River organizations, join the discussion!

On April 29, 2002, some 50 citizens and river-oriented stakeholders gathered at St. John's University in Collegeville, Minnesota, to develop a set of questions that they think are important for policymakers, opinion leaders, and citizens to answer.

How would you answer these questions?
We have invited river-oriented organizations and agencies such as yours to answer these questions to begin an online discussion among citizens, policymakers, and other regional river stakeholders. For each organization that answers questions on this questionnaire, we will post their answers on a new Web page with the following information:
   • Your organization's name
   • A description of your organization and the work you do
   • A hot link to your organization's Web site
   • A listing of the questions and the answers you submitted

Use these questions
Answer as many of the following questions as you can, and be as thorough as you want. We encourage all citizens to use these questions to ask policymakers, political candidates, and media decision makers about river policy.

* indicates a required field

About You and Your Organization

Name of your organization *

Web site for your organization *

Briefly describe what your organization does.

Your name *

Your title or affiliation with the organization *

Your e-mail address *

Answer these citizen-oriented questions.

Question 1: How important to you is the river or stream nearest your home, and why?

Question 2: How can citizens find out about the condition of the river nearest their homes or communities?

Question 3: What can homeowners do to make their land and property more river friendly? What can farmers do? Business owners?

Question 4: What are the most important actions citizens can take to help clean up Minnesota's rivers?

Answer these policymaker-oriented questions.

Question 5: What are policymakers doing to enhance the current and future health of Minnesota's rivers? What should they be doing?

Question 6: River policymakers must address diverse and often competing elements such as the environment, commerce, flood control, recreation, and land use—but from your point of view, what overarching values should guide how we use, treat, and manage rivers?

Question 7: How can we manage the conflict of private land use and the best management practices for our rivers?

Question 8: How important is the development of a land-use plan in the watersheds that feed our rivers? Do you have a land-use plan?

Question 9: What programs are available—and are more needed—to educate and inform citizens, river users, river property owners, and policymakers about river issues?

Additional questions These questions for citizens and policymakers came from people who were invited to the civic journalism gathering but could not attend: Question 10: How does Mississippi River quality change as it flows from the headwaters to the Twin Cities and beyond? What is Minnesota's accountability to the states that have to treat, filter, and use the water after it leaves Minnesota?

Question 11: How does air pollution affect our rivers?

Question 12: What joint efforts (other than testing) have begun statewide to improve the quality of our rivers for drinking and fishing?

Question 13: What measures, if any, are being taken to alert the wide range of cultures living along our rivers not to swim in, drink, or eat fish from the waters of the Mississippi River?

Optional: The 50 people who gathered at St. John's University got this project started. Now you can make it grow. Use this space to add further questions you think citizens, policymakers, and other river stakeholders should be seriously thinking about.

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