Clean River Partners

If there’s one thing that unites Minnesotans, it’s our deep-rooted love for clean water!

It’s essential to our daily lives—whether we’re enjoying a refreshing drink, fishing in our beautiful lakes, or nurturing our crops. Unfortunately, our waters face significant challenges from farming practices, lawn care habits, and winter road salting.

That’s where we come in! Clean River Partners is an environmental nonprofit dedicated to safeguarding and enhancing the Cannon River Watershed. 

• We promote innovative practices and collaborate on crop research that keeps farmers and the watershed resilient.
• We partner with organizations and landowners to preserve land, restore critical habitat, and increase public access.
• We connect people to the river and each other through community events, volunteer experiences, and education.

By contributing just $30, $60, or any amount that suits you, you can join our mission and help cultivate a healthier watershed. Together, we can ensure that our soils flourish, our groundwater is drinkable, and our rivers, lakes, and streams are clean, fishable, and safe for swimming. 

Our goal for this Give to the Max Day is to raise $5,000. Donate early to double your impact—Hamer Law Office in Faribault, MN, will match the first $1,000.

Our core values drive our work.

Building Resilience

We build individual and community capacity to act in ways that are economically, environmentally, and culturally sustainable, even in the face of adversity. Everything we do on land shows up in the water.

Acting Equitably

We work to create equitable and sustainable benefits from and access to the watershed and consider the impacts of our actions in all we say and do. Who will benefit from this? Who will be hurt by it?

Engaging Intentionally

We meet people where they are and support them in what they’re doing to improve the watershed. Everyone can do something to help the watershed.

Inspiring Hope

Our work is driven forward because we believe that there are actions that people and communities can take to make a difference for the land, water, and climate. People can change our environment.

In 2024, we achieved some great things. Help us continue this work.

We held seven engaging conservation agriculture events with 344 attendees! Highlights included a workshop on low-carbon farming, two poultry-centered regenerative agriculture farm tours, a Kernza field day, and a soil health bus tour, all aimed at promoting sustainable practices and building community enthusiasm for the future of agriculture.

We proudly celebrated the opening of the Sakatah and Medford Wildlife Management Areas with two exciting land dedication events! These new areas safeguard over 300 acres of vital habitat within the Cannon River Watershed, ensuring a thriving ecosystem for wildlife and a beautiful landscape for future generations. 

We brought our community together with ten engaging events focused on outdoor recreation, volunteering, and skill-building, attracting over 550 participants. Highlights included a naturalist meetup at Nerstrand Big Woods State Park, plant propagation at Carleton Arboretum, seed sowing at Sunktokeca Creek WMA, invasive plant removal at St. Olaf Natural Lands, and our inaugural QUEERY meetup. There truly was something for everyone!