 Membership in the Climate Interest Group is open to all LWV members. The CIG has ten teams that are organized around ten topic areas - you can link to these teams from the CIG website. The teams meet monthly by Zoom, sharing information on research and events linked to their topic.  LWV UMRR would welcome members from these groups providing updates on these meetings to UMRR so that we can all benefit from the work of the CIG. If you are interested in being a link between UMRR and these groups, please email us at lwvumrr@lwvmn.org. Thanks!
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Chicago's local forest preserves are a treasure. Join LWV Chicago for a series of naturalist-led walks in the woods of Chicago. All are welcome – bring a friend! Click the link for each walk below to learn more and register. LWV Chicago is a supporter of the Cook County Forest Preserve VOTE YES referendum coming up on the November ballot—voters will have the opportunity to vote YES to protect clean water sources, air quality, and wildlife in Cook County. A property tax increase of 0.025% (less than $1.66/month for the vast majority of homeowners) will protect, restore, and expand the Cook County Forest Preserves. LWV Chicago has the following walks planned. Please share this and encourage others to register for the walks. The only way people can understand the importance of Voting Yes for the November referendum is to get out into the woods! Anyone can learn more and to register for the walks by clicking on the links: Dan Ryan Woods Wednesday, June 8, 10:00 AM–Noon S Western Ave & W 87th St Beaubien Woods Tuesday, July 19, 10:00–11:30 AM W Doty Ave S, southeast of E 130th St & S Ellis Ave Schiller Woods Wednesday, August 3, 10:00–11:30 AM W Irving Park Rd, east of Des Plaines River Rd Catherine Chevalier Woods Thursday, September 15, 10:00–11:30 AM N East River Rd, north of W Foster Ave  The answer is that Congress is one piece – an important one – of the solution to the Mississippi’s woes. In the UMRR Annual Meeting, we will have an exciting panel of speakers to talk about bills currently in the US Congress that have the potential to greatly affect our river. We will also explore the idea of a “compact” between river states to protect the river from water diversions. This session will set the stage for the work that LWV UMRR will tackle in the years to come. Join LWV UMRR for this session on May 21 at 10:30. This meeting will be held in Webinar format on Zoom - pre-registration is required. Click this link to pre-register! You will receive the link to the meeting by return email; we will send reminders in May, including on the 21st. Registration is open until the meeting starts on May 21 at 10:30. We have a great slate of panelists for this session - representatives from other organizations working for the river and leading work on federal bills and big ideas. We will cover the Mississippi River Restoration and Resilience initiative (MRRRI), the Safeguarding the Mississippi River Together initiative (SMRT), the Farm Bill reauthorization and a big idea - the notion of an Upper Midwest Compact to protect the waters of the Mississippi from diversion. Our speakers represent organizations that are working to protect the Mississippi.
The Wisconsin Section of the American Society of Civil Engineers and LWV Wisconsin co-sponsored a series of meetings on Wisconsin's infrastructure in the past year. The videos from these 11 meetings are now posted. Here's the information on the meetings that Carol Diggelman (Emerita Professor, Civil & Architectural Engineering & Construction Management Department, MSOE; Co-Chair, LWV of Milwaukee County Natural Resources Committee and Member, LWVWI and ASCE WI Section) shared recently.  ASCE WI-LWVWI “Invest in Wisconsin’s Infrastructure” Overview and Category Series are now complete. You will find the links to video recordings of all programs below. Overview meeting links can also be found on the ASCE WI YouTube channel. Category meeting links can be found on the LWVWI website at this link.
We encourage everyone to forward these program links to others, particularly your elected officials. Recordings: Overview Series
Category Series
LWV Upper Mississippi River Region, or UMRR (pronounced “Ummer”), is an interleague organization focused on water quality. UMRR is made up of 60 local Leagues in the states of Iowa, Illinois, Minnesota, and Wisconsin. Our geographic area is the Upper Mississippi River basin – that part of the Upper Mississippi basin upstream of the river’s confluence with the Ohio at the south edge of Illinois. Here’s a link to an UMRR blog post to learn more about what an ILO is and how it fits into the LWV national structure, and to learn more about how our structure strengthens our work, allowing the amplification of the voice of League throughout the watershed. Established in 2015, UMRR’s Board has strong representation from each of our four member states. Our Board members are listed on our Contact Us page– you may know some of us! The Board meets six times a year on the first Monday of even numbered months. In the pre-Covid days, we traveled around the basin for these meetings, which was a great way to get to know our members and the water issues in their communities. Now, everything is on the same schedule, but virtual. For each Board meeting, we also hold an educational session that focuses on a specific topic of concern. These educational sessions are open to the public and recorded videos are shared and posted. Upcoming educational sessions are planned on
 LWV UMRR Board members Mary and Steve Ploesser at the Headwaters, June 2019 How to connect with LWV UMRR: LWV UMRR’s website has lots of information. Our Blog features 2-3 posts per month on topics that UMRR is working on. One recent post includes a link to video from our Feb 1 meeting, where we learned about watershed-scale work to reach people and promote soil health and water quality. Our “Upcoming Events” page includes posts for our upcoming meetings and maintains Board meeting information from past events. Here, those who are interested can see our Board agendas, meeting minutes, Treasurer reports, and Action Committee reports as well as see the topics that were included in the educational sessions. Almost every month, LWV UMRR puts out a newsletter that includes links to our Blog posts and other items of interest. You can sign up to receive the newsletter by submitting the info through our Contact Us page, or by emailing us at lwvumrr@lwvmn.org. Leagues that are not already members can join UMRR through our Membership page, and anyone interested in making a donation can do so on our Donate page.   Everyone talks about the weather, but no one does anything… Well, we now know that we have to do something about the climate, and that we can start by talking about climate change and what it means to our lives, our environment and our children’s future. (Did you notice that we said “climate change”? Yes, climate is different from weather, and we need to both talk about it and do something!) LWV Upper Mississippi River Region (LWV UMRR) has added a focus on climate change to our action portfolio. We are urging our member Leagues to plan programs on the topic – and have an option to offer with prepared material to do it! LWV Dane County (Madison, WI) has made climate change their topic for action this year. They are sponsoring four forums (link) that will be available for local Leagues to stream. Materials packets are prepared for each forum so viewers will be able to learn about the topic in advance and have good discussion after the program. These packets are rich with information and geared to help build understanding, not detailed scientific tomes. LWV DC does an excellent job with both the packets and with finding a good range of speakers who bring broad expertise to the subject; this would be a great way for a local League to begin the conversation on climate change. As a bonus, their website features a weekly column titled “Climate Corner”, featuring a medley of resources and information that highlight personal actions, diversity and equity perspectives, and additional learning opportunities, all related to climate change. The first of the four forums took place on September 4 - you can watch the video here. Titled “Why Climate Change is a Public Health Emergency”, the featured speakers were Ralph Petersen , Ph.D. (UW–Madison Space, Science and Engineering Center), Andrea Kaminski (Board Director and former Executive Director of LWVWI) and Dr. Claire Gervais , M.D., (UW Health Clinics). Looking ahead, LWV DC is planning these additional forums: • November 6, 2019, focusing on government's role in combatting climate change, • February 5, 2020, focusing on agriculture as a solution and • April 1, 2020 focusing on water impacts. LWV UMRR’s Co-Presidents, Mary and Steve Ploeser, are members of the LWV Dane County committee working on the forum. We are proud to share their work with our member Leagues, and thank them for the commitment to LWV and the environment. – Gretchen Sabel, Communications Director, LWV UMRR   LWV Upper Mississippi River Region owes a lot to LWV Jo Daviees County – it was this League in Galena, Illinois, that had the idea to start an Inter League Organization* focused on protecting and improving water quality in the Upper Mississippi. It was from that idea that LWV UMRR was born in 2015, and we thank them for it. LWV JDC has moved the ball along considerably in their local water quality work now. You can read about how they got started in this blog post from August of 2017. In this post from December of 2017, we shared the good news that LWV Jo Daviess County received a $10,000 prize for their proposal in the US EPA's Nutrient Sensor Action Challenge. They implemented the proposal, and this month learned that they won big - they were one of three projects across the US receiving a $50,000 prize for their work! Following is the press release from US EPA. Congratulations to LWV Jo Daviess County! CHICAGO (Aug. 21, 2019) - Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and four federal partners announced the winners of its technology-accelerating water quality challenge. The League of Women Voters of Illinois in Jo Daviess County is one of three national teams selected for the Challenge’s prize of $50,000 each. The winning teams demonstrated how data from low-cost water quality monitoring sensors can be used to inform local decision-making on nutrient management.
The LWV US Tool Kit for Climate Action is an excellent resource for getting started. Take some time to explore this website - the menu on the right has links to a wide array of information, advice and examples.
LWV Upper Mississippi River Region ... in these blog posts we talk about what we do, where we go, our events, our beliefs. But what is the LWV Upper Mississippi River Region, anyhow? Comprised of about 50 local Leagues across the Upper Mississippi watershed, we have a broad network and many interrelated issues to address. Our program of action - the things we work on - is set every year at our Annual Meeting with approval from our membership. Since our incorporation on October 25, 2015, we have been focused on working to reduce the amount of nutrients - fertilizers and wastes - that are discharged to the Mississippi. In our four states, this work takes different forms. In Minnesota, our members advocate for stronger groundwater protections, help plan a major water-related lobbying day at the Capitol, and are working with other organizations to hold workshops for absentee owners of farmland. We learn about and take positions on water issues, such as when we joined with LWV Wisconsin to speak out against the diversion of water from Lake Michigan. And we work to shine a light on issues of groundwater depletion and pollution in parts of Wisconsin and Minnesota. In Illinois, LWV Jo Daviess County (Galena) has been leading efforts to develop local water plans and protections, and organize monitoring efforts to document water quality in the Galena River as well as local groundwater. They have worked with the Rotary Clubs in the Midwest to educate and activate people on issues of nutrient pollution, and have received awards for their work. Our Board meets on the first Monday of even-numbered months. We travel around the watershed, putting on events with local Leagues as part of our Board meetings. Here are some examples from December and October of 2018. When possible, we video our educational events and share the videos on our blog. Our Annual Meetings are big events, with speakers and more. In 2018, we were in Chicago for a joint meeting on LWV water work nationwide with LWV Lake Michigan; our 2017 Annual Meeting was in La Crosse and focused on water issues in Wisconsin. Who we are, what we do, is built upon our strong foundation from LWV at all levels. The following statement was written by one of the founders of LWV UMRR, Bonnie Cox of LWV Jo Daviess County (Illinois). Bonnie's statement is inspirational, and provides a guiding light as we work our issues. We thank Bonnie for her work with UMRR! Our blog posts document our work - here's a list of the posts as of December, 2018. 
Monday, December 3
Coralville Public Library - Room A 1401 5th St, Coralville, IA 52241 Speakers: Mike Delaney, Izaak Walton League Upper Mississippi River Initiative Field Organizer Lonni McCauley, League of Women Voters Upper Mississippi River Region Action Chair Agenda 1:00 - Gather at the Library for light refreshments 1:25 – Introductions 1:30 – Speakers 2:15 – Audience questions and discussion 2:30 – Adjourn
Throughout the Midwest, absentee landownership of farm land is common. In some places, more than half the farmland is rented. The management of this land is critical - land owners must work with their renters to develop contracts that reward good stewardship and build soil health. How should these discussions be framed? How can the renter protect both the rented land and his bottom line? What will be the farming legacy of these rented lands?
The Izaak Walton League (aka "the Ikes") received a grant from the McKnight Foundation and is developing workshops to provide landowners with this information. The LWV UMRR is working with the Ikes in our four-state area, with a goal of finding member Leagues to work with local Ike chapters put on these workshops throughout the watershed. Both organizations extend the invitation to this meeting in Coralville so we can meet each other and set up the groundwork for local workshop planning. The Coralville Public Library is close to I-80 just northeast of Iowa City. It offers free parking and a large, comfortable room for our use. Click Upcoming Events for a printable flyer you can use to share the information with others. We also have made this an event on Facebook - like us and help spread the word! Here's a map - see you in Coralville! |
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