart & Vascular Center at Methodist College provided interpretive signage to help the public understand how rain gardens and vegetated buffers on the property can enhance water quality.
• Project Started: August 5, 2004
• Total Funds: $2,500.00
• Project Summary

Park Nicollet Heart Center at Methodist Hospital

• Description: Narratives displayed alongside wetland inspired artwork in common areas of the new building to increase awareness of this precious resource.
• Project Started: October 28, 2004
• Total Funds: $10,000.00
• Project Summary

2003 Projects

Crystal-Pierz Marine

• Description: Expand the Lake Minnetonka Clean-up event to actively include area residents and business owners in 2003. Promotional and educational elements of the program focuses on water quality protection, and included: mailings, signage, ads, and editorial-driven media coverage which will mention MCWD as having partially funded.
• Project Started: April 20, 2003
• Total Funds: $4,200.00

El Colegio Charter School

• Description: The El Colegio Charter School converted approximately 10,000 square feet of asphalt to pervious surface. The asphalt was replaced with two rain gardens/wetlands and upland garden space for native prairie and cultivated gardens. Approximately 2,500 square feet of this area will be designated as a wetland or wet garden. The site will be used as an on-going demonstration site for all interested people.
• Project Started: September 2, 2003
• Total Funds: $8,000.00
• Project Summary

Gleason Lake Improvement Association and DNR

• Description: The Gleason Lake Improvement Association and the MN DNR installed a runoff and natural treatment demonstration plot at the Luce Line parking lot in Plymouth. The funds will be used to install two drainage filtration and infiltration basins containing native vegetation (rain gardens).
• Project Started: June 6, 2003
• Total Funds: $6,000.00
• Project Summary

Hopkins High School Freshwater Academy

• Description: Interdisciplinary environmental science program focusing on freshwater ecology and water quality. Same goals as above. Forty-five (45) students all day for 9 weeks twice a years = 90 students participate then educate 120 Hopkins third graders for a half day about what they have learned. Then they meet with city officials and staff to talk about enacting ordinances to protecting water quality. Funds pay for equipment, educational materials, honorariums for speakers.
• Project Started: May 13, 2003
• Total Funds: $4,000.00

Intermediate School District 287

• Description: Special needs and low incidence learners will promote collaborative use of technology-assisted date collection in science and mathematics classrooms for schools in the MCWD District. Target is 560 students who will analyze data and design community service projects to address the water quality issues they learn.
• Project Started: May 15, 2003
• Total Funds: $4,675.00

Kenwood School

• Description: Kenwood School expanded the existing 5th grade Mississippi River Project. The grade 3 component will feature a comprehensive study of the Lake of the Isles. A CD was produced featuring 3rd grade original songs and poetry honoring this lake area and our urban watershed. The children created a booth for the Kenwood Learning Festival in May 2004, to promote behaviors that will contribute to the health of the watershed.
• Project Started: August 19, 2003
• Total Funds: $6,885.00

Minnesota Center for Environmental Advocacy

• Description: Installation of three rain gardens on the site. Runoff from lawns, rooftops, walks, and parking lots was directed to the rain gardens for treatment. 1.1 acres of lawn was converted to native vegetation and no-mow turf that will receive runoff and direct it into the swales and rainwater gardens. The combination of gardens can remove from 50-85% of the organic matter, sediment, phosphorus, and hydrocarbons before runoff enters storm sewers. The project area is located adjacent to Highway 100 just south of I-394 at the Lutheran Church of the Reformation.
• Project Started: October 17, 2003
• Total Funds: $7,524.00

Minnesota Groundwater Association

• Description: MGWA worked with about 50 students from 3 high schools in the District to assess ground water resources, including stream flow data and water levels. They calculated the distribution of water quality parameters in ground and surface water, and calculated contributions of groundwater to streamflow and water quality of Minnehaha Creek. Students disseminated the gathered information to the public and the MCWD.
• Project Started: May 28, 2003
• Total Funds: $2,500.00

Trillium Bay Homeowner's Association

• Description: Stabilize the water levels of Trillium Bay pond to eliminate the continuing shoreline erosion; restore shoreline to its original contour and stabilize it with plantings of native grasses and vegetation. Plantings will create a wetland buffer where none presently exists; and improve water quality of the pond and discharge to Lake Minnetonka through benefits of native vegetation, removal of rough fish and construction of lakeside weir.
• Project Started: March 27, 2003
• Total Funds: $19,000.00
• Project Summary

2002 Projects

Cedar Manor School

• Description: Students to collect loosestrife beetles and release them in areas around school, clean up street debris to keep it from going into storm gutters, and do a storm drain stenciling project. This is all incorporated into the classroom curriculum.
• Project Started: February 2, 2002
• Total Funds: $377.00

East Calhoun Community Organization

• Description: The neighborhood organization constructed two storm water swales on the south side and east side of the Gateway sculpture park to control erosion and rain water runoff.
• Project Started: July 16, 2002
• Total Funds: $5,441.00

Fulton Neighborhood Association

• Description: Fulton coordinated a comprehensive project to educate and motivate homeowners to make improvements to their property utilizing rainwater management principles. Project components included education, consulting, and matching grants for homeowner rainwater management projects.
• Project Started: July 16, 2002
• Total Funds: $2,500.00
• Project Summary

Kenwood School

• Description: Kenwood students conducted a scientific study of the SW Calhoun Pond Project, learning how pollutants settle out in the ponds and the natural filtering of water by aquatic plants. They wrote letters to public officials encouraging them to support programs that promote clean water. Students also took two field trips, one to the Science museum and one Big River Journey trip.
• Project Started: August 13, 2002
• Total Funds: $2,280.00

Linden Hills Neighborhood Association

• Description: The Linden Hills Neighborhood Association will continue efforts to remove Common Buckthorn and Glossy Buckthorn from residences in the Linden Hills neighborhood. They completed a yard-by-yard survey of the neighborhood (begun last year) to educate neighbors about the problems of buckthorn, its identification and proper removal. They assisted seniors and disabled residents in removing the buckthorn, and provided a licensed tree company's services to haul away all debris after removal from property.
• Project Started: July 8, 2002
• Total Funds: $3,760.00
• Project Summary

Minneapolis Public Schools

• Description: Joe Alfano attended the Rivers Institute at Hamline University during the summer of 2002. He will share what he learned with teachers in the Minneapolis schools.
• Project Started: July 31, 2002
• Total Funds: $400.00

Minnewashta Elementary School

• Description: 5th grade students organized and gave tours of their adopted wetland behind the school. They taught other students to conduct water quality tests and biodiversity studies of a wetland. They also worked with other schools in the district to protect and restore environmental integrity of wetlands in and around their communities. Students made brochures and posters to distribute within the community, and wrote articles to local newspapers to increase public awareness about the health of wetlands.
• Project Started: January 27, 2002
• Total Funds: $3,100.00

Standish Ericsson Neighborhood Association

• Description: SENA implemented a public education campaign to inform residents about the benefits of native habitat restoration along Minnehaha Creek shoreline. They also established a "Creek Rangers" volunteer program where neighbors will participate in clean-ups and community education activities.
• Project Started: July 29, 2002
• Total Funds: $3,100.00

2001 Projects

Art Start

• Description: Art Start partnered with Barton School to study water quality, do a clean-up at Lake Harriet, and create a sculpture with the found objects and debris. The sculpture will be displayed at various sites in the neighborhood prior to permanent display. Students designed water quality protections flyers to be distributed at the exhibit site.
• Project Started: July 25, 2001
• Total Funds: $2,100.00
• Project Summary

Benilde-St. Margaret School

• Description: Students continued restoration of the wetlands and holding ponds on school campus, including: native plantings; establishment of a buffer zone between the parking lot, athletic field and holding pond; biological control of purple loosestrife and buckthorn removal. In addition, students researched, planned and created a web page on water quality.
• Project Started: December 31, 2001
• Total Funds: $2,750.00
• Project Summary

Cedar Manor School

• Description: Purchased Waters to the Sea CD rom lab pack for classroom use.
• Project Started: December 13, 2001
• Total Funds: $329.00

Center for Neighborhoods

• Description: A conference on environmental issues for neighborhood organizations and citizen groups in Minneapolis was convened in January 2000 to link neighborhoods with environmental founders and resource organizations.
• Project Started: December 21, 2001
• Total Funds: $3,000.00
• Project Summary

City of Minnetonka

• Description: The City did a planting of the streambank along Minnehaha Creek with native grasses and wildflowers (buckthorn was removed in summer 2000). Cub Scouts and St. David's students were involved in planting.
• Project Started: October 11, 2001
• Total Funds: $2,500.00
• Project Summary

Ericsson School

• Description: Two teachers attended the Hamline University Rivers Institute in July. They will utilize Rivers to the Sea CD Roms to teach students about water quality protection. Students conducted water testing, clean-ups along Minnehaha Creek, documented landforms along the creek, and posted results on the MCWD web site. Families were invited to participate.
• Project Started: August 23, 2001
• Total Funds: $2,215.00
• Project Summary

Hale, Page, Diamond Lake Community Association

• Description: Numerous water quality protection projects involving local volunteers, including erosion control plantings around Diamond lake, non-native species abatement, and public education about water quality protection.
• Project Started: July 18, 2001
• Total Funds: $2,500.00
• Project Summary

Hamline Center for Global Environmental Education

• Description: Hamline CGEE purchased an book laptop to create a watershed multimedia Kiosk, with interactive educational experiences about non-point source pollution. The kiosk was on display at libraries and events in the Minnehaha Creek Watershed District.
• Project Started: January 1, 2001
• Total Funds: $1,500.00

Hennepin Conservation District

• Description: Students collected long-term water quality data that is useful in resource management decisions. Results are reported to local agencies and general public. Seven schools from the MCWD were involved.
• Project Started: November 1, 2001
• Total Funds: $6,750.00
• Project Summary

Hill School

• Description: Students adopted Nelson Beach Park on Long Lake. They did cleanups, stenciling, and studied water quality protection. They made a presentation to Long Lake administrators about chemical use in the park, created posters for local stores, write articles for local papers, and designed a brochure for local citizens. They participated in City Council meetings to discuss water quality issues and present their findings and recommendations.
• Project Started: August 20, 2001
• Total Funds: $2,000.00
• Project Summary

Hopkins High School Freshwater Academy

• Description: The Freshwater Academy is an interdisciplinary environmental science program focusing on freshwater ecology and water quality. The goal is to help students become community leaders and informed citizens with regard to water. The funding paid for water testing, clean-ups, purple loosestrife abatement, peer teaching at elementary school in Minneapolis.
• Project Started: August 1, 2001
• Total Funds: $6,150.00
• Project Summary

New Earth Partnership

• Description: The New Earth Partnership includes four churches. This project includes two demonstration landscaping projects, one at a church on Minnehaha creek, another in St Louis Park. Signage and public education to members of congregations about water quality protection included in the project. Funding pays for planting supplies, signage, brochures and a planting consultant.
• Project Started: July 26, 2001
• Total Funds: $3,400.00
• Project Summary

Orono Middle School

• Description: Middle school students did a removal of buckthorn from wetland edges, purple loosestrife control at Lake Classen, shoreline cleanups along Long Lake. Includes noxious weed removal adjacent to sediment basin at Old Crystal Bay Rd and Cty Rd 6. Students wrote articles about activities for school newsletters and local newspapers.
• Project Started: October 22, 2001
• Total Funds: $1,278.00
• Project Summary

Powderhorn Park Neighborhood Association

• Description: Working with El Colegio Charter School, the Powderhorn Park Neighborhood Association (PPNA)developed a multi-lingual public education campaign aimed at informing non-English speaking residents about water quality protection.
• Project Started: December 19, 2001
• Total Funds: $1,800.00
• Project Summary

Roosevelt High School

• Description: Students collected chemical water data, macroinvertebrate specimens in Lake Hiawatha, Minnehaha Creek and the Mississippi River. Students presented results in a community newsletter. Results will be incorporated into GIS maps and posted on a web site linked to MCWD web site, presented to parents and local elementary and middle school students.
• Project Started: December 13, 2001
• Total Funds: $2,910.00
• Project Summary

The Green Institute

• Description: Educational materials on watershed protection were translated into non-English languages through working with immigrant populations from East Africa, Southeast Asia and Latin America. These same groups will be involved in storm drain stenciling in their neighborhoods (South Minneapolis), with the stenciling being done in several languages.
• Project Started: December 13, 2001
• Total Funds: $4,313.00
• Project Summary

Westwood Nature Center

• Description: Westwood Nature Center purchased a canoe trailer. This allowed them to do trash pick-ups along Minnehaha creek, educational canoe trips, and water quality monitoring. This allows the staff to expand programming beyond the nature center to the creek.
• Project Started: November 14, 2001
• Total Funds: $1,240.00
• Project Summary

2000 Projects

Hiawatha Elementary School

• Description: Students participated in a weeklong "Rivers of Life-Celebration of the Mississippi River" with Hamline University Center for Global Environmental Education. Students did storm drain stenciling and integrated water quality education into the curriculum.
• Project Started: November 1, 2000
• Total Funds: $500.00

Minnetonka Middle School

• Description: The science department started a Watershed Stewardship Program at both middle schools. Students used USGS topographical maps to construct 3-D models of their assigned areas around Lake Minnetonka. They also collected and tested soil and water samples using a Limnology Test kit.
• Project Started: April 1, 2000
• Total Funds: $2,033.40