Rice Creek Watershed District

Big news!! Starting in 2025, we've increased our Water Quality Grant funding—you can now get up to $10,000 for a project that helps protect our water resources! Projects like rain gardens, various native plant landscaping, shoreline restoration and planting native plants, erosion control, green roofs, prairie plantings, and even agricultural conservation practices could be eligible for funding. (If you're unfamiliar with these types of projects, don't worry! We can help talk through ideas!) If you’ve ever wanted to help protect our natural resources, now is the time. We’ll even do a FREE site visit and help you brainstorm ideas. Reach out to us today to learn more about how you can get started! Email Molly at [email protected] More info here: https://lnkd.in/gtiQ8W3A

May will be here before we know it, join us to learn how to maintain your rain garden and get it ready for the year. Workshop held in person in Roseville with Blue Thumb - Planting for Clean Water, where we will work on an actual rain garden. Details and registration at link below. Register Here: https://lnkd.in/g43iVRJ6

What a great story and landowner perspective on keeping your lakeshore natural with plants and trees, not turf grass and riprap. We have grant funding available to anyone who wants to do something like this! ?? Apply for a grant for a shoreline project here: https://lnkd.in/gtiQ8W3A From the article: “Mary and Richard Gallea can still remember the former owner of their lakeside cabin telling them he spent six or seven hours a week mowing the lawn. The Galleas understood quickly that wouldn’t work for them. They’d bought the cabin on Great Northern Lake as a weekend getaway and had zero interest in cutting more grass. “For a weekend guy, that was like, ‘Nope,’” Richard Gallea recalled.” https://lnkd.in/geBiFQ_g

Yes, we do agricultural projects too! Rice Creek Watershed District has a diverse landscape including many rural and agricultural landscapes and farms. We recently finished a farm project that consisted of a large waste storage facility. These facilities significantly reduce waste (aka manure) from running into our streams and lakes. It's safely stored for longer periods so it can be properly used later for fertilizer. Partners included Washington Conservation District and USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service. Various funds came from RCWD as well as partners to cover some costs of the project. Project Details here: https://lnkd.in/gXSu-nQi

Tired of mowing and watering your lawn?? Take back your time and money. This spring, switch to beautiful, low-maintenance native grasses and wildflowers! Native plants save time, support pollinators, and protect our waters from pollution. Grants Available! Start the process now so you're ready for spring. Apply now for funding to create pollinator gardens or rain gardens! For smaller projects like rain barrels and pollinator gardens: https://lnkd.in/gedN-mJ2 For larger projects like rain gardens: https://lnkd.in/gtiQ8W3A

Are you passionate about protecting local lakes, rivers, and wetlands? Join the Rice Creek Watershed District’s Citizen Advisory Committee (CAC) and play an active role in shaping water resource efforts in your community! As a CAC member, you’ll provide valuable input on District's efforts, review grant applications, attend events, and more. We’re especially looking for residents of Anoka and Washington counties to represent their communities. Application here! https://lnkd.in/gpKTGqMx Download and fill out PDF and email to [email protected]

RCWD in the local news! Our staff talks to North Metro TV about the negative effects of too much road salt on our water, wetlands, lakes, and rivers. RCWD is committed to working with our local cities, counties, and communities to reduce salt usage in the winter and finding better ways to combat this issue, like installing heated sidewalks, using brine mixtures instead of salt, providing trainings to learn how to use less salt in general, using grit for traction, designing better infrastructure layouts, and more. https://lnkd.in/g_WTzbbf

We had our biannual City/County Partner meeting last week! We get together with our partners and talk about how we can work together, project planning, District updates, and show real examples of work we've done with one of our partner cities, Fridley. Thank you to City of Fridley for being a great partner in protecting our water resources! Go check out the new Moore Lake Park facilities when you get a chance, you won't be disappointed.

We've been busy this year celebrating 4 lake delistings! We just published an article detailing these events along with a bunch of information about the 4 lakes. Huge thank you to everyone that showed up to these events and all our partners who completed projects to help improve and protect these water bodies, this wouldn't be possible without everyone working together! https://lnkd.in/e3wpgEPe

We've been busy this year celebrating 4 lake delistings! We just published an article detailing these events along with a bunch of information about the 4 lakes. Huge thank you to everyone that showed up to these events and all our partners who completed projects to help improve and protect these water bodies, this wouldn't be possible without everyone working together! https://lnkd.in/e3wpgEPe