Your Input Needed to Guide Future of Vermillion River Corridor

The Vermillion River corridor means many things to many people. Farmers have benefited from the fertile lands through the corridor. Anglers look to the River itself as a designated trout fishery. An interconnected web of plant and animal life calls the corridor home. The corridor serves a number of current and potential future recreational uses. And increasingly, rapid change is coming in the form of suburban development.

To plan the many issues and challenges facing the Vermillion River Corridor, Friends of the Mississippi River is teaming with Dakota County and Hoisington Koegler Group to conduct a series of outreach events this summer. Together, stakeholders will create a plan that reinforces its natural support functions to protect water quality, enhance wildlife habitat, provide appropriate recreational opportunities, and set a foundation for future growth.

"We're trying to protect water quality, we're trying to protect wildlife habitat, and to provide compatible recreational opportunities," Dakota County Conservation Manager Al Singer recently told the Star Tribune. "But also, we're trying to guide and enhance future development."

The first of three sets of workshops will discuss what makes the Vermillion River unique, review examples of other protected corridors, and help develop corridor concepts for the Vermillion.

Anyone is welcome to attend any of the following workshops. They follow a similar agenda, though each workshop focues on a separate segment of the river. The first two workshops (Empire Focus Area and Hastings Focus Area) have already occured. We invite you to attend the following three upcoming workshops:

Lakeville/Farmington District
Thursday, June 18th, 2009
6:30 – 8:30pm
University of Minnesota Dakota County Extension Office
4100 220th St W, Farmington, MN

Headwaters District
Monday, June 22nd, 2009
6:30 – 8:30pm
Farmington Library
508 Third St, Farmington, MN

Castle Rock/Marshan/Vermillion District
Wednesday, July 1st, 2009
6:30 – 8:30pm
University of Minnesota Dakota County Extension Office
4100 220th St W, Farmington

Follow-up workshops to be held later this summer will seek input to refine Corridor plan concepts, and review strategies and projects to bring those concepts to fruition. A final workshop scheduled for this fall will review a draft plan that defines the Corridor and how everyone can collaborate on Corridor improvements, and recommend priority improvements.

As the planning progresses, FMR will provide updates on planning process on this website and in Mississippi Messages. Otherwise, with additional questions, call FMRs Watershed Program Director Trevor Russell at 651-222-2193 x18.