UMR NGO Engagement
By Barry Drazkowski
I wrote about the Ikes and working with other River Non Profit conservation organizations in the spring GRS article, “Ikes, NGO’s, and the River: A New Era of Citizen Engagement (Spring 2026)”. Since then the work has proceeded. One Mississippi (OM) has taken the lead in working with other conservation groups and the public to begin the long process of determining the public's values and perceptions of the Mississippi River. They have grown their coordination to include the entire River, but our focus will continue on the upper impounded river. To support this daunting effort OM, in collaboration with its member NGO’s, has implemented several significant efforts to support the goal of engaging the public and determining their river values and perceptions. The process is coordinated through both their UMR Hive and the Whole River Hive. They embrace the “hive” concept to reflect the coordination, synergy, and interaction of a bee colony working together to achieve an operational and healthy community or hive. It’s a concept that regularly brings smiles to our coordination meetings as we embrace this fun analogy to our serious work.
The River team is led by long-time river advocate Olivia Dorothy; working the “Engagement Committee” is the wonderfully engaging Michael Anderson, and developing the knowledge center and coordinating with their newly formed science team is long-time river biologist and researcher Ken Lubinski. What a team they make as we begin the multi year process of community education and engagement. Upcoming steps include sharing and soliciting input on the 100 Year Vision for the River. Yes, this is a high-level perspective, but one that attempts to capture what we hope the river looks like in the future. It also captures what we might need to do in the next ten years to realize the long term vision. The Science Team, with some input from Hive volunteers, are discussing and developing environmental criteria and an assessment of past effort to determine the public’s social values attributed to the river. These materials and assessments will come together and be discussed at a hive member workshop this coming fall. These efforts will then come together to build the public engagement survey and process. OM is funded through a Walton Foundation grant supporting the breadth of their river NGO and community involvement, as well as their work coordinating river management with Federal and State Agencies.
While One Mississippi leads this massive, river-wide initiative, our local chapters are rolling up our sleeves to ground this effort right here in our stretch of the Upper Mississippi. Real change relies on local community education and involvement. Nobody knows this water better than our local river community—our seasoned river rats. We have vital insights on what has been lost over the last half-century, what we observe today, and practical, low-cost solutions to restore the health of the river we love.
