July 7, 2021 • 30 mins
Today we have Mary Hammes joining us. Mary is the Environmental Stewardship & Volunteer Manager at Mississippi Park Connection. The environment impacts everything around us. Mississippi Park Connection provides opportunities for people to get to and on the river—and have a national park experience in the Twin Cities. How does the health of our environment impact the health of our extended community? Mississippi Park Connection strengthens the enduring connection between people and the Mississippi River by enriching the life of the river and the lives of all who experience our national park, the Mississippi National River, and Recreation Area. In partnership with the National Park Service, Mississippi Park Connection will ignite discovery and a lifelong relationship with the Mississippi River. Through youth education, environmental stewardship, and community engagement, we will mobilize residents and visitors, and serve as a model for operating a national park in an urban area where people are part of the landscape.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:01):
Hello, friends, Welcome to reada Finding Volunteerism, a podcast by hands
On Twin Cities. I'm Tracy Nielsen, the executive director of hands On Twin
Cities, and I'm your host.I'm so excited because we have another amazing
(00:36):
guests and episode for you today.We're going to be talking about something that
many of us probably drive by andover maybe daily. It's an important part
of our community and our natural environment. What am I referring to? The
mighty Mississippi River. We're going tobe talking today with Mary Hammis from Mississippi
Park Connection. Mary has been workingin natural resources in the Twin Cities for
(01:00):
over a decade. She coordinates landstewardship projects for the Mississippi National River and
Recreation Area. She works to ensurethat volunteers are well integrated into plans for
land management and builds coalitions to findinnovative solutions to conservation issues faced by our
river community. So excited to chatwith Mary, Let's get onto the show.
(01:26):
Thank you Mary so much for beingwith us today. To kick things
off, can you give us ahigh level overview of Mississippi Park Connection and
your role within that organization. Yeah, such a pleasure to join you,
Tracy. So, Mississippi Park Connectionis the nonprofit partner to the national park
along the Mississippi River just called theMississippi National River and Recreation Area. A
(01:52):
little bit of a mouthful, reallygreat park that celebrates the Mississippi River.
So we work with park rangers toconnect people to the river and celebrate all
that it has to offer us inthis seventy two miles stretch. My role
in particular is as environmental Stewardship andvolunteer manager, so I get to work
(02:15):
alongside park rangers to manage somewhere aroundfive thousand volunteers annually. So kind of
everything we do is in partnership withthe park, and it's kind of helpful
to know. You know, it'slike, wait, I didn't realize there
was a National park here. It'sone of the ways I like to tell
(02:35):
it is that when you're in downtownMinneapolis, you're like in the city of
Minneapolis, you're also in Hennepin County, and then you're also in a National
park. So it's sort of thisother layer of protection and celebration. The
park was established in nineteen eighty eight, so you know, great people like
Minneapolis Park and Recreation and county parksystems. We're already in place doing good
(02:59):
work alone the river, and sothe Park Service works in partnership with all
of those like land managing entities andas environmental stewarghip Environmental Stewardship Manager. I
work with those twenty five cities andcounties really to just help meet their restoration
goals with volunteers. Oh my gosh, well that is a lot so tell
(03:21):
us like visually, so as somebodywho's in the city, Like, where
might I be when I'm standing ina national park and not even know it.
I mean, you mentioned all ofthese different places, but let's like
get a visual here. Oh totallyyeah. I mean Harriet Island is a
really recognizable one, obviously Raspberry Islandbecause it's right in the middle of the
river. But those are a coupleof meat places in downtown Saint Paul,
(03:45):
of course. Lily Dale Regional Parkis just adjacent to Harriet Island, a
really cool and really big natural space. And then I think a great one
in downtown many oppolts that folks mightrecognize as the Stone Arch Bridge and kind
of the whole like Mill Ruins area, and Father Hennepin Bluffs. Those spaces
(04:05):
are a National park, they're alsocity parks, and they're also just like
really cool places to hang out indowntown. So I think one of the
things that's so cool about our parkis that you can be in an urban
setting like Minneapolis or Saint Paul andthen kind of drift into a natural space
(04:26):
and less than like a ten minutewalk. That's what really makes this park
really special. Absolutely beautiful, beautifulplaces. And I was surprised going down
to the Stone Arch Bridge and realizingthere we were national park, a beautiful,
beautiful space, and all the workthat you and volunteers do to keep
that habitat, you know, intactfor the rest of us and for the
(04:46):
natural environment. So so just takinga i don't know, fifty thousand,
maybe hundred thousand foot view of environmentalism, let's just sort of reel it all
back. So I'm just a persona lot going on. You know,
why why do I care about theenvironment. Maybe that's a strange question,
but I think that's a great question. You know, folks who have done
(05:11):
this work for years forget that.You know, there's so many other important
aspects to people's lives and and soit's you know, it's important to give
back to the basics about why wedo the work that we do and draw
people in my uh, I thinkthe best point of entree is to go
back to ourselves. So if youlook in the mirror today, Tracy,
you will be looking at a bodythat is seventy percent Mississippi River. So
(05:36):
we all get our drinking water fromthe Mississippi. Yeah. Wow, And
I'm wearing a short nobody you knowobviously can see, but I have the
river on it, the Mississippi River, and here I am embodying literally the
Mississippi River. So there. Yeah, it's it's it's super cool. I
(05:57):
love like being on the water,touching water, and just you know,
thinking about the connection, like I'mI'm made of this and it's so important
to give back to it because wedepend on it for life and people who
depended on it for life for thousandsof years. So the river and the
spaces along the river have been caredfor and stewarded by amazing volunteers, but
(06:20):
also for tens of thousands of years, you know, this has been the
ancestral homeland of Dakota Indigenous people andthose people continue today to be resilient and
to work work on the earth andmake sure that it continues to benefit people.
(06:40):
Absolutely absolutely. So, you know, we talked about all of these
places and where they reside and howclose or far away might be away from
them. I know that one ofthe goals of the Mississippi Park Connection is
about providing park experiences for everyone.Tell us about how you open up these
spaces and make people aware of themand engage people in the spaces. Yeah,
I mean, obviously, Tracy,I'm going to talk about volunteerism.
(07:05):
I think, you know, themagic of being a volunteer is that we
have such a big variety of optionsthat you can kind of come to the
river and be met where you're at. I think that you know, people
can come and engage by leading afield trip. They can help to plant
(07:27):
trees, they could help to sewpatches on uniforms. You know, there's
all these different there. We trulyhave like a whole cohort of sewing volunteers
and they're fabulous. But you know, we also recognize that parks and public
spaces don't feel the same to allvisitors. One of the ways that we
(07:49):
hope to start addressing that and tocreate safe earth spaces is through a program
that is by and led by blackIndigenous people of color. So that's led
by my colleague to Marry a fewand of course lots of really great collaborative
(08:09):
partners, but really an attempt tokind of create safe earth spaces for people
who often don't feel as comfortable inpublic parks and things like that. Absolutely,
there's a term that I have beenhearing recently called intersectional environmentalism. Is
it's this idea of an inclusive versionof the environmentalism that is both advocating for
(08:33):
the protection of the planet but alsofor people. Is this something that's sort
of on the minds of you andall of our friends at Mississippi Park Connection.
Yeah. I mean it's got tostart with people, right, Like
we have to start with what ismeaningful to people, what is going to
what do people care about, andwhat do people need? And I think,
(08:56):
you know, for a really longtime, I think the environmental movement
had at least a reputation of beingyou know, shaming people of being very
um, I don't know, Yeah, I think shame is just the best
word that comes to mind, Likeyou you know, you're not a good
(09:16):
person if you litter and things likethat, and I think I don't think
that's quite the right frame. AndI think things are changing and really starting
to look at like what do humancommunities need because we are all interconnected,
and especially with these natural spaces,we know that you know, these natural
forested space spaces are providing ambient cooling. They're going to help us adapt to
(09:41):
changing climate conditions like floods that aremore frequent and more severe and storms that
are more frequent and more severe.We get benefits from the you know,
air quality that trees provide, andyou know, it's just it's I'm trailing
off. No, No, let'ssort of really back. So one thing
(10:03):
that's definitely, you know, beena hot topic of discussion is the idea
of climate change. You know,you've just been talking a little bit about
sort of how interconnected all things are. I mean, as somebody who's come
to work with you all with volunteers, even when you described like oh,
invasive species, prevent runoff, preventthis that then impacts you know this,
(10:26):
you know, all of that interconnectedness. You know, I think that's important
when we think about climate change.And I guess I'm just curious, like,
how are you all thinking about climatechange and what effect is it having
on your work. Yeah, we'reone of the biggest places where we're thinking
about climate change is again in forestedfloodplain areas. So one of the coolest
(10:48):
places in our river is is thosefloodplains. And people might not know what
floodplains are, so really that's justthe spaces where water can spread out.
So maybe you're familiar with again lilyDale Regional Park or Crosby Regional Park,
and these are spaces where in thespring, when we have snowmelt and increased
(11:09):
rainfall, the water can go overthe banks, spread out into the into
the forested spaces and have a placeto go that doesn't doesn't damage infrastructure or
people. And indeed, like thedisturbance that that creates is really critical for
(11:30):
a lot of different species. Thatspace is so crucial for dealing with flooding
and dealing with increased storms. Andwe do have some concerns about some of
the tree species that are that arebeing challenged by changing conditions. So we
have started a collaboration with the Universityof Minnesota and the Forest Service and we
(11:56):
are experimenting on how do we adaptto this, What are the forests of
the future, and how will futureforests be most beneficial to critters and people
alike and provide the benefits that weneed as climate conditions change. So we
have a series of twenty four researchplots down in Crosby Farm Regional Park and
(12:22):
we're looking at you know, weknow that plant communities are moving ninety miles
north for every degree of warming,and so that, you know, kind
of begs the question, well,maybe we should be considering some trees that
are currently ninety miles south of US. So looking at some kind of interesting
species compilations and we'll be researching fortwenty years how those do and what kind
(12:48):
of a novel forest might look likein the future. Wow, that's incredible.
And speaking of planting trees, soone of the things I was curious
about. You've been a massive effortof planting trees recently, some some big
goals. Um tell us about that, Yeah, um, yeah, super
(13:09):
excited. This year in twenty twentyone, we're going to be wrapping up
a goal to plant fifteen thousand trees. So I'll call you this fog Tracy
when I'm planting the fifteen thousandth tree, and I'll be really excited or hopefully
we'll do it together. And really, we started this five years ago to
(13:30):
adapt to climate change, to startincluding some more southern species, but also
to address the really urgent need ofour forests due to the loss of ash
trees. So some people have heardor maybe seen, you know, green
ribbon on their sidewalks or boulevard trees, and that indicates that the trees have
(13:52):
been infested by the emerald ash bore, which is just this little beetle that
bores holes into the trees and laysits larva underneath the bark, and then
the larva eats all the nutrients andwater that the tree needs to survive and
effectively, you know, kills thetree. So you know, this wouldn't
(14:13):
be a big deal if it wasjust a couple trees, but ash trees
make up half a million trees inour National Park, and in some spaces
they're up to forty percent of ourcanopy. So it's a big deal and
we want to make sure that thosespaces uh stay forested and um and provide
all the benefits that forests provide andalso that we can prevent you know,
(14:35):
more weedy stuff from moving into thosegaps. Absolutely, so where are you
planting all these trees? Do youwant to do? On a list?
I would? I know, podcastsare you know, not a visual medium,
but I always wish I had amap, um, you know,
all over the National Park. We'veworked with the National Park Service who developed
(14:56):
a forest management assessment to really lookat where are the biggest populations of ash
trees and where are they intersecting withthings like you know, high erosion levels,
so like soil that's kind of likegetting slopped off into the river and
polluting the water. Where are thesebig ash populations intersecting with um, you
(15:18):
know, other trees that are goingto be challenged by changing climate conditions.
And we've really prioritized, you know, also the needs of our different partners.
So you know, where's Anoka CountyParks most concerned about given their you
know, they have great knowledge oftheir of their lands, so truly tracy
everywhere we know that folks like youknow, I'll keep picking on Anoka County,
(15:43):
but they're kind of up to theirears and in handling the loss of
these ash trees on streets and boulevardsand more like manicured spaces. So we
knew that looking at the river,looking at more natural forested spaces was really
a place we could step in andyes and assistance. So we've done that
with um you know, I thinkit's like almost a thousand volunteers now over
(16:07):
the course of the past five years, and also um you know, all
of the different partners involved, andthen a partnership with Conservation Corps of Minnesota.
So we've offered a Mississippi River crewto our partners to help follow up
after volunteers make sure these trees aren'tjust planted, but that they are watered
(16:30):
and make grow absolutely well. Yayvolunteers. One thousand volunteers. That's incorredible.
That might be that number might notbe right. I was like,
I mean, I have like thenumber nine in my head, and I'm
like, maybe it's nine thousand.Truly, it might be nine thousand,
(16:51):
Okay, okay, okay, we'llgo back, but it's definitely a thousand,
and it could be nine thousand.Wow. One to nine thousand just
this small rage. Yeah, lotsof volunteers, lots of but volunteers nonetheless,
So they have played a large impactin obviously getting trees planted and other
(17:11):
things like that. Talk to usabout other ways. You mentioned a few
things the sewing patches, But howelse do volunteers make an impact with your
organization? Yeah, so we partnerwith the Park Service to operate to visitor
centers, and in a park likeours, where it's hard to know when
you're in the actual park because youdon't actually you know, go through a
(17:33):
big archway or something like that,visitor centers are a great place to kind
of connect with the community and connectthose community members to the river. So
one of our visitor centers is housedinside the Science Museum of Minnesota, and
then we have another at the SaintAnthony Upper Saint Anthony, Locke and Damn
Visitor Center. So volunteers helped togreet visitors at those spaces, helped to
(18:00):
run programs. We have an incredibleprogram called Illuminate the Lock and that's in
partnership with Northern Lights and is apublic art installation. So we have volunteers
who help run these big, bigpublic art events. And then the folks
that volunteer at the visitors center atthe Science museum do a lot of a
(18:22):
lot of similar work greeting and assistingvisitors. Another big category of volunteers is
our education volunteers. So volunteers yougo out and support field trips with all
ages of young people. And thenwe have a special kind of like group
of volunteers called River Educators, whoare mostly former teachers and they help kind
(18:47):
of at a higher level. Theymight support writings of curriculum, really digging
into getting kids connected to the river. Another, of course, like our
biggest group of volunteers is our Habitatrestoration volunteers, So that makes up about
eighty percent of our volunteers and isa great way to kind of like dip
your toe in the waters of volunteering. You can come out for two to
(19:11):
three hours with your church group,maybe a college class, maybe some folks
from your workplace, and enjoy abeautiful outdoor space while giving back. Maybe
you're picking up some trash, maybeyou are sowing some seeds, maybe you're
planting some trees who I just rent. But there's there's a lot of great
(19:37):
options, and really we strive tokind of meet folks where they're at and
provide a good kind of introductory experienceif people really like it. We have
some really great kind of like stepup opportunities for volunteers, and one of
those ways is by joining one ofour three regularly meeting volunteer cruise. So
(20:00):
we have a cruise a crew thatmeets at Mill Ruins Park in the summer
months and they meet on Saturday morningsto do maintenance of a of a prairie
there. We have a crew thatmeets twice a week at Cold Water Spring,
and then a brand new crew asof last year that meets at Crosby
(20:22):
Farm Regional Park and that that one, I believe this is twice a month.
And there's just different activities at thosedifferent parks that kind of more long,
long term committed volunteers can help with. But also people can drop in
as they're as they're just evil.Lots of ways to get involved, and
yeah, so many ways, andyou don't necessarily have to have like this
(20:45):
background, and you know you cancome in. You're sort of like you
mentioned getting a toe in the water, which I loved since we're talking about
the Mississippi unintended. Yes, um, so they can just come and it
will be a learning experience. Youdon't have to know exactly everything that you're
going to be doing. You canget some education and learn about the area
(21:06):
and do some good work. Yeah. Well, that's the magic of partnering
with the National Park Service, right. We have these park rangers who just
bring to life these natural spaces andtell the stories of the ecology, of
culture, of historical significance of theparks that we work in, and they
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really just provide, you know,that depth for volunteers who come out.
You know, maybe they introduce peopleto a new species of freshwater muscle.
A lot of people don't know thatthe Mississippi River has one of the highest
diversities of freshwater muscles in the world. Pretty cool. So there's a lot
of a lot of great education thatgoes along, and I think something that
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makes our volunteer experience a little different. That's awesome. So outside of volunteering
with Mississippi Park Connection, so I'mjust at home, living my day to
day life, looking into you forOkay, what are just maybe some small
things that I can be doing asidefrom you know, the days that I
go out and volunteer directly with MississippiPark Connection or other environmental environmental organizations.
(22:12):
What can I be doing to makean impact for the environment every day?
A few things, yes, Okay, okay, I'm like, okay,
file it like, narrow it down, Marry, just a couple of things.
I think that what I would lovefor everyone to know is we get
(22:32):
our drinking water from the river,right And so one of the best things
that you can kind of realize is, like, well, all of our
stormwater systems are the storm drains inour streets go directly to the river without
treatment. So things like you know, just making sure that your local storm
drain doesn't have you know, plasticbottles in it, making sure that you
(22:56):
use salt for your sidewalks to keepyour neighbors saying but only when it's you
know, kind of necessary, andsweeping up the access to keep that salt
from going into the river. Thoseare, you know, kind of just
simple things. And I think thatI don't know, Tracy, I'm a
little different. I kind of wantpeople to let themselves off the hook.
(23:18):
I am not the environment police.And you all, by just listening to
this podcast, you're doing great.No one's going to be you know,
no one's watching what you're recycling ornot recycling, because you know what,
it's not the end of the worldif you care for, you know,
your community, if you cherish andenjoyed your drinking water, if you are
(23:42):
good to the people in your worldand find ways to connect with them along
the Mississippi River. Three thumbs upfrom this girl. I think that people
are I think people should let themselvesoff the hook a little bit because if
you're concerned enough to ask that question, chances are you're already doing a great
(24:06):
job. Awesome, awesome. Well, I know I'm always thinking what can
I do? What can I do? But I love that suggestion about just
recognizing within your neighborhood, you know, what's going into your stormwater and what's
going directly into our drinking supply,and just having some awareness around it.
Maybe next time you're on your walk, hopefully everyone's getting out and about,
you know, just take a look, maybe pick up that trash, make
(24:27):
sure that it's not going in there. So absolutely so, aside from volunteering,
tell us, are there other waysthat people can enjoy the awesome places
and spaces that Mississippi Park Connection andthe National Park Service have here in our
community. Yeah, I sign upfor our newsletter. We have a really
(24:47):
awesome monthly newsletter that kind of givesthe rundown of all the cool stuff happening
along the river each month. Cancheck that out at park connection dot org.
But woit so many cool events.Like I mentioned, we do a
big public art event called Illuminate theLock. We have a program called paddle
(25:08):
Share and it's sort of like niceride bikes or a bike share, but
with kayaks. So there's UH stationsat a number of spots along the river
where you can punch in and code, pull out a kayak and just PLoP
it in the river and paddle down, have a great time. And then
(25:33):
when you get out on the otherend, our partners at paddle Bridge we'll
pick you up, grab the grabthe kayak and you really you don't have
to deal with anything. It's sucha great way to get out on the
water. And even for folks whoare brand new to paddling, haven't haven't
done anything like that before. Wehave a paddle Share station on Pickerell Lake
in lily Dale Regional Park and it'sa great way to again your toe in
(25:57):
the water, give something to atry and not have to deal with current.
The current of the river and kindof the complications that that happened when
you're on that more fast running water. M and Pickerel Lake is so beautiful.
There's an eagle's nest there and it'sa great way to kind of enjoy
um this like Backwater Lake, whichis you know, of course also a
(26:21):
part of our river's ecosystem. Awesome. Well, is there anything else that
you feel like our listeners should knowabout Mississippi Park Connection or just how to
get out and enjoy this natural beautyall around us here in the Twin Cities.
Yeah, I think I think there'skind of some key times of year
that we really look for volunteers.So both in the spring and in the
(26:45):
fall. We always kind of giggleabout Earth Day because Earth Day in late
April in Minnesota, m sometimes wehave a foot of snow still, so
that time of year can be alittle tricky. But in May, throughout
the summer months, and again inSeptember and October, we are so busy
(27:06):
and looking for folks to come helpat those times of year, so check
out you know, especially a greattime is to come out a National Public
Lands Day, which happens on thefourth Saturday in September, huge nationwide celebration
of publicly held land that includes botheducation and service components. Checking out events
(27:29):
around Earth Day is also awesome,even if there is a foot of snow
on the ground. This year,we're doing an event where I'll be speaking
with some of my collaborators from theUniversity of Minnesota about our Adaptive Silviculture for
Climate Change project, which is theproject I mentioned before trying out some new
tree species at Crosby Farm Regional Park. So that's happening this year. But
(27:53):
every year we do something to dosome trash pick up in the spring because
it's the best time year to dothat. Fantastic awesome, So sign up
for the newsletter, stay informed.Lots of amazing things going on. And
I would just have to say,as somebody who has done invasive species removal
with Mary, that there's nobody whomakes it more fun. I'm the team
(28:15):
over at Mississippi Park Connection, evenif it's hard, even if it's hot,
even if it's raining, So getout there and take action. And
Mary, we're just so grateful toyou, your team, your partners for
all that you do, and thankyou so much for being with us.
Thanks Tracy. We like to say, if it's not fun, it's fun.
(28:37):
I love it. I love itto work with you this year,
Yeah, it's same. Thank youso much, Mary. Bye. Isn't
Mary's energy the best? So gratefulto her for sharing so many interesting tidbits
about this amazing environment that we areso lucky to have here in the Twin
Cities. I don't know about youall, but thinking that sixty percent of
(29:00):
my body is literally made up ofthe Mississippi River is pretty wild, and
it makes me feel like we've gotto continue to take steps to protect this
important resource. Mary shared many waysthat you can connect with the river and
the beautiful surrounding lands, and definitelycheck out their website park Connection dot org.
In addition to Mississippi Park Connection,hands On is so fortunate to partner
(29:22):
with a variety of organizations doing incrediblework to preserve and protect our natural environment.
Hop over to our website hands OnTwin Cities dot org and search for
opportunities to get connected and make animpact in addition to those everyday things that
Mary mentioned. Thank you so muchfor listening for more information about hands On
(29:45):
Twin Cities and to follow us onsocial media, head to our website.
Redefining Volunteerism is the production of MatriarchDigital Media executive producer Twila Day and producer
and editor Beth Gids. Thanks toSir Edwards, Grace McAvoy and Ella Cochrane
from some great people, Let's getout there and see the change. Together
(30:07):
we can build a more equitable andthriving community.
Hello, friends, Welcome to reada Finding Volunteerism, a podcast by hands
On Twin Cities. I'm Tracy Nielsen, the executive director of hands On Twin
Cities, and I'm your host.I'm so excited because we have another amazing
(00:36):
guests and episode for you today.We're going to be talking about something that
many of us probably drive by andover maybe daily. It's an important part
of our community and our natural environment. What am I referring to? The
mighty Mississippi River. We're going tobe talking today with Mary Hammis from Mississippi
Park Connection. Mary has been workingin natural resources in the Twin Cities for
(01:00):
over a decade. She coordinates landstewardship projects for the Mississippi National River and
Recreation Area. She works to ensurethat volunteers are well integrated into plans for
land management and builds coalitions to findinnovative solutions to conservation issues faced by our
river community. So excited to chatwith Mary, Let's get onto the show.
(01:26):
Thank you Mary so much for beingwith us today. To kick things
off, can you give us ahigh level overview of Mississippi Park Connection and
your role within that organization. Yeah, such a pleasure to join you,
Tracy. So, Mississippi Park Connectionis the nonprofit partner to the national park
along the Mississippi River just called theMississippi National River and Recreation Area. A
(01:52):
little bit of a mouthful, reallygreat park that celebrates the Mississippi River.
So we work with park rangers toconnect people to the river and celebrate all
that it has to offer us inthis seventy two miles stretch. My role
in particular is as environmental Stewardship andvolunteer manager, so I get to work
(02:15):
alongside park rangers to manage somewhere aroundfive thousand volunteers annually. So kind of
everything we do is in partnership withthe park, and it's kind of helpful
to know. You know, it'slike, wait, I didn't realize there
was a National park here. It'sone of the ways I like to tell
(02:35):
it is that when you're in downtownMinneapolis, you're like in the city of
Minneapolis, you're also in Hennepin County, and then you're also in a National
park. So it's sort of thisother layer of protection and celebration. The
park was established in nineteen eighty eight, so you know, great people like
Minneapolis Park and Recreation and county parksystems. We're already in place doing good
(02:59):
work alone the river, and sothe Park Service works in partnership with all
of those like land managing entities andas environmental stewarghip Environmental Stewardship Manager. I
work with those twenty five cities andcounties really to just help meet their restoration
goals with volunteers. Oh my gosh, well that is a lot so tell
(03:21):
us like visually, so as somebodywho's in the city, Like, where
might I be when I'm standing ina national park and not even know it.
I mean, you mentioned all ofthese different places, but let's like
get a visual here. Oh totallyyeah. I mean Harriet Island is a
really recognizable one, obviously Raspberry Islandbecause it's right in the middle of the
river. But those are a coupleof meat places in downtown Saint Paul,
(03:45):
of course. Lily Dale Regional Parkis just adjacent to Harriet Island, a
really cool and really big natural space. And then I think a great one
in downtown many oppolts that folks mightrecognize as the Stone Arch Bridge and kind
of the whole like Mill Ruins area, and Father Hennepin Bluffs. Those spaces
(04:05):
are a National park, they're alsocity parks, and they're also just like
really cool places to hang out indowntown. So I think one of the
things that's so cool about our parkis that you can be in an urban
setting like Minneapolis or Saint Paul andthen kind of drift into a natural space
(04:26):
and less than like a ten minutewalk. That's what really makes this park
really special. Absolutely beautiful, beautifulplaces. And I was surprised going down
to the Stone Arch Bridge and realizingthere we were national park, a beautiful,
beautiful space, and all the workthat you and volunteers do to keep
that habitat, you know, intactfor the rest of us and for the
(04:46):
natural environment. So so just takinga i don't know, fifty thousand,
maybe hundred thousand foot view of environmentalism, let's just sort of reel it all
back. So I'm just a persona lot going on. You know,
why why do I care about theenvironment. Maybe that's a strange question,
but I think that's a great question. You know, folks who have done
(05:11):
this work for years forget that.You know, there's so many other important
aspects to people's lives and and soit's you know, it's important to give
back to the basics about why wedo the work that we do and draw
people in my uh, I thinkthe best point of entree is to go
back to ourselves. So if youlook in the mirror today, Tracy,
you will be looking at a bodythat is seventy percent Mississippi River. So
(05:36):
we all get our drinking water fromthe Mississippi. Yeah. Wow, And
I'm wearing a short nobody you knowobviously can see, but I have the
river on it, the Mississippi River, and here I am embodying literally the
Mississippi River. So there. Yeah, it's it's it's super cool. I
(05:57):
love like being on the water,touching water, and just you know,
thinking about the connection, like I'mI'm made of this and it's so important
to give back to it because wedepend on it for life and people who
depended on it for life for thousandsof years. So the river and the
spaces along the river have been caredfor and stewarded by amazing volunteers, but
(06:20):
also for tens of thousands of years, you know, this has been the
ancestral homeland of Dakota Indigenous people andthose people continue today to be resilient and
to work work on the earth andmake sure that it continues to benefit people.
(06:40):
Absolutely absolutely. So, you know, we talked about all of these
places and where they reside and howclose or far away might be away from
them. I know that one ofthe goals of the Mississippi Park Connection is
about providing park experiences for everyone.Tell us about how you open up these
spaces and make people aware of themand engage people in the spaces. Yeah,
I mean, obviously, Tracy,I'm going to talk about volunteerism.
(07:05):
I think, you know, themagic of being a volunteer is that we
have such a big variety of optionsthat you can kind of come to the
river and be met where you're at. I think that you know, people
can come and engage by leading afield trip. They can help to plant
(07:27):
trees, they could help to sewpatches on uniforms. You know, there's
all these different there. We trulyhave like a whole cohort of sewing volunteers
and they're fabulous. But you know, we also recognize that parks and public
spaces don't feel the same to allvisitors. One of the ways that we
(07:49):
hope to start addressing that and tocreate safe earth spaces is through a program
that is by and led by blackIndigenous people of color. So that's led
by my colleague to Marry a fewand of course lots of really great collaborative
(08:09):
partners, but really an attempt tokind of create safe earth spaces for people
who often don't feel as comfortable inpublic parks and things like that. Absolutely,
there's a term that I have beenhearing recently called intersectional environmentalism. Is
it's this idea of an inclusive versionof the environmentalism that is both advocating for
(08:33):
the protection of the planet but alsofor people. Is this something that's sort
of on the minds of you andall of our friends at Mississippi Park Connection.
Yeah. I mean it's got tostart with people, right, Like
we have to start with what ismeaningful to people, what is going to
what do people care about, andwhat do people need? And I think,
(08:56):
you know, for a really longtime, I think the environmental movement
had at least a reputation of beingyou know, shaming people of being very
um, I don't know, Yeah, I think shame is just the best
word that comes to mind, Likeyou you know, you're not a good
(09:16):
person if you litter and things likethat, and I think I don't think
that's quite the right frame. AndI think things are changing and really starting
to look at like what do humancommunities need because we are all interconnected,
and especially with these natural spaces,we know that you know, these natural
forested space spaces are providing ambient cooling. They're going to help us adapt to
(09:41):
changing climate conditions like floods that aremore frequent and more severe and storms that
are more frequent and more severe.We get benefits from the you know,
air quality that trees provide, andyou know, it's just it's I'm trailing
off. No, No, let'ssort of really back. So one thing
(10:03):
that's definitely, you know, beena hot topic of discussion is the idea
of climate change. You know,you've just been talking a little bit about
sort of how interconnected all things are. I mean, as somebody who's come
to work with you all with volunteers, even when you described like oh,
invasive species, prevent runoff, preventthis that then impacts you know this,
(10:26):
you know, all of that interconnectedness. You know, I think that's important
when we think about climate change.And I guess I'm just curious, like,
how are you all thinking about climatechange and what effect is it having
on your work. Yeah, we'reone of the biggest places where we're thinking
about climate change is again in forestedfloodplain areas. So one of the coolest
(10:48):
places in our river is is thosefloodplains. And people might not know what
floodplains are, so really that's justthe spaces where water can spread out.
So maybe you're familiar with again lilyDale Regional Park or Crosby Regional Park,
and these are spaces where in thespring, when we have snowmelt and increased
(11:09):
rainfall, the water can go overthe banks, spread out into the into
the forested spaces and have a placeto go that doesn't doesn't damage infrastructure or
people. And indeed, like thedisturbance that that creates is really critical for
(11:30):
a lot of different species. Thatspace is so crucial for dealing with flooding
and dealing with increased storms. Andwe do have some concerns about some of
the tree species that are that arebeing challenged by changing conditions. So we
have started a collaboration with the Universityof Minnesota and the Forest Service and we
(11:56):
are experimenting on how do we adaptto this, What are the forests of
the future, and how will futureforests be most beneficial to critters and people
alike and provide the benefits that weneed as climate conditions change. So we
have a series of twenty four researchplots down in Crosby Farm Regional Park and
(12:22):
we're looking at you know, weknow that plant communities are moving ninety miles
north for every degree of warming,and so that, you know, kind
of begs the question, well,maybe we should be considering some trees that
are currently ninety miles south of US. So looking at some kind of interesting
species compilations and we'll be researching fortwenty years how those do and what kind
(12:48):
of a novel forest might look likein the future. Wow, that's incredible.
And speaking of planting trees, soone of the things I was curious
about. You've been a massive effortof planting trees recently, some some big
goals. Um tell us about that, Yeah, um, yeah, super
(13:09):
excited. This year in twenty twentyone, we're going to be wrapping up
a goal to plant fifteen thousand trees. So I'll call you this fog Tracy
when I'm planting the fifteen thousandth tree, and I'll be really excited or hopefully
we'll do it together. And really, we started this five years ago to
(13:30):
adapt to climate change, to startincluding some more southern species, but also
to address the really urgent need ofour forests due to the loss of ash
trees. So some people have heardor maybe seen, you know, green
ribbon on their sidewalks or boulevard trees, and that indicates that the trees have
(13:52):
been infested by the emerald ash bore, which is just this little beetle that
bores holes into the trees and laysits larva underneath the bark, and then
the larva eats all the nutrients andwater that the tree needs to survive and
effectively, you know, kills thetree. So you know, this wouldn't
(14:13):
be a big deal if it wasjust a couple trees, but ash trees
make up half a million trees inour National Park, and in some spaces
they're up to forty percent of ourcanopy. So it's a big deal and
we want to make sure that thosespaces uh stay forested and um and provide
all the benefits that forests provide andalso that we can prevent you know,
(14:35):
more weedy stuff from moving into thosegaps. Absolutely, so where are you
planting all these trees? Do youwant to do? On a list?
I would? I know, podcastsare you know, not a visual medium,
but I always wish I had amap, um, you know,
all over the National Park. We'veworked with the National Park Service who developed
(14:56):
a forest management assessment to really lookat where are the biggest populations of ash
trees and where are they intersecting withthings like you know, high erosion levels,
so like soil that's kind of likegetting slopped off into the river and
polluting the water. Where are thesebig ash populations intersecting with um, you
(15:18):
know, other trees that are goingto be challenged by changing climate conditions.
And we've really prioritized, you know, also the needs of our different partners.
So you know, where's Anoka CountyParks most concerned about given their you
know, they have great knowledge oftheir of their lands, so truly tracy
everywhere we know that folks like youknow, I'll keep picking on Anoka County,
(15:43):
but they're kind of up to theirears and in handling the loss of
these ash trees on streets and boulevardsand more like manicured spaces. So we
knew that looking at the river,looking at more natural forested spaces was really
a place we could step in andyes and assistance. So we've done that
with um you know, I thinkit's like almost a thousand volunteers now over
(16:07):
the course of the past five years, and also um you know, all
of the different partners involved, andthen a partnership with Conservation Corps of Minnesota.
So we've offered a Mississippi River crewto our partners to help follow up
after volunteers make sure these trees aren'tjust planted, but that they are watered
(16:30):
and make grow absolutely well. Yayvolunteers. One thousand volunteers. That's incorredible.
That might be that number might notbe right. I was like,
I mean, I have like thenumber nine in my head, and I'm
like, maybe it's nine thousand.Truly, it might be nine thousand,
(16:51):
Okay, okay, okay, we'llgo back, but it's definitely a thousand,
and it could be nine thousand.Wow. One to nine thousand just
this small rage. Yeah, lotsof volunteers, lots of but volunteers nonetheless,
So they have played a large impactin obviously getting trees planted and other
(17:11):
things like that. Talk to usabout other ways. You mentioned a few
things the sewing patches, But howelse do volunteers make an impact with your
organization? Yeah, so we partnerwith the Park Service to operate to visitor
centers, and in a park likeours, where it's hard to know when
you're in the actual park because youdon't actually you know, go through a
(17:33):
big archway or something like that,visitor centers are a great place to kind
of connect with the community and connectthose community members to the river. So
one of our visitor centers is housedinside the Science Museum of Minnesota, and
then we have another at the SaintAnthony Upper Saint Anthony, Locke and Damn
Visitor Center. So volunteers helped togreet visitors at those spaces, helped to
(18:00):
run programs. We have an incredibleprogram called Illuminate the Lock and that's in
partnership with Northern Lights and is apublic art installation. So we have volunteers
who help run these big, bigpublic art events. And then the folks
that volunteer at the visitors center atthe Science museum do a lot of a
(18:22):
lot of similar work greeting and assistingvisitors. Another big category of volunteers is
our education volunteers. So volunteers yougo out and support field trips with all
ages of young people. And thenwe have a special kind of like group
of volunteers called River Educators, whoare mostly former teachers and they help kind
(18:47):
of at a higher level. Theymight support writings of curriculum, really digging
into getting kids connected to the river. Another, of course, like our
biggest group of volunteers is our Habitatrestoration volunteers, So that makes up about
eighty percent of our volunteers and isa great way to kind of like dip
your toe in the waters of volunteering. You can come out for two to
(19:11):
three hours with your church group,maybe a college class, maybe some folks
from your workplace, and enjoy abeautiful outdoor space while giving back. Maybe
you're picking up some trash, maybeyou are sowing some seeds, maybe you're
planting some trees who I just rent. But there's there's a lot of great
(19:37):
options, and really we strive tokind of meet folks where they're at and
provide a good kind of introductory experienceif people really like it. We have
some really great kind of like stepup opportunities for volunteers, and one of
those ways is by joining one ofour three regularly meeting volunteer cruise. So
(20:00):
we have a cruise a crew thatmeets at Mill Ruins Park in the summer
months and they meet on Saturday morningsto do maintenance of a of a prairie
there. We have a crew thatmeets twice a week at Cold Water Spring,
and then a brand new crew asof last year that meets at Crosby
(20:22):
Farm Regional Park and that that one, I believe this is twice a month.
And there's just different activities at thosedifferent parks that kind of more long,
long term committed volunteers can help with. But also people can drop in
as they're as they're just evil.Lots of ways to get involved, and
yeah, so many ways, andyou don't necessarily have to have like this
(20:45):
background, and you know you cancome in. You're sort of like you
mentioned getting a toe in the water, which I loved since we're talking about
the Mississippi unintended. Yes, um, so they can just come and it
will be a learning experience. Youdon't have to know exactly everything that you're
going to be doing. You canget some education and learn about the area
(21:06):
and do some good work. Yeah. Well, that's the magic of partnering
with the National Park Service, right. We have these park rangers who just
bring to life these natural spaces andtell the stories of the ecology, of
culture, of historical significance of theparks that we work in, and they
(21:26):
really just provide, you know,that depth for volunteers who come out.
You know, maybe they introduce peopleto a new species of freshwater muscle.
A lot of people don't know thatthe Mississippi River has one of the highest
diversities of freshwater muscles in the world. Pretty cool. So there's a lot
of a lot of great education thatgoes along, and I think something that
(21:48):
makes our volunteer experience a little different. That's awesome. So outside of volunteering
with Mississippi Park Connection, so I'mjust at home, living my day to
day life, looking into you forOkay, what are just maybe some small
things that I can be doing asidefrom you know, the days that I
go out and volunteer directly with MississippiPark Connection or other environmental environmental organizations.
(22:12):
What can I be doing to makean impact for the environment every day?
A few things, yes, Okay, okay, I'm like, okay,
file it like, narrow it down, Marry, just a couple of things.
I think that what I would lovefor everyone to know is we get
(22:32):
our drinking water from the river,right And so one of the best things
that you can kind of realize is, like, well, all of our
stormwater systems are the storm drains inour streets go directly to the river without
treatment. So things like you know, just making sure that your local storm
drain doesn't have you know, plasticbottles in it, making sure that you
(22:56):
use salt for your sidewalks to keepyour neighbors saying but only when it's you
know, kind of necessary, andsweeping up the access to keep that salt
from going into the river. Thoseare, you know, kind of just
simple things. And I think thatI don't know, Tracy, I'm a
little different. I kind of wantpeople to let themselves off the hook.
(23:18):
I am not the environment police.And you all, by just listening to
this podcast, you're doing great.No one's going to be you know,
no one's watching what you're recycling ornot recycling, because you know what,
it's not the end of the worldif you care for, you know,
your community, if you cherish andenjoyed your drinking water, if you are
(23:42):
good to the people in your worldand find ways to connect with them along
the Mississippi River. Three thumbs upfrom this girl. I think that people
are I think people should let themselvesoff the hook a little bit because if
you're concerned enough to ask that question, chances are you're already doing a great
(24:06):
job. Awesome, awesome. Well, I know I'm always thinking what can
I do? What can I do? But I love that suggestion about just
recognizing within your neighborhood, you know, what's going into your stormwater and what's
going directly into our drinking supply,and just having some awareness around it.
Maybe next time you're on your walk, hopefully everyone's getting out and about,
you know, just take a look, maybe pick up that trash, make
(24:27):
sure that it's not going in there. So absolutely so, aside from volunteering,
tell us, are there other waysthat people can enjoy the awesome places
and spaces that Mississippi Park Connection andthe National Park Service have here in our
community. Yeah, I sign upfor our newsletter. We have a really
(24:47):
awesome monthly newsletter that kind of givesthe rundown of all the cool stuff happening
along the river each month. Cancheck that out at park connection dot org.
But woit so many cool events.Like I mentioned, we do a
big public art event called Illuminate theLock. We have a program called paddle
(25:08):
Share and it's sort of like niceride bikes or a bike share, but
with kayaks. So there's UH stationsat a number of spots along the river
where you can punch in and code, pull out a kayak and just PLoP
it in the river and paddle down, have a great time. And then
(25:33):
when you get out on the otherend, our partners at paddle Bridge we'll
pick you up, grab the grabthe kayak and you really you don't have
to deal with anything. It's sucha great way to get out on the
water. And even for folks whoare brand new to paddling, haven't haven't
done anything like that before. Wehave a paddle Share station on Pickerell Lake
in lily Dale Regional Park and it'sa great way to again your toe in
(25:57):
the water, give something to atry and not have to deal with current.
The current of the river and kindof the complications that that happened when
you're on that more fast running water. M and Pickerel Lake is so beautiful.
There's an eagle's nest there and it'sa great way to kind of enjoy
um this like Backwater Lake, whichis you know, of course also a
(26:21):
part of our river's ecosystem. Awesome. Well, is there anything else that
you feel like our listeners should knowabout Mississippi Park Connection or just how to
get out and enjoy this natural beautyall around us here in the Twin Cities.
Yeah, I think I think there'skind of some key times of year
that we really look for volunteers.So both in the spring and in the
(26:45):
fall. We always kind of giggleabout Earth Day because Earth Day in late
April in Minnesota, m sometimes wehave a foot of snow still, so
that time of year can be alittle tricky. But in May, throughout
the summer months, and again inSeptember and October, we are so busy
(27:06):
and looking for folks to come helpat those times of year, so check
out you know, especially a greattime is to come out a National Public
Lands Day, which happens on thefourth Saturday in September, huge nationwide celebration
of publicly held land that includes botheducation and service components. Checking out events
(27:29):
around Earth Day is also awesome,even if there is a foot of snow
on the ground. This year,we're doing an event where I'll be speaking
with some of my collaborators from theUniversity of Minnesota about our Adaptive Silviculture for
Climate Change project, which is theproject I mentioned before trying out some new
tree species at Crosby Farm Regional Park. So that's happening this year. But
(27:53):
every year we do something to dosome trash pick up in the spring because
it's the best time year to dothat. Fantastic awesome, So sign up
for the newsletter, stay informed.Lots of amazing things going on. And
I would just have to say,as somebody who has done invasive species removal
with Mary, that there's nobody whomakes it more fun. I'm the team
(28:15):
over at Mississippi Park Connection, evenif it's hard, even if it's hot,
even if it's raining, So getout there and take action. And
Mary, we're just so grateful toyou, your team, your partners for
all that you do, and thankyou so much for being with us.
Thanks Tracy. We like to say, if it's not fun, it's fun.
(28:37):
I love it. I love itto work with you this year,
Yeah, it's same. Thank youso much, Mary. Bye. Isn't
Mary's energy the best? So gratefulto her for sharing so many interesting tidbits
about this amazing environment that we areso lucky to have here in the Twin
Cities. I don't know about youall, but thinking that sixty percent of
(29:00):
my body is literally made up ofthe Mississippi River is pretty wild, and
it makes me feel like we've gotto continue to take steps to protect this
important resource. Mary shared many waysthat you can connect with the river and
the beautiful surrounding lands, and definitelycheck out their website park Connection dot org.
In addition to Mississippi Park Connection,hands On is so fortunate to partner
(29:22):
with a variety of organizations doing incrediblework to preserve and protect our natural environment.
Hop over to our website hands OnTwin Cities dot org and search for
opportunities to get connected and make animpact in addition to those everyday things that
Mary mentioned. Thank you so muchfor listening for more information about hands On
(29:45):
Twin Cities and to follow us onsocial media, head to our website.
Redefining Volunteerism is the production of MatriarchDigital Media executive producer Twila Day and producer
and editor Beth Gids. Thanks toSir Edwards, Grace McAvoy and Ella Cochrane
from some great people, Let's getout there and see the change. Together
(30:07):
we can build a more equitable andthriving community.
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