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Kicking off the 2017-2018 River Watch Program
We are excited to start another school year of River Watch programming here in the Red River Basin. The 2017-18 school year will mark our 23rd consecutive year of delivering watershed  education to the region! Our annual Fall Kick-off is designed to introduce new students and educators to the program and to provide all River Watch teams with the essential information to prepare for the River Watch Forum. This year’s team challenge tasks the teams with developing and implementing a service learning project related to water stewardship. We are excited to see these projects put into action and will be following up with individual communities in years to come to measure the outcomes.
The 23rd River Watch Forum will take place at the Alerus Center on February 7th, 2018 in Grand Forks, North Dakota. With nearly 300 students and educators in  attendance annually, our growing program will have plenty of room in this larger venue. The theme for the day, River Watch in Action!, will consist of highlighting the service learning projects completed by River Watch teams and learning about the exciting opportunities in adventure science. Hope to see you there!
-Asher Kingery, Project Specialist
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September Community Paddle Events
In early September, Wilderness Inquiry dispatched a “Canoemobile” unit of 6 staff from their Minneapolis headquarters for a week of paddling in the  Red River Basin. Community Paddle Events were scheduled for Crookston, Thief River Falls, East Grand Forks, and Moorhead from September 8-13. The crew hauled a trailer with six 24-foot, 10-passenger Voyageur canoes and plenty of PFDs and paddles for participants to use.
Over 350 people joined us on the water in these communities – many of whom were first time paddlers. A paddle safety talk from Wilderness Inquiry staff helped ease any qualms about paddling and those who attended had a blast. Information about IWI programming and our work in the Red River Basin was made available, and free  hot dogs (provided by Red Lake Watershed District) were served at most events.
We greatly appreciate the hard work and energetic, collaborative spirit of the Wilderness Inquiry staff in helping to make it all come together.
We wish to extend a huge thank you to our many partners (listed below) and the Northwest Minnesota Foundation for making all of this possible - we hope to do it again soon!
-Andrew Ulven, Monitoring and Education Specialist
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Mark your Calendar:
February 7: River Watch Forum
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Thank you to all of our awesome partners and sponsors in making the community paddle events a reality - we could not have had the same impact without you!
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