With spring in full swing "Friends of the Mississippi River" is giving Twin Cities volunteers plenty of opportunities to get hands-on along river this month.
The nonprofit is calling on local residents to help restore the metro's 72 mile national park during over a dozen available shifts throughout the month of May.
The metro Mississippi River is known for scenic bluffs, floodplain forests, prairies and shorelands. Unfortunately, these habitats are disappearing quickly around the Twin Cities as new development displaces natural landscapes.
"The river is still pretty polluted," says Executive Director Whitney Clark. "It doesn't meet our state standards for water quality in any single mile of the Mississippi in Minnesota. So you know, I'm consistently impressed with how people are really looking for ways to put on their work gloves and get out."
He says this work is vital right now to preserve healthy habitats for millions of birds during the peak spring migration.
Clark says the river is in need of things like native plantings, and river clean ups.
"The next two weeks are literally our busiest two weeks of the year," says Clark. "It's such an important time of year, so I would say probably 20 events. Folks have been signing up in droves for all sorts of outings, native plantings, invasive species removal events."
Those events are happening from Elk River, north of the Twin Cities, through areas southeast of Hastings.
More information about volunteer opportunities and their upcoming fundraising concert series "Music for the Mississippi" can be found of the Friends of the Mississippi River website here.
"The river is still pretty polluted," says FMR's Executive Director Whitney Clark
"The river is still pretty polluted," says FMR's Executive Director Whitney Clark
