Updates and Articles

Where the Legislature stands on water & the environment in its final week

This 2017 Legislature has featured a series of sweeping assaults on our environment, including widespread rollbacks to bedrock environmental finance and policy positions that threaten to undermine water quality and river health throughout the state. Here's where things stand.
 

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Gov. Dayton vetoes awful environmental bill! (But another is on the way.)

Friday, May 12, Gov. Mark Dayton vetoed a historically bad omnibus environment bill. It sought to give polluters the right to write their own environmental impact statements, slashed funding for environmental agencies and even prevented cities from banning plastic bags. In short, it threatened to undermine Minnesota’s long tradition of protecting the water we drink and the air we breathe. 

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Why are MN's largest companies leading the charge to roll back our environmental protections?

The Minnesota Chamber of Commerce has led many of this legislative session's attacks on our environment. Do the heads of Target, Best Buy, 3M, Medtronic, U.S. Bank, General Mills, Ecolab, Xcel Energy, Hormel and Delta Air Lines know what's being done in their name? 

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Tell Minnesota companies to #KeepMNClean and #ProtectOurWater.
Dennis Anderson (Star Tribune): Separating fact from fiction about Minnesota's buffer law

Dennis Anderson, the longtime outdoors columnist for the Star Tribune: "Misinformation is rife about the state's buffer law, passed two years ago to clean up lakes and rivers, which requires farmers and other landowners to be in compliance with the statute by November."

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Star Tribune op-ed: Major state companies need to disavow Chamber's harmful environmental agenda

A commentary in the May 5 Star Tribune co-authored by longtime FMR Board Member Peter Gove highlights major Minnesota companies that tout their environmental credentials while funding Chamber of Commerce legislation to roll back bedrock environmental protections for Minnesota's lands and waters. ​

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Nature Notes: Unassuming little beetle's clever (gross?) 'shield defense'

Found on sumac, these beetles have an especially interesting way of protecting their young.

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sumac flea beetle
Legislation to undermine agency rulemaking adopted in State Government Finance Conference Report

This week, the State Government Finance Conference Committee released its conference report which includes 30 pages of redundant, regressive, time-consuming, and expensive hurdles that agencies must go through in order to adopt or even propose rules to protect our environment, natural resources, health, and safety. These provisions were written by the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce, which characterizes them as "streamlining" the agency process. The reality, however, is that this legislation will result in significant delays and administrative expenses.

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Building on a successful Water Action Day

More than 1,000 Minnesotans joined us at the Capitol to urge legislators and Gov. Mark Dayton to invest in clean water and protect Minnesota's great outdoors. Now we're keeping up the momentum with the River Guardians and Water Action Daily. 

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Farewell, John!

FMR is bidding a bittersweet farewell to our longtime and beloved development officer, John Briel.

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We miss Friends of the Mississippi River Development Officer John Briel!
Transition point for N Mpls river reconnection work

The FMR advocacy crew is switching gears. After spending 2016 researching how to better connect North Minneapolis with the Mississippi River we're shifting to advocating for those community-identified changes. We marked this transition with a final presentation by FMR's CURA research assistant Eric King and a panel discussion with attendees, covering everything from potential gentrification to a possible land-bridge over Interstate 94.

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N. Mpls Reconnect March Meeting

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Upcoming Events

Saturday, July 26, 2025 - 1:00pm to 5:00pm
Hidden Falls Regional Park, St. Paul
Thursday, July 31, 2025 - 5:00pm to 8:30pm
Gibbs Farm, St. Paul
Tuesday, August 5 OR Thursday, September 4, 2025 - 5:30pm to 6:30pm
Broken Clock Brewing Cooperative, Minneapolis

Our River Campaign:
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At the heart of this new campaign is the vision of a healthy Mississippi River.