Posted by Melissa Burlaga
Duluth, MN (Northland's NewsCenter) Community Action Duluth has received funding to launch a new program called the Duluth Stream Corps.
Funded by a grant from the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI), the agency has hired six new employees to perform stream restoration work in the Duluth area.
This program may be the first of many, nationally. In the most recent request for applications for funding from the GLRI, the EPA explicitly asked for proposals for programs that, like the Duluth Stream Corps, have a “conservation corps” component. Angie Miller, the executive director of Community Action Duluth, is confident about the new program, “We’re excited that the EPA wants to see more programs like ours, I take it as a sign of the program’s potential to make a positive impact.”
Job creation is an integral part of the Duluth Stream Corps, Miller thinks “ it’s what made our proposal stand out from other similar restoration projects that also applied for funding; the conservation corps model is a great way to restore the local environment and create jobs at the same time.”
“This is a huge project that involves extensive, hands-on work; having a crew of six makes the large scale of our work possible,” says Tim Beaster, project coordinator of the Duluth Stream Corps. The project is aiming to restore Duluth’s coldwater streams by planting 20,000 trees on privately owned streamside land throughout the Duluth area. Beaster noted that “Duluth’s streams are under stress from a variety of factors including warm run-off from impervious surfaces, clearing of streamside vegetation and high sediment levels from erosion.”
The Stream Corps has a team of experts volunteering to advise the project. Called the Habitat Action Team (HAT), members of the group have a wide variety of backgrounds, from city planning to landscape architecture to natural resources. “We are very lucky to have these professionals helping the project,” says Beaster. “They will be integral to the success of our project.” The Stream Corps will recruit private landowners along Duluth’s streams to participate in restoration projects. The corps will enhance streamside land with native trees and shrubs. Landowners willing to host a Stream Corps crew working on their property will receive free labor, plantings, and landscape design work, but will be asked to incur fencing protection costs. “We hope that people living near Duluth’s streams will be excited to join our project; they might not realize that small actions like planting native trees can benefit water quality of streams and ponds around Duluth and even Lake Superior,” says Beaster.
“Within the month we will be sending out an informational mailing to nearly 2,500 streamside landowners in the Duluth area. This will be the first chance for landowners to sign up for the project and to hear more about how they can be involved.”
The Corps will hold neighborhood information sessions early this spring, inviting community members to come and learn more about local impacts on water quality, information on stream watersheds, and steps for getting involved in stream restoration initiatives.
Three meetings are scheduled already.
The first is on Thursday, April 21st at the Central Hillside Community Center, the second is on Monday, April 25th at the Chester Bowl Ski Chalet, and the third is on Thursday, April 28th at the Evergreen Senior Center.
All three are scheduled for 7:00 -8:30 p.m.
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