Freshwater Society

The Freshwater Society is a nonprofit organization that promotes the protection, conservation and restoration of freshwater resources. By partnering with local organizations and working with many volunteer groups, the Freshwater Society displays the network mode of governance. The Society, first established in 1968, has been a very important public nonprofit organization dealing with all freshwater resources. The organization devotes its resources and experiences to activities that help with the understanding, enhancement, protection, and restoration of all freshwater resources. There were three members that built the Society: Dick Gray, Dr. Richard Caldecott, and Hib Hill. Dr. Richard Caldecott is still a member of the Freshwater board today.

There are multiple types of memberships you can be apart of in the Freshwater Society, ranging from individual to corporate. They accept any type of donations, just like other nonprofit organizations do so. Overall, the Society works with many other nonprofit organizations, volunteer groups, and has multiple partnerships so they can protect and preserve our lakes and rivers.

An example of a partnership with the Freshwater Society is the Healthy Lakes and Rivers Partnership. The HLRP transports resources to organizations through encouragement and training to make a community-based management proposal for their river or lake. The program gives training lessons for skill improvement in development of a River Management Plan, nonprofit leadership, and a presentation with many natural resource agency representatives. Collaborating with the Initiative Foundation, the Freshwater Society was given funding from the Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund from the Legislative Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources to continue the program in Otter Tail County.

Another role the Freshwater Society plays is in community clean ups for water quality. The Society has created a DVD that breaks down how to implement and organize a clean up, along with a community toolkit. The object of the clean up is to decrease the amount of nutrients and soil that goes into the lakes and rivers; this can be done by removing yard debris and leaves from city streets by raking and baking leaves and debris. These community clean ups for water quality have been funded for quite some time by Friends of the Minnesota Valley. The Freshwater Society has been working to take the volunteer effort to organizations all around the state since 2010.

The Minnehaha Creek Watershed District and the Freshwater Society have created a highly effective new program to help with the protection of water quality in the state of Minnesota. The program is called The Master Water Stewards, and is supporting community managers to create pollution prevention developments that decrease pollutants from urban runoff, help educate community associates, and permit more water to sink in the ground before running into the storm sewer systems. The volunteer community managers take part in a 50-hour program of projects and courses.

Overall, the Freshwater Society plays a large role in the protection, conservation and restoration of our freshwater resources. By partnering with other nonprofit organizations, guiding volunteer organizations, and supporting its members, the Freshwater Society works hard to continue to be a leading public nonprofit organization when it comes to our freshwater resources and their surrounding watersheds.

Sources:
http://freshwater.org/about-the-society/