Celebrating Volunteers
Thanks to everyone who came to the State of the Waters event on December 13th, 2017. This is the second year that we have come together to celebrate our volunteers and share successes and accomplishments of the past year.
Reducing salt use
The Nine Mile Creek Watershed District works hard to educate about the risks of oversalting our roads and parking lots. While salt is necessary to keep drivers and pedestrians safe, many companies apply too much. More salt does not mean more melting! Any salt sitting on dry pavement is no longer doing its job, and is simply polluting our waterbodies.
Chris Link from the City of Richfield shared actions that the City has taken to maximize safety, while still reducing the salt they use.
Randy Holst, a Minnesota Water Steward, shared the goals and progress of the group, Stop Over Salting. They hope to make Congresspeople aware of this problem, and come at the problem from a legislative angle.
Volunteer(s) of the Year
This year we began a new award, called the Volunteer of the Year. We chose two volunteers as the winners of the inaugural award. Bob Cutshall and Bob Prince have worked together on many projects throughout the year, and have been advocates for habitat restoration and water quality.
Here is a snapshot of a few projects they have worked on in 2017:
- Creation and installation of the Little Seed Library
- Removal of buckthorn on Discovery Point land, as well as on a nearby trail for the City of Eden Prairie
- Planting native plants in the Discovery Point prairie
- Moving old logs and boulders left over from Discovery Point construction
Congratulations to Bob and Bob on being named the 2017 Volunteers of the Year!
This award is given to a volunteer who has shown extraordinary commitment to water quality, done creative projects, and shown dedication to the goals of the Nine Mile Creek Watershed District.
We hope you will join us at next year’s celebration! In the meantime, come to one of our education programs or volunteer events to learn more about the work we do. You can find upcoming events at the link below.