Take a virtual tour of some of our current partner-led efforts to protect and restore water resources in the Lower St. Croix Watershed. This tour showcases a variety of different types and scales of conservation practices, including: small-scale residential; large-scale agricultural; urban stormwater retrofits; and “capstone” projects that put water monitoring and pollution-reduction modeling into practice.

Over the past twenty years, City of Stillwater, the MSCWMO, community volunteers, and local government partners have implemented dozens of lake-improvement projects to benefit Lily Lake. Projects have included stabilizing eroding gullies, redesigning the city-owned boat launch with porous pavers and native plants along the shoreline, installing raingardens in surrounding neighborhoods, retrofitting parking lots and stormwater ponds in commercial areas, and engaging community residents to adopt storm drains through the Adopt-a-Drain program.

There are several steps you can take to prep your yard and gardens for winter and continue to support pollinators, birds and other wildlife:

The Mill Stream originates in William O’Brien State Park and flows downhill, across Hwy 95, and through the Brookside, before cascading down a waterfall to the St. Croix River.

We’ve scrambled over the hills, through the woods, and into a giant field of radish and turnip greens where Isanti County landowner Dave Medvecky is leading us deeper in to view a wetland restoration currently underway. It feels more or less like we’re walking through a giant bowl of salad.

During a recent field day for cities and water professionals, University experts talked about some of the best strategies they’ve found for reducing the environmental impact of our traditional American lawn.

Bee-friendly lawns feature a mix of drought-tolerant fine fescue grasses and low-growing flowers such as Dutch white clover, creeping thyme, and self heal.

Today, EWM is found in 394 lakes in Minnesota, including 37 in Washington and Chisago Counties.