Raising the Bar for the Lower St. Croix
If you have ever driven over the Lower St. Croix River on I-94 at Hudson in the summer and saw the hundreds of speedboats and starter yachts cruising the currents, you may think the river is well beyond "endangered."
But our national sister river organization, American Rivers, rightly saw the threat to the Lower St. Croix and named it one of America's Ten Most Endangered Rivers for 2009.
It's precisely because the Lower St. Croix is still quite pristine and attractive, and happens to adjoin a metropolitan area of over three million people, that it is threatened. As is the case with scores of rivers in Wisconsin, after water quality, the biggest threat to rivers is ill-considered development. In the case of the Lower St. Croix, two parties managed to beat the land use control system on the Minnesota side in order to build mini -castles within clear view of the river. (That story was well reported by Minnesota Monthly magazine a year ago.)
Depsite its designation as a "national scenic riverway," the designation has no teeth to bite into land use decisions, which remain in local hands. A few years ago, Wisconsin updated its rules regulating land use on the Wisconsin side of the river (NR 118), but their enforcement is spotty and inconsistent.
One good development coming out of the Lower St. Croix River is a "back to the future" re-emergence of the St. Croix River Association. Formed over 90 years ago but too timid and too loosely organized to take on the many tough issues challenging the river, the group has reinvigorated leadership from people like Randy Ferrin, Peter Gove and Dan McGuiness. We have high hopes for an effective champion for the entire river coming out of the reformulated SCRA.
Since 2006 the Wisconsin DNR has tallied Water Success Stories, which items tabulated from submissions by individuals throughout the state. The 2009 Success Stories include highlights from 2 River Alliance Programs: Citizen Water Monitoring and Project RED. Congratulations to Chris Clayton and Laura MacFarland for their recognition!
Communicating Environmentally Workshop
The River Alliance of Wisconsin is hosting a workshop to help you have an effective voice in decision making. The officials we send to the Capitol and elect to town, city, and county boards can’t represent you unless you tell them what’s important to you. The Communicating Environmentally workshop will help you wade through the decision-making process for local governments and understand how you can influence environmental policy decisions. Click here to register.There is still time to register to attend the 5th Annual Spring Confluence. Click here for more details.
In This Issue
St. Croix Endangered
Water Successes
Communicating Environmentally
April 25th
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