Leading the Way for Those Protecting Our Precious Waterways

Minnesota Waters is a statewide 501(c) 3 non-profit organization dedicated to protecting and improving the health of our state’s lakes and rivers, by engaging and empowering citizens, agencies and policymakers.  Minnesota Waters provides the training, connections and support to empower citizens to take action to save our lakes and rivers.

Score Your Shore: a citizen shoreline description survey
available from the MN DNR

Score Your Shore is a tool to assess habitat conditions of developed lake lots. The protocol is designed for use by lakeshore property owners to self-assess habitat and stewardship on their land and adjacent aquatic areas. This tool may also be used by organizations, such as lake associations, to assess multiple sites on a lake. Score Your Shore provides an objective and systematic method to assess the type, quantity and quality of the existing shoreland habitat.

Minnesota regulators spent years devising more protective shore land and dock rules to guide new development along state lakes.

But Gov. Tim Pawlenty sent them back to the drawing board, rejecting their revisions as "overreaching'' and as undermining local control and property rights. He suggested the Legislature take up the matter next winter.

Water was in the air on August 18^th, when Minnesota Waters celebrated its 9^th annual RiverNight!  Supporters escaped the humidity to gather in a cool theater aboard the historic showboat Centennial, docked on the Mississippi River in St. Paul, to honor the recipients of the 2010 Minnesota Waters awards.

Minnesota Waters is pleased to welcome you to our new, re-designed website!  Please take some time to wade in and get your feet wet.  You’ll find some great new tools such as a home-page calendar that features current and upcoming events, a “click and give” button for easier online donations, and a user forum for members to share ideas, questions, and solutions.  And check out our new “What We Do” section – discover the many ways we provide training, connections, and support to citizens working to save our lakes and rivers.