Please use the comment area below to give us your thoughts on how we should prioritize issues or areas in the coming decade. This might include:
* What are issues or concerns you have regarding water in your neighborhood?
* How do you enjoy the water, and what needs to improve or stay the same for this to continue?
* What would be a good way to reach out to someone like yourself regarding clean water issues?
* What would be a way to reach out to someone not like yourself?
* What are some solutions you could see to improve water quality in your neighborhood?
NEW - Join us for a culminating Summit at Maplewood Community Center on January 30th. Watch for more details on www.rwmwd.org in the coming weeks.
1. Cities should be fined for allowing trash to build up in public areas. It blows into the natural areas and goes down the sewer and degrades into the dirt and eventually to the aquifer. There is lots of it here on the east side of Saint Paul and no attention being paid.
ReplyDelete2. Cities should be required to zone for wildlife corridors - the only way to keep insect populations healthy so they pollinate native plant populations in the zones which can be designed to prevent water runoff and to soak up water to replenish the aquifers. Otherwise there are just a few small patches that are nice to look at but ecologically overall where most of us live is becomes a dessert over time.
3. Cities should be required to zone for urban top predator habitat - hawks and owls for sure, maybe foxes and coyotes. This keeps nature in balance and the wildlife corridors healthy and rabbits and deer from becoming pests.
4. Most people grow up in cities as children now. Each school should be required to adopt a School Forest through the existing DNR program. The forests and nearby natural areas (connected by wildlife corridors as in 1 above...) can be used to teach about Minnesota ecology and water quality.