Earth Day Clean-up in Numbers

The numbers are in! The 2008 Minneapolis Earth Day Clean-up, which was held on Saturday, April 19th, was a huge success! There were 36 clean-up sites throughout Minneapolis, and 2859 volunteers came out and picked up about 22,500 pounds of trash!

FMR coordinated the site at West River Parkway and East 36th Street, and we had an incredible turnout - 370 volunteers! That's almost twice as many as last year!

The good folks at Peace Coffee provided us with some delicious coffee to start the day off right. Parkway Pizza generously provided a reward for the hard-working volunteers at the end of the event in the form of free pizza. Thank you, thank you, thank you to these wonderful sponsors!

The Minneapolis Rowing Club gave us a big hand by picking up trash bags and large pieces of trash from volunteers at the river so they didn't have to carry them back up the steep hill to the parkway.

We also had a great art activity provided by the Minneapolis Institute of Arts. Kids (and plenty of adults too!) could make their own butterfly, paint it with watercolors, and add little wire antennae.

Thank you to everyone who helped make this event happen, including MPRB staff, FMR staff and interns, the many sponsors and partners, and most of all, the volunteers!













Photos (except 2 of my own) courtesy of Peter Kastler.

Happy Earth Day!

The bloodroot are up in the gorge! Elizabeth Storey took this photo on Saturday about 200 paces south of the Oak Savanna interpretive sign along the Winchell Trail. I somehow managed to walk right past them without noticing! I was hoping to find some Dutchman's Breeches in bloom, but didn't see any. If anyone sees them, or has any other spring wildflower sightings in the gorge, let us know!

Top 10 Reasons To Come To The Earth Day Cleanup

I'm sure none of you need more of a reason to participate in the city-wide clean-up than celebrating Earth Day or caring for our community gem, the river gorge, but in case you did need a little extra incentive, here you go:

1. The forecast for Saturday is 65 and sunny! It's actually starting to feel like spring, and this is a great way to get out there and enjoy it!
2. A delicious caffeinated kick start will be provided for the early birds by the good folks at Peace Coffee!
3. You can join artists from the Minneapolis Institute of Arts in making a miniature painting to honor the Earth! Images of plants and animals from the museum will be on hand for inspiration. Add a wish for the future, along with a postcard stamp to share it with your friends and family afar.
4. Those who stick it out until noon will get to chow on delicious Parkway Pizza!
5. Volunteers from the Minneapolis Rowing Club will be helping us out again this year, so you won't even have to haul your trash bags up the hill - they'll pick them up from you right at the bank of the river.
6. No pre-registration required! You just have to show up!
7. April 19th is the birthday of two FMR employees, and their birthday wish is for a clean river!
8. The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board will have a free surprise for each participant. I don't even know what it will be - that's how much of a surprise it is!
9. Everybody is doing it! This year's cleanup has a whopping 36 sites - that's more than ever before!
10. Did I mention that it's an Earth Day celebration??

Let's give this gorge a good spring cleaning!

Spring Events

Spring time to a lot of people says tulips and daffodils, or perhaps baseball, or rain showers. To me, it says garlic mustard, and birding!

• Help remove garlic mustard from the river flats and the oak savanna in the Longfellow neighborhood in the Minneapolis River Gorge on two dates this spring: Sunday, April 27th from 1-3pm, and Wednesday, May 21st from 6-8pm. Garlic mustard is an herbaceous exotic plant invading many River Gorge areas and out-competing native spring plant species.
• There's still room available on a couple of our popular birding hikes in May! On Saturday, May 3rd from 8-9:30am, FMR is partnering with the Ramsey County Bird Festival on a birding hike at Crosby Farm Regional Park. No registration is required for this hike. FMR's own Land Conservation Director Tom Lewanski and Hastings Park Superintendent Kevin Smith will lead participants on a birding hike at Old Mill Park in Hastings on Saturday, May 10th from 7-9am .
• Also on Saturday, May 10th, from 10-11:30am, hydro-geologist Craig Larson and National Park Ranger Lyndon Torstenson will guide a geology hike through the river gorge in the Seward and Longfellow neighborhoods of Minneapolis to explore how this beautiful wonder, the only true gorge on the entire length of the Mississippi River, was formed.

For more details or registration information for these events, see our Events & Activities page on the FMR website, or contact sue rich at 651-222-2193.