The C onfluence SPECIAL YEAR END APPEAL December 2007

The Confluence is a monthly electronic newsletter for members of Minnesota Waters providing up-to-date information and resources to help citizens protect Minnesota’s lakes and rivers. If you’ve received this newsletter and are not yet a member of Minnesota Waters, click here to learn more about how you can support Minnesota Waters programs and services by becoming a member. To have material included for announcement or to request removal of your name from this mailing list, please contact info@minnesotawaters.org. Do not reply to this listserv from which you received this message.

In this issue:

SPECIAL YEAR END APPEAL

OUR GIFT TO YOU

INVITATION TO MEMBERSHIP

Special Year End Appeal – We need your help!

Dear Friend of Minnesota Waters:

In early November we mailed a letter to friends like you to invite you to make a year end gift to Minnesota Waters.

Minnesota Waters, like many non-profit organizations, is feeling the impact of the economy. We are funded by grants, memberships and gifts and while we are ending 2007 with many successes in our program work, we are also ending the year with a cash crunch.

This is why we are writing again to ask you to consider a generous year-end contribution.

We need your support now to grow the number of people involved throughout the state to help stem the tide of damage to our rivers and lakes.

§ Watershed Stewardship Program – Giving people the tools to clean up the rivers, watersheds and lakes in their communities;

§ Citizen Monitoring Program – Organizing and training an army of citizen volunteers all around Minnesota to monitor and test our water for pollutants, invasive species, and sedimentation;

§ Communications and Outreach Program – Helping people understand the problems our lakes and streams are facing and showing them how they can change behavior to protect our treasured waterways;

§ Aquatic Invasive Species Campaign – Inspiring the state of Minnesota through grassroots pressure to make a real investment in better preventing and managing aquatic invasive species in our lakes and rivers; and,

§ Shoreland Protection Campaign – Engaging people to ensure rules are adequate and followed so shorelands can continue to provide the habitat, water quality and aesthetic functions so critical to lake and stream health.

Building People Power Through Partnerships

With your help, we empower citizens through our programs as well as our publications like the Citizens Guide to Local Government and the Capacity Building Tool Kit for Lake & Stream Associations. These indispensable tools put power over their environment back into people’s hands.

While we have accomplished a great deal, the truth is we’ve only touched the tip of the iceberg. Over 80% of our lakes and streams in Minnesota have not even been assessed by the state to determine if they meet minimum standards.

This is why at Minnesota Waters we help people like you measure the health of their lakes and streams.
It’s why we turn that data into information to be shared with our communities and decision-makers.
It’s why we stand in the town halls, community centers and board rooms to let local officials know we want our lakes and streams improved and protected!

With your help, we also connect people with one another.

When volunteer leaders of Coalitions of Lake Associations (COLA), Coalitions of Lake and River Alliances (COLARA) and watershed groups in Aitkin, Beltrami, Cass, Crow Wing, Hubbard and Itasca counties expressed their concerns over declining water quality, Minnesota Waters organized a North Central Regional Summit where 34 leaders gathered. We shared critical information, discussed the challenges of improving and protecting lakes and streams and compared notes on successful ways of meeting those challenges.

Dan Kittilson, Hubbard COLA President said that “Our Hubbard participants felt that the Summit…provided excellent information and experiences. The Summit was an outstanding avenue for making contacts with others and will help promote valuable partnerships for protecting our lakes and rivers.”

Training People To Save Our Rivers And Lakes

But we don’t stop at merely connecting people with one another! Because leaders in North Central Minnesota Counties identified improved shoreland protection as a top priority, Minnesota Waters organized two training sessions to help identify the strategic communications needed in their efforts to locally promote and establish better and more effective shoreland standards in their communities.

When citizens and local units of government wonder about the health of lakes and streams in their communities, they turn to Minnesota Waters for training. Not only do we teach them how to collect critical data, we help them ensure it is turned into information that informs decision-making affecting lakes and streams.

As a staff member of Crow Wing Co. Soil and Water Conservation District pointed out, “Thank you very much for the exceptional job that you all did with the training last night. I was very impressed by the way you put it all together and presented it. Minnesota Waters rocks!”

So far this year, we’ve trained 148 citizen volunteers and local government staff to monitor 46 lakes and 48 streams!

Help Keep Up The Momentum

Each day we learn of more degraded lakes and streams while our government agencies are focusing their priorities and funding in other areas. And each day we work with partners, volunteers, and government agencies to identify polluted water bodies and to find creative ways to restore them.

We know you care about Minnesota’s waters because you have already invested in our mission. Perhaps you called for help when you had nowhere else to go and got the answers you needed. Maybe we guided you in forming a new lake association or you attended one of our regional summits and came away with the tools and resources to address your local issues. We may have aided you in establishing a new coalition to cover a greater area of influence. Or, you may have participated in a training to monitor your favorite water body.

Perhaps you’re one of the thousands of Minnesotans who want this state, famous for more than 10,000 lakes, to enjoy clean, safe water!

We can’t meet the growing needs statewide without your continued investment. Please consider making a special gift today as we look to the work that we must accomplish in 2008. Just return your check with the reply card that follows and we will make sure to keep drawing on the people power that helps us accomplish the work of protecting and restoring lakes and streams for our families and communities to enjoy.

Thank you for your commitment to Minnesota’s lakes and streams and happy holidays,

Dick Fowler, Chair 2007 Julie Klocker, Chair 2008

P.S. Please send your tax-deductible gift today to support the citizens of Minnesota in taking care of our lakes and streams. Help us ensure that our people power keeps getting stronger. Thanks for your investment in a better future for us all.

OUR GIFT TO YOU

We really appreciate your support and are offering two exceptional books as our way of saying thank you.

With a gift of $250 you will receive Impressions, by Roger Cooper and John Erickson, a culmination of intuition and sensibility, engaging the reader in the dialectic of poem and photograph, commanding attention and participation. "Impressions is a remarkable collection of timeless beauty-John Erickson's striking photography blends well with the poetic voice of Roger Cooper to capture harmonious mood, sensitive to Nature and infused with moments of insight." Maxine Russell, Poet Laureate-League of Minnesota Poets.

With a gift of $500 you will receive America’s Rivers, by Tim Palmer. A dazzling variety and stunning artistry of America’s Rivers. “From the apex of life given to moving water, Tim Palmer has bequeathed a gift to the generations. In these images, a million trees have gathered on America’s shorelines and the very mountains have parted to honor the rivers sliding by.” David James Duncan Author.

Print this form and return with your check:

Yes, I would like to help Minnesota Waters…

Enclosed is my tax-deductible gift above and beyond my membership dues in the amount of:

______$50 _____ $100 $ _____ Other

______$250 Send a copy of Impressions by Roger Cooper & John Erickson

______$500+ Send a copy of Rivers of America by Tim Palmer

Don’t send me a book. I want my entire gift to protect Minnesota's lakes and streams.

Name

Address

City__________________________________________ State__________ Zip_________

Phone____________________ , E-mail________________________________________

Make your check payable to Minnesota Waters, 720 W St. Germain St., Suite 143; St. Cloud, MN 5630

____________________________________________________________________________

All gifts to Minnesota Waters are tax deductible. Thank you for your support!

Minnesota Waters, is a statewide 501 (c)(3) non-profit corporation that promotes responsible stewardship of Minnesota’s water resources by engaging people, state and local policy makers and other like-minded partners. Its mission is accomplished through watershed education, citizen monitoring training, conservation stewardship, public policy and empowering citizen groups to manage their local water resources. If you have questions about giving to Minnesota Waters or other ways you wish to support us, such as gifts of stock or bequests, please contact Linda Hamilton, Development Director, at 218-829-5282 or lindah@minnesotawaters.com

INVITATION TO MEMBERSHIP

If you haven’t joined Minnesota Waters yet, want to give a gift membership, or renew early here is your chance. Simply click on this link, http://www.minnesotawaters.org/index.php?uberKey=570&page=MemebershipandDonationForm, print out the form and send it to our new address: Minnesota Waters, 720 W St. Germain St., Suite 143; St. Cloud, MN 5630

We wish you a very happy holiday season!

Bruce, Courtney, Erica, Leah, Linda and Molly.

Minnesota Waters has a New Address

720 West St. Germain, Suite 143, St. Cloud, MN 56301

Telephone: 800-515-5253 Fax: 866-615-1771

For questions regarding the Web site or Hosted Web sites please contact:

Dick Lacher, Telephone: 218-659-4511 or rglacher@paulbunyan.net

Minnesota Waters promotes responsible stewardship of our water resources by engaging citizens, state and local policy makers and other like-minded partners in the protection and restoration of our lakes and rivers. We achieve our mission through watershed education, citizen monitoring, supporting conservation stewardship, influencing public policy and empowering citizen groups to manage their local water resources.

****JOIN MINNESOTA WATERS TODAY! ****