Good Stewardship

It is part of the culture for the Rainy River First Nation, a band of Ojibwe, to be good stewards of the environment. The band has spearheaded a monitoring project of the Rainy River; a waterway that borders Minnesota and Ontario, Canada. Joining forces with the band are students, Koochiching County, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR), the Northeast Minnesota Sustainable Development Partnership and others. Jennifer Mercer, watershed coordinator for Rainy River First Nations, leads seventh graders from both counties as they work together to monitor the river.

“We’re doing chemical and biological sampling of water quality, phosphates, oxygen, temperature, water clarity, ammonia, etc.” explained Jennifer. “And we’re looking at bugs because bugs can also indicate river health.” If you only find worms, leeches and snails this means your water quality may be fair to poor quality, she said. If you find worms, leeches, snails, mayflies and dragonflies then this indicates good water quality. Part of the monitoring program is an experiment. They put fish in flow-through containers and leave them in the river as a type of low-tech sublethal toxicity test. “All these things can tell us the relative health of the water,” said Jennifer.

Grassroots Effort

Data is shared with agencies and compiled and explained to the students. “We have two main objectives. One is trying to get kids interested in science and be more aware about the river,” she continued. “It gets them concerned about conservation and gives them a chance for hands-on learning. Our second objective is to collect data. If we do this for 10 years, we’ll have good baseline data about the river.”

Her neighbor to the south, Richard Lehtinen, director of environmental services for Koochiching County, is one of the project’s partners. He explained that grants from the DNR and the Northeast Sustainable Development Partnership give the project life. Interested teachers make it a success. Students do the work while also learning about science and the environment.

“This is a grassroots citizen effort,” explained Richard. “We have lots of people but we need the free labor to do it through the schools. We are lucky to have teachers who are interested. For the price of the equipment you can have an ongoing program. And people get educated,” noted Richard. “Students may change their career goals, it has a rippling effect. And academics are part of it.” The project draws on the expertise of many folks, including University of Minnesota staff.

River As Resource

“I think of this as being a two-pronged effort,” explained Richard, “First, fundamentally, it’s educational [in that] it’s directly affecting students. It’s already involved 100 kids and we’re adding more next spring. It’s really hands-on learning about nature. The second thing is the information that we gain is useful and will benefit the larger community by having a way to be able to tell what the water quality is.”

Large paper mills on both sides of the river, water levels, fishing pressure and land use along its banks all contribute to the concern about the river’s water quality. Richard said locals can remember when the river was covered with scum and residue and they could hardly fish. “It’s coming back,” Richard said. “This is a way to assure better water quality over the long term. The Rainy River is a real resource. It’s coming back as a fishing place and we see signs of health.”

Taking Action

Richard said this is one partnership formed between Canada and the United States that could lead to more. His county is interested in detailed maps that the Canadians have as well as learning more about Canada’s agricultural research. “It’s really exciting. Crossing borders is serious business,” Richard summed up.

Mercer said that the elders in the band offered a challenge for band members not to just talk about being good environmental stewards, but to do it. Quit talking and start acting, they challenged.

• 180 students from both sides of the river
• the band
• the DNR
• the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency
• the Northeast Sustainable Partnership
• the Koochiching County Board

have, together, joined with many others and taken that challenge.  They are putting the time, resources and commitment to guarantee the long-term health of the scenic northland river. No doubt the elders would approve.