INTRODUCTION: CHALLENGE

The Minnesota River Valley is a great place to live. We enjoy the beautiful scenery of bluffs covered with a wide variety of trees, flowers, and grasses. The bluffs are cut by gently flowing spring feed streams and creeks. The valley floor is laced with lakes wetlands and fields of corn and soybeans. All of this splendor in a rapidly developing urban area, which places much stress and strain on this beautiful valley.

Think of what happens when you forget to give your pets fresh clean water or forget to water your plants, or you water them and over fertilize them. The pets and plants become stressed, weak, sick, and they may even die. The same is true of our beautiful valley: too much water and we have flooding, not enough equals drought, too many bad things going into the water and we have death and/or disease.

Everyone enjoys at least a part of this beautiful environment whether it is a cool dip in the lake, the tug of a fish on the end of a pole, watching deer, mink, beaver, listening to the song birds and waterfowl, or watching the barge traffic moving the crops of the state to the markets of the world, the valley has something for everyone.