Montevideo is a lovely, vital small town on the Minnesota River, northwest of the bend at Mankato. Though remote from the Twin Cities, the town is home to people with progressive ideas about food and conservation. It's home to the Western Minnesota office of the Land Stewardship Project and some great sustainable farmers.
It's also home to Clean Up the River Environment, which was founded in 1992 to "restore, celebrate and protect the Upper Minnesota River Watershed." The group, which has over 500 members, has done great work to clean up the Minnesota, as well as organizing to promote clean energy--leading the way for citizens with questions about the need for the now-stalled Big Stone II coal-fired power plant.
Via the West Central Tribune, I learned that CURE's Friendship tour wins statewide contest with $25,000 prize:
A project designed to foster friendly relationships between up-streamers in the Minnesota River Watershed with down-streamers from the Mississippi River and Lake Pepin area has received the most votes in a statewide on-line contest to promote collaboration. . . .
. . .CURE worked with the Lake Pepin Legacy Alliance, based in Red Wing and the Minnesota Ag Water Resources Coalition (a statewide coalition of agricultural organizations), the Minnesota River Board, the Minnesota River Watershed Alliance and the Cannon River Watershed Partnership to sponsor the tours in August and September of 2010.
CURE organizes tours on an ongoing basis, though less hardy Twin Citians may wish to wait until spring to come out and see what people working together can do for better food and a cleaner environment along what should be a pretty prairie river:
Contact CURE to arrange your personal guide service to the region's environmental and cultural assets. For a fee, we can arrange tours of the area's:
- Rivers
- Wildlife Refuges
- Prairies
- Rock Outcrops
- Cemeteries
- Art Studios
More on the story from the MonteNews. And there's even a CURE Facebook page for readers to like.
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