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| are we doing enough to protect this?
Photo by J. Harrington
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Undaunted, we proceeded to poke the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources web site where we discovered:
We were dismayed to learn that our watershed, the Sunrise River, which flows through the Eastern portions of MnDNR's very large Carlos Avery Wildlife Management Area, is not identified. It's incorporated into the "St. Croix-Stillwater watershed."Minnesota's watershed basins
Perhaps it's understandable that MnDNR seems to have misplaced a watershed, since the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, on their very own web page of watersheds, tells us that:
Minnesota has 80 major watersheds located within the 10 major water basins of the state.If two of the primary state agencies responsible for working on watershed management can't agree on the number of major basins (8 versus 10) nor the number of watersheds (81 versus 80), it could be quite a challenge for educators to try to teach their students which watershed they live in or attend school in. And yet, were we to propose that Minnesotans become much more aware of water resources and develop a water ethic, we'd really like to be sure that students from grades K through 12 learn, as part of STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) and STEAM (science, technology, engineering, ARTS, math) about the watershed and bioregion where they and their families live.
Misplacing watersheds such as the Sunrise river seems particularly egregious for the MnPCA, since a search for Sunrise River on the agency's web site yields 296 results. That seems like quite a bit of information for a watershed that isn't officially acknowledged. For example, here's the Sunrise River Watershed Restoration and Protection Strategy Report - Final. It notes that
The Sunrise River Watershed is approximately 385 square miles and is located in parts of four counties (Anoka, Chisago, Isanti, and Washington) with the largest area in Chisago County. The area includes eight incorporated cities (North Branch, Stacy, Wyoming, Forest Lake, East Bethel, Chisago City, Lindstrom, and Center City) and covers portions of nineteen townships...We don't need to reinvent the wheel to get a handle on this slippery subject. We needn't continue to let reality slip between our fingers. Several years ago, the University of Minnesota's Water Resources Center produced a Water Sustainability Framework. That referenced DNR's basins. It also identified a substantial number of agencies that often work on issues in an uncoordinated fashion. Were we Minnesota's water czar for a few years, we'd work intensely with the legislature to ensure that the process outlined in the Framework was adopted or improved. To our knowledge, the Minnesota legislature has done nothing substantive in response to the Framework Report. Does Minnesota's need for a water ethic start with the legislature?
For the Children
Gary Snyder
The rising hills, the slopes,
of statistics
lie before us.
The steep climb
of everything, going up,
up, as we all
go down.
In the next century
or the one beyond that,
they say,
are valleys, pastures,
we can meet there in peace
if we make it.
To climb these coming crests
one word to you, to
you and your children:
stay together
learn the flowers
go light
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